Aside from the standard books and laptop found on the desks of most students, Jason Cohen's desk also holds a Chinese tea set.

Cohen (freshman-political science, economics and anthropology) stumbled on the art of brewing his own tea after spending a summer in China. While there, he met a tea master who taught him about tea culture.

"This was not really a planned obsession," he said.

Cohen is the president and founder of a recently formed Gong Fu Cha Club, whose focus is to teach its members the ancient art of Chinese tea making. The club meets from 6 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday at the HUB-Robeson Center.

Gong Fu Cha is a traditional Chinese tea ceremony in which a brewer follows a series of steps in an attempt to make the best possible cup of tea. The club hopes to keep this old tradition alive through instruction about the ceremony and its link to the creation of quality tea.

Club member Roshan Shah (senior- finance and economics) said the ceremony allows a person to properly appreciate what they are drinking.

"I think that if I was just to have a cup of tea, it would not compare to having the whole experience," he said.

But carrying on Chinese tea culture doesn't just mean following a ritual -- acquiring quality, authentic tea is also important.

The tea used by the club is not any kind you could find in the grocery store, Cohen said. Instead, the tea comes straight from the cultivation of plants in China and is handpicked.

The drink is usually brewed as a whole leaf, which is either packaged as a cake or bundled into tight little balls.

It costs about $30 dollars per every 10 grams, but compared to other delicacies, Cohen said tea is one of the most affordable luxury goods in the world.

That said, he knows authentic Chinese tea is not readily available. Most people settle for Snapple fruit teas or convenient tea bags, not realizing there's a science behind tea that many don't appreciate, he said.

"Most people are surprised that tea has so much complexity," he said.

Chemistry accounts for a wide spectrum of flavors, which can range from sweet fruits to burnt toasted almond. Factors like rain, sunlight and wind pattern can also significantly change the taste of tea.

Aside from teaching potential members about the complexity of tea culture, the club also hopes to open the world's first academic tea library, Cohen said.

"The university can be a trailblazer by being the first university to support tea culture on a huge scale," he said.