Sitting on the back deck at the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar, Christina Wagner carefully measures out tea leaf with her fingers. “Tea is a great place to exercise intuition,” she says.

Laid out on the table before us are the elements of a Chinese gong-fu tea ceremony. There’s a metal teapot filled with hot water heated by a candle, an empty glass pitcher, and a traditional Chinese gai-wan—a tea-steeping cup with a saucer and lid. We each have a tiny tea bowl, and an offering cup sits nearby.

In Mandarin, gong-fu means “with skill.” In a tea ceremony, this refers to the effort of drawing out the best possible flavor from the leaf. To do so, a gong-fu ceremony uses more vessels than your typical teapot and mug. To begin, Wagner puts the loose leaf tea (a Chinese green called Ancient Forest) into the gai-wan and covers it with hot water. After 15 seconds, she deftly picks up the gai-wan with one hand and tilts the lid back with her finger, letting the liquid strain into the glass pitcher. This is also called the fairness pitcher, since it halts the steeping process and lets everyone taste tea that’s the same strength. Wagner holds the pitcher up to the light, admiring the “clean golden color.” The first serving goes to the offering cup, as thanks. The next pour is for us.

The first infusion is the time to notice the tea’s lighter, more floral tones. As we go through the infusion process four more times, the florals are replaced by a fuller mouthfeel and a strong taste of camphor emerges. We learn how one batch of tea morphs and evolves. “You would never brew it fewer than three times, because it’s disrespectful to the leaf,” says Wagner.

Growing up in Madison County, tea wasn’t a large part of Wagner’s life. After graduating from UVA and moving to Portland, Oregon, she took a job at a shop called Tao of Tea. “I didn’t even know that that level of tea world existed,” says Wagner. For training, she toured warehouses, tea packing facilities, and teahouses. When she wasn’t preparing tea ceremonies for others, she was trying new teas, working her way through Tao’s extensive menu. When she returned to Charlottesville in 2015, her next career move seemed obvious—the Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar was started by a former Tao of Tea employee.

Wagner says she’s drawn to tea because of the community it creates. “I would rather drink mediocre tea with good people and share that,” she says, “than use that time to source excellent tea and drink it all by myself.” She loves how once tea is served, time gets stretchy. It gives space for people to relax and open up. Deep conversations flow, connections spark. She calls it steaming open the time-space continuum.

When tea gatherings became jeopardized during the pandemic, and Twisted Branch shut down for months, Wagner decided to share her ceremonies through Zoom and launched the Twisted Branch Tea Club.

Participants preorder the tea of the month, which can be picked up at Twisted Branch or shipped to your address. It’s recommended that the ceremony be held in a quiet space, where you can gather around your teaware, log onto a computer, and go through the infusions along with the rest of the club.

In each session, Wagner walks through the infusions and discusses the tea’s flavor notes and origins. When she began the tastings in February, she had no idea if it would take off, but a passionate group of customers coalesced, eager to jump in. “They’re really great about being inquisitive minds,” says Wagner. “Everyone brings a really different perspective, and the questions are all different angles on the same thing.”

It’s gone so well, in fact, that Wagner isn’t sure she’ll transition off Zoom. Some participants are tuning in from other states, and she doesn’t want to leave them behind. She will also continue to host Sunday Afternoon Tea, a drop-in, in-person event at IX Art Park on the last Sunday of the month.

Back on the deck of Twisted Branch, five infusions and almost two hours have slipped by. As I leave, I see Wagner pick up the offering cup. She gently pours the tea into the soil of a nearby plant.

Avoid infusion confusion with these FATQs

What tea should I start with? “Most people have had tea before, and have an idea of what they like or don’t
like,” Wagner says. Let that be your guide. “But,” she adds, “a classic Chinese green tea can be a great place to start.” Try Dragonwell or jasmine pearls in loose leaf form.

I don’t own a gai-wan or other traditional teaware. It’s not necessary. If you’re using a mug, Wagner suggests putting loose-leaf tea into a steeping basket, so that the leaves can still move around.

Boiling water, right? Not necessarily. Boiled water is only appropriate for herbal and black teas, whereas green teas don’t need to be brewed hotter than 175 degrees. Experiment with water temperature, and while you’re at it, play around with the amount of tea leaf you use. This is a good time to tap into your intuition!

Everything’s set up, I’m about to pour my first cup…what should I pay attention to? There are five components to traditional tea tasting: Observe the shape of the leaf; smell the aroma of the dry leaf, then the wet leaf; notice the color of the infusion; and finally, taste the flavor itself.

I’m hooked! Where do I find my fellow communi-tea in Charlottesville?

< The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar:
teabazaar.com

< Christina Wagner’s website:
theradiantleaf.wordpress.com/about

< Philosopher’s Tea:
philosophers-tea.myshopify.com

< Farmstead Ferments:
farmsteadferments.com

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