The first time a guest sits down at Floating Mountain Tea House to experience gongfu tea, they usually expect a cup of tea. Instead, a small clay pot appears, accompanied by tiny cups and a teabowl with a few grams of loose-leaf tea. Hot water is poured carefully, and then the session begins: seven, eight, ten small pours, each one tasting different from the last, the leaves slowly unfurling across the steepings like something waking up, living the full cycle of life. I've wa
