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The "Tea draining tray", "Tea Tray", "Gonfu Tea Tray", or "Tea Sea" is an integral piece of equipment for the Gongfu Tea Ceremony.

It is essentially a grate, which allows excess and waste liquids to be drained away, and either collected in a pan under the grate, or drained away through a hose that carries the waste water and tea to a bucket or other drain.

The Gongfu tea method is used to brew primarily oolong and pu-erh teas. A drain system is especially important with pu-erh's since the first two pots of tea are usually used to soak the tea, and prime the vessels.

The tray is also important because the Gongfu style of brewing is messy and wet. All the cups, pots and other serving items are repeatedly rinsed in hot water and tea to ensure that proper temperatures are kept and that the vessels are sanitary, with out watering down the tea. When making tea this way, a pot of tea will be brewed 4-10 rounds. Because it is a wet process, you need to do this on a tea draining tray to keep the process tidy and elegant.

Why all the fuss? Good tea leaves are expensive. Ideally, you fill your brewing vessel 1/4 to 1/3 full of leaves, and steep for a short time (20-40 seconds), at the proper temperature. But, a pot at room temperature will lower the water temperature, so you use several rinses of hot water to heat the pot before your brew, and the rinse round tea to prime the drinking vessels so that you are not watering the tea down.

Tea really should not be brewed for long periods. If it is brewed for an extended time, it gets bitter, and the flavor is ruined.

The traditional western approach is to use smaller portions of tea in large vessels and brew for a longer time until the pot has a suitable strength. Since that takes more time, the tea usually becomes a bit bitter, and it's often covered up with flavorings, lemon, sugar, and/or cream.

The eastern approach uses a small vessel, and multiple brews. By using a small vessel, using a better ratio of tea to water is still affordable, and fast steeps can be employed to prevent the bitterness. Eastern tea brewing vessels tend to be much smaller. A personal teapot will usually hold 4 oz, while a 8 oz pot will be used to serve a group. That may seem like an awefully small amount of tea, but this is often a social affair, and so the process is repeated multiple times. A good oolong can be brewed 4-6 times before it degrades. A good aged pu-erh can be brewed much more. Some dark aged teas can be brewed over 15 times.