Gong Fu Cha is not a recipe. It is a practice. But like every practice, it works better when your tools are laid out with intention. In this guide we walk through how we set up a Gong Fu Cha session on a wooden chaban in our Kostopil workshop, and how Eugene arranges his own board at home for his morning sessions.
This is not the only way. There is no "one true" setup. But it is a setup that has been sanded and refined by hundreds of ceremonies, and it might save you a year of small frustrations.
Start with the chaban itself
Before you place anything, pause and look at the board. A handcrafted chaban like our alder Flower of Life chaban has a front — usually where the carving is oriented — and a drainage side. Water is meant to move from the working area toward the drain. Orient the board so the drain is on your dominant-hand side, or slightly behind it if you prefer to keep the practice area completely visual.
The classical layout
A traditional Gong Fu Cha layout has five zones, and a good chaban has room for all of them without feeling crowded. Here is how we teach it:
- Kettle zone: off the board, on your dominant side, on a small trivet.
- Teapot or gaiwan: center-back of the chaban. This is the heart of the practice.
- Fairness pitcher (cha hai): to the left of the pot, or right if you are left-handed.
- Cups: a small arc in front of the pot, close enough that you do not lean.
- Tea plate and tools: at the back-left, where they will not disturb the flow.
Why the layout matters
Every centimeter you save on a reach is a centimeter of breath you keep. Gong Fu Cha done well has almost no wasted motion. When your gaiwan is 40 cm from your cha hai, you tense your shoulders every pour. When it is 20 cm away, you flow.
This is one of the reasons we ask customers about their setup before we build a custom chaban. If Alex knows you use a large 200 ml gaiwan and a big pitcher, the board he sketches will be different from the one for a practitioner using a small 80 ml Yixing.
The role of water
On a Gong Fu Cha chaban, water is constantly moving. You rinse the pot. You warm the cups by filling them and pouring the water back onto the board. You wash the leaves. All of that water ends up on the wood.
A well-drained chaban like our alder Tree of Life table handles this without you having to think about it. If the drainage is doing its job, the surface will be visibly damp only where you actively pour. Everywhere else stays clean.
Warming and rinsing sequence
Here is the sequence Eugene uses. It is the classical one, with a few small habits from our workshop.
1. Boil water. 2. Pour hot water over the outside of the pot to warm the clay. Let it drain across the board. 3. Fill the pot, count to five, empty into the pitcher. Empty the pitcher into the cups to warm them. 4. Add tea leaves. 5. First infusion, brief. Discard onto the board. 6. Second infusion, the real one. Pour into the pitcher. Distribute to cups. Drink. Repeat until the leaves are spent.
The cup arc
We keep cups in a slight arc rather than a straight line. The arc means every cup is the same distance from the pitcher, which matters when you are pouring in one continuous motion. It also looks better, which is not nothing in a practice about attention.
Small ritual objects
Many practitioners keep a small figure on their chaban — a jade Buddha, a tea pet, a small stone. On our Chaban with River Stones, the stones themselves become that anchor. Whatever you use, place it at the back-center where it presides but does not participate. It watches. It does not get splashed.
Sizing the chaban to the setup
Standard chabani in our shop range from about 40 x 25 cm for solo practice up to 80 x 40 cm for teaching. Here is a rough guide:
| Practice type | Chaban size | Wood suggestion |
|---|---|---|
| Solo daily | 40 x 25 cm | Alder |
| Solo with occasional guest | 50 x 30 cm | Alder or ash |
| Small group (2-4) | 60-70 x 35 cm | Ash |
| Teaching studio | 80 x 40 cm+ | Ash or ironwood |
The pause
The most important gesture in Gong Fu Cha is not a pour. It is the pause between infusions. Sitting with the empty pot on the chaban, watching the last drops of water disappear into the drainage channel, is where the practice happens. This is why we obsess about drainage in our workshop. If your board pools water and you have to mop it, you break the pause.
Custom setups
If you have an unusual kit — an oversized silver kettle, a rare shape of gaiwan, a Yixing collection you want displayed on the board — write to Alex at metadeskukraine@gmail.com. We regularly sketch chabani around specific setups. Lead time is 3-6 weeks, and the conversation itself often teaches us something about how people practice.
Once your board is set up and your kettle is warm, everything else is just water and attention. See our chaban collection for the boards we currently have ready.