Flash steeping (gongfu brewing) (工夫泡法, gōngfu pàofǎ)
Flash steeping (工夫泡法) is a brewing method in which tea is covered with water for seconds and the liquor immediately poured off, the cycle repeated many times. Each infusion reveals a new facet of the same leaf.
The flash infusion is the basic gesture of gongfu cha. Instead of steeping tea for minutes, the leaf is covered with hot water and almost at once — after five, ten, twenty seconds — the liquor is poured off entirely, to the last drop. Then the cycle repeats: the same leaf endures from five to ten or more steepings, and the time of each subsequent one grows a little.
The point of the method is controlling extraction. Different substances leave the leaf at different speeds: first the light aromatics, then sweetness and body, later the tannins and bitterness. A short infusion skims off the top layer and gives bitterness no time to catch up with the flavor; a series of infusions turns the tea session into an unfolding story, in which Tieguanyin begins with lilac, continues with cream, and ends in translucent minerality. A long steep collapses all these chapters into one dense and often bitter page. Flash infusions are especially critical for concentrated teas like Fenghuang Dancong, which forgives seconds but not minutes.
The practical anchors: more leaf than for "Western" brewing, small ware (a gaiwan or teapot up to about 150 ml), and the liquor drained completely — the leaf must not sit in water between steepings. The typical mistake is abandoning a tea after the second infusion: with good leaf the best steepings are often the third and fourth, and the ability to hold ten infusions is itself a measure of quality.
Teas where this appears
Chinese tea glossary