AUTUMN GONG FU CHA

In the morning I go outside where the autumn sun receive me. I step through the high grass, whose downy stalks friendly stroke my legs.

With attention I choose the location where my thoughts can rest and place my tea boat amidst the lost summer flowers.

It’s time for a Chinese  tea ceremony, Gong Fu Cha 

Literally Gong Fu Cha means the art of making tea with effort.

I am not a teamaster, but I would like to focus here and now, trying to prepare the tea as well as possible.

Each Act is so valuable in its simplicity, that all other worries disappear into thin air.

Carefully I put each tasting cup on the tea boat, next to each cup a sniffer or aroma cup. Then the Yixing tea pot, a glass jug and the tea utensils.

The tealeaves of the Oolong in the bowl waiting patiently for what is coming.

The sound of the boiling water let the noise of cars and planes silencing.

My sense of time is fading out by pouring the hot water.

After the sniffer cups are filled with tea, the tasting cups will be placed upside down on the sniffer cup. Then they are flipped together.

The sniffer cup will be carefully extracted from the tasting cup which fills with the golden tea.
Fragrance and taste mingle with the light and the colours of the autumn.

The way of tea is long but worth it

Photo's, tasting and sniffer cups (stoneware): Iris Weichler