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Each newsletter, we plan to off some tips on brewing tea with "gong fu". Gong Fu means mastery, inner and outer. As you improve your sensitivity, you can begin to ask your teas how they want to be brewed, rather than the way you want it to be brewed. So much in life is done quickly and conveniently, and often without any respect. Let us approach tea with reverence, and prepare it the way it asks to be.
The first and most important experiment you can do is easy. It actually helps you more deeply understand many of the later experiments. You will need three identical cups. It also helps to use a tea that you are very familiar with. You may also want to repeat the experiment with water. The experiment is easy: pour all the tea into the first cup. From that cup pour half into the second, and then again half of that into the third. Drink all three cups quickly, switching often back and forth. What is different in them? Which one is better, and why?
We aren't going to give you the answers; you will have to do the work. Experience is what counts, if you are to master anything. True understanding only comes with involvement, which is why one of the teacher's greatest gifts to the student is the opportunity to participate!
