Tea and Zen

You're now ready to plunge into the world of tea. Since you've begun lurking various forums or reading a blog post, you've probably seen different types of brewing methods mentioned: western, grandpa, Gong Fu, and Brewing Matcha depending on where you've been reading.

Assuming you are brand new to tea, I don't suggest spending a lot of money on any tea supplies yet. You can get the bare basics for all the following brewing methods without breaking your wallet. I'll include links where you can find affordably priced tea ware.

If there is any one thing that a person new to tea should be doing, it is drinking tea. Play around with different brewing methods, temperatures, leaf to water ratios, and find out what you personally like. 

Western Style Brewing

Mug with brewing basket, pitcher with strainer, teapot

This is the type of brewing you are most likely very familiar with. You take x, typically 4g//8oz of loose leaf, or perhaps some bags, throw it into some hot water for three to five minutes, strain the leaves or remove the bags, and you're done.

If you don't have one, I highly recommend getting a basket brewer for a mug. Mine is from Teavana, I bought it during my noob days. It's lasted forever so I think it's worth the $15 I paid. Upton Tea Imports has a nice selection of various brewing baskets. I've heard a lot of good about Finum's filters. You can find basket filters for dirt cheap on ebay, a friend of mine bought his for $1.29.

UTP also sells many glass tea pots, but you can find pots just about everywhere. When looking for a pot, make sure it either has a built in filter or a large, wide, and deep brewing basket to allow the leaves to properly open up.

Grandpa Style

You don't get any easier than grandpa style brewing.

Best tumbler ever, leaves brewing grandpa style at 1min/6min

You take a tall, wide mouthed glass, throw in some tea leaves (but less than you would Gong Fu, which is covered next), and then some hot water. The cooler your water is to begin with the longer your tea will last.

Here's a few more pointers:

• As said, don't use too many leaves. When I'm making tea grandpa style in my glass tumblr (12oz/350ml) I'll use 3g of tea instead of my usual 5+ grams. This helps prevent you from choking on leaves and getting them in your mouth. I cheat because my tumblr comes with a "strainer" I can stick in to prevent the leaves from coming up to my mouth.
• Use a tea that doesn't get bitter easily. Most oolongs are good for this. Longjing is another good choice. I've never brewed Puerh grandpa style, but I've heard it can come out fairly decent. I do not recommend Japanese greens unless you like a bitter mess. Experiment and you'll find what you like and dislike.
• Never let the water level get below half full. Top up around 2/3rd full. Try to increase the water temperature as time goes on. For later infusions, pour with vigor to move the leaves. This'll help distribute flavor.
• Later into brewing cover your glass. 

I'm rather fond of this method. Whenever I review a tea (assuming I have enough leaf) I will have at least one elongated session that is done grandpa style.

I bought my tumblr from Tiger Lily Tea, it's fantastic and I highly recommend it. If I remember correctly it was around $20.

They don't always have the tumblr in stock, but they do have several different varieties. Their website does not have most of the teas or ware offered at the shop, so I recommend messaging them over Facebook or through the contact option on their website.

Gong Fu Cha

Gong Fu style brewing is one of my favorites. It can be done with a gaiwan or a small teapot.
Depending on the tea, you'll use 5-7g of leaf per 100ml of water. Since this is a strong concentration, brewing is very fast. The first several brewings are less than 10 seconds. You'll see this in a vast majority of the posts on this blog.

Four of my gaiwans. 120ml/120ml/120ml/60ml

Here's how a typical session will play out:

• Bring your water to the appropriate temperature. 
• Heat up your brewing vessel.
• Pour out hot water. Add leaves. Place lid on brewing vessel, gently shake three times. Enjoy the aroma of the wet leaves.
• Pour hot water along the rim of brewing vessel. If this is a puerh, oolong, Japanese green*, or black tea, rinse once, twice, and sometimes more for a very good or aged tea. Rising means pouring out the water you just poured in and discarding it. This is to open up the leaves. 
• Pour hot water along the rim of the brewing vessel. Place lid on vessel and pour out liquor in less than 10 seconds into your cha hai (pitcher) or cups. 
• Repeat, adding two to ten seconds per each additional steeping. It depends on the tea and your own preference.

*If you are making a high quality Japanese green (gyokuro or sencha) in a hohin, divide the amount liquid volume by five. So, for example, 200ml/50 = 4g. Or I recommend .6g/30ml for sencha and 1g/30ml for gyokuro. I usually use this. After this, everything is the same. For a visual, here is Mr. Akira Hojo of Hojo Tea brewing via the first method.

Now where can one obtain a gaiwan or hohin at a reasonable price?

Yunnan Sourcing has a wide variety of affordable gaiwans. I have this one and this one, both of which work just as well as two of my more expensive ones. YS also has some sets for a fair price.

For the full set, Tea Drunk sells a reasonably priced set. Its more than what you'll pay at YS but it still isn't horrible, all things considered. My two expensive gaiwans cost more than this set on their own.

Hojo Tea also sells gaiwans and your other gong fu needs for a fair price (scroll to almost the bottom. They're above the copperware). 

Artistic Nippon and Thes-Du-Japon [2] offer a ceramic hohin for a fair price.

Brewing Matcha

I really like the instructions provided on /r/tea for preparing Matcha. I couldn't put it better if I tried.

Fresh from /r/tea's faq:

There are probably a few ways you could make it but the the way it's most recognized is with the use of a chawan (Tea bowl), and a chasen (Bamboo whisk).

• You start by putting hot water into the chawan to warm it up and put the chasen in the water to make it more flexible for the whisking process.
• When the bowl has warmed up, take out the chasen, dump the water out and dry the bowl off. Then add about 2 grams of matcha in the middle of the bowl.
• Then pour some new hot water (around 70-80 Celsius) into the bowl in a circular motion to let the tea move around and get your chasen ready.
• Take your chasen with your thumb, index, and middle finger and whisk it in a up and down, zig zag motion. Usually you would do this until it foams up and gets a nice grassy green color.

You can drink it however you want but I would recommend not to add anything and just enjoy the flavor that the matcha offers. Everyone has different taste though and I'm a strong believer that the best cup of tea is what taste the best to you, so add anything you like!
(Thanks to /u/MisterSpencer)
Usucha, or thin tea, is prepared with approximately 1.75 grams (amounting to 1.5 heaping chashaku scoop, or about half a teaspoon) of matcha and approximately 75 ml (2.5 oz) of hot water per serving.
Koicha, or thick tea, requires significantly more matcha (usually about doubling the powder and halving the water): approximately 3.75 grams (amounting to 3 heaping chashaku scoops, or about one teaspoon) of matcha and approximately 40 ml (1.3 oz) of hot water per serving, or as many as six teaspoons to 3/4 cup of water.
Wikipedia has a more detailed guide, which also includes tons of other info on matcha.
If you like pictures, WikiHow has a less traditional preparation guide.

Japanese Tea Ceremony

The Japanese tea ceremony is called Chanoyu, Sado or simply Ocha in Japanese. It is a choreographic ritual of preparing and serving Japanese green tea, called Matcha, together with traditional Japanese sweets to balance with the bitter taste of the tea. Preparing tea in this ceremony means pouring all one's attention into the predefined movements. The whole process is not about drinking tea, but is about aesthetics, preparing a bowl of tea from one's heart. The host of the ceremony always considers the guests with every movement and gesture. Even the placement of the tea utensils is considered from the guests view point (angle), especially the main guests called the Shokyaku. (Source)