Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
is a beverage made from the leaves of tea plants (''
Camellia sinensis'') and boiled water. Tea leaves are processed using traditional Chinese methods. Chinese tea is consumed throughout the day, including during meals, as a substitute for plain water, well-being or for simple pleasure. If medicine and tea are combined, people can also drink tea to cure diseases.
History
The practice of drinking
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
has a long history in
China, having originated there. Although tea originated in China, during the
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
, Chinese tea generally represents
tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
leaves which have been processed using methods inherited from
ancient China. According to legend, tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor
Shen Nong in 2737 BC when a leaf from a nearby shrub fell into water the emperor was boiling. Tea is deeply woven into the history and culture of China. The beverage is considered one of the
seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar.
Chinese tea can be classified into six distinctive categories:
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...
,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
,
yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the ...
,
oolong,
black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
and
post-fermented. Others add categories for scented and compressed teas. All of these come from varieties of the ''
Camellia sinensis'' plant. Most Chinese teas are cultivated and consumed in China, in recent years are also exported internationally due to a rise of Chinese cuisine consumption worldwide. It is commonly available in Chinese restaurants and grocery shops worldwide. Green tea is the most common type of tea consumed in China.
Within these main categories of tea are vast varieties of individual beverages. Some researchers have counted more than 700 of these beverages. Others put the number at more than 1,000. Some of the variations are due to different strains of the Camillia plant. The best known areas for tea plantation is Yunan province and Fujian province. Nowadays, the tea plantation industry is present in most of the provinces in China. The
Tieguanyin
''Tieguanyin'' (; Standard Chinese pronunciation ) is a variety of Chinese oolong tea that originated in the 19th century in Anxi in Fujian province. Tieguanyin produced in different areas of Anxi have different gastronomic characteristics.
N ...
, for example, is traced back to a single plant discovered in
Anxi in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
province. Other teas draw some of their characteristics from local growing conditions. However, the largest factor in the wide variations comes from differences in
tea processing
Tea processing is the method in which the leaves from the tea plant ''Camellia sinensis'' are transformed into the dried leaves for brewing tea.
The categories of tea are distinguished by the processing they undergo. In its most general form, t ...
after the tea leaves are harvested. White and green teas are heat-treated () soon after picking to prevent oxidization, often called fermentation, caused by natural enzymes in the leaves. Oolong teas are partially oxidized. Black teas are fully oxidized. Other differences come from variations in the processing steps.
Song Dynasty
Tea was an important crop during the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. Tea farms covered 242 counties during this time. This included expensive tribute tea, which was tea from
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
and
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
provinces that was exported to
Southeast Asian and
Arab countries
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...
.
In the Song dynasty, tea started to be pressed into
tea cakes (usually black tea). Some were embossed with patterns of the
Chinese dragon
The Chinese dragon, also known as ''loong'', ''long'' or ''lung'', is a legendary creature in Chinese mythology, Chinese folklore, and Chinese culture at large. Chinese dragons have many animal-like forms such as turtles and fish, but are most ...
and the
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, and were called exotic names including:
Large
Dragon tea cake, Small Dragon tea cake, Surpassing Snow Dragon ball cake, Fine Silver Sprout, Cloud Leaf, Gold Money, Jade Flower, Inch of Gold, Longevity Sprout, Eternal Spring Jade Leaf, Dragon in the Clouds, Longevity Dragon Sprout, Dragon Phoenix and Flower, and Eternal Spring Silver Sprout.
Ming Dynasty
The
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
scholar
Wen Zhenheng
Wen Zhenheng (, 1585–1645) was a Ming dynasty scholar, painter, landscape garden designer, and great grandson of Wen Zhengming, a famous Ming dynasty painter.
Wen was born in Suzhou in 1585. In 1621, he graduated from the Imperial Academy, obta ...
's encyclopedic book ''Zhǎng Wù Zhì'' (; Treatise on Superfluous Things), volume 12, contains the following descriptions of several famous Ming Dynasty teas:
Huqiu and Tianchi tea
During this time, Huqiu tea (; lit. "Tiger Hill tea"), not to be confused with the black tea of the same name from the
Nilgiris District
The Nilgiris district () is one of the 38 districts in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nilgiri ( en, Blue Mountains) is the name given to a range of mountains spread across the borders among the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Ker ...
in what is now
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
, India) was purportedly developed as the finest tea in the world; however, the production quantity was rather small, and the production is regulated by the Chinese government. Some, however, consider its taste to be second to Tianchi tea (; lit. "Heaven Pool").
Jie tea
Jie tea from
Changxing County
() is a county of the prefecture-level city of Huzhou, in the northwest of Zhejiang province, China. Situated on the southwest shore of Lake Tai, it borders the provinces of Jiangsu to the north and Anhui to the west. It has a total area of an ...
in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
Province is regarded highly by connoisseurs, although it is rather expensive.
NB: ''Jie'' is the short name for ''Luō Jiè'' (). Luo Jie is the name of a mountain bordering Zhejiang and Jing Qi where, during the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...
, ''jie'' meant boundary. Chang Xin lay to the south of Luo Jie mountain while Jing Qi lay to the north of it. Chang Xin still retains its name today.
Luo Jie tea from Gu Chu Mountain in Changxing County in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
Province was also known as Gu Zhu Violet Shoot. Gu Zhu Violet Shoot had been an imperial tribute tea since the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
for nearly nine hundred years until the middle of the
Qin dynasty
The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...
. Gu Zhu Violet Shoot was revived again in the 1970s as a top grade tea in
China.
NB. Jin Qi is now called Yi Xin township. Jin Qi tea was also known as Yang Xian tea. Ruo leaves are leaves from ''
Indocalamus tessellatus
''Indocalamus tessellatus'', the large-leaved bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, native to China. A medium-sized, hardy evergreen bamboo growing to , it forms a clump of broad leaves long and up to wide – th ...
'' bamboo. The leaf is about 45 cm long.
Lu'an tea
Lu'an tea (), which is also called Lu'an Melon Seed tea, is used for
Chinese medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...
. It can only release its aroma when it's baked right. The inherent quality of this tea is considered quite good. This type of tea is especially suitable for people who are suffering from gastric problems.
Lu'an tea is still produced in
China,
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
Province,
China. The Lu'an tea from the Bat Cave of
Jinzhai County
Jinzhai County (), previously Lihuang County (, named after Wei Lihuang), is a county in the west of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, bordering the provinces of Henan to the northwest and Hubei to the southwest. It is under the jurisdi ...
is considered of superior quality, as thousand of bats in the cave can provide an ideal fertilizer for the tea plants.
Songluo tea
Songluo tea is manufactured at
Songluo Mountain located north of
Xiuning County
Xiuning County () is a county in the south of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Huangshan City. The southernmost county-level division in the province, it has a population of and a ...
in
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
Province,
China. The tea plantations are scattered at an elevation of six to seven hundred meters on the mountain.
There is no real Songluo tea grown outside an area of a dozen ''mu'' (one ''mu'' = 667 square meters) and only few families possess the refined full to prepare Songluo tea. The tea hand-baked recently by mountain monks is even better.
Genuine Songluo tea is produced at the foot of the Dongshan (Cave Hill) and on top of the Tiānchí (; lit. "Heaven Pool"), highly treasured by people in
Xin'an County
Xin'an County () is a county in the west of Henan Province, bordering Shanxi Province to the north across the Yellow River. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Luoyang, and contains its northernmost point.
History
In an ...
. It is also a favorite for the people of Nandu and Quzong counties, due to its ease in brewing and intense aroma.
Longjing and Tianmu tea
Longjing tea
Longjing tea (; Standard Chinese pronunciation ), sometimes called by its literal translated name Dragon Well tea, is a variety of pan-roasted green tea from the area of Longjing, Hangzhou, Longjing Village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. ...
and
Tianmu tea may match Heaven Pool tea due to the weather in their growing regions. Because the cold season comes earlier to the mountains, there is abundant snow in the winter, hence the tea plants
germinate
Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore. The term is applied to the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of fungi, fer ...
later.
en Zhenheng
Longjing tea is manufactured in the
West Lake
West Lake (; ) is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, China. It is divided into five sections by three causeways. There are numerous temples, pagodas, gardens, and natural/artificial islands within the lake. Gushan (孤山) is the largest natural ...
district of
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...
, China. The
Longjing, literally "Dragon Well", is located at
Fenghuang Mountain.
Tianmu Mountain
Tianmu Mountain, Mount Tianmu, or Tianmushan () is a mountain in Lin'an County west of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in eastern China. It is made up of two peaks: West Tianmu () and East Tianmu (). Twin ponds near the top of the peaks led to the name of ...
is located at
Lin'an County in the north west of
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
Province. There are two 1500-meter peaks, each with a pond on top filled with crystal clear water looking like an eye, hence the name ''Tiānmù'' (, lit. "heaven eye").
Tea as tribute
During Ming, tea was a form of currency also used to pay imperials
tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
. Ming Dynasty founder
Zhu Yuanzhang
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts i ...
(also known as the Hongwu emperor) was born to a poor family and understood the difficulties of the lives of farmers. He abolished the
compressed tea
Compressed tea, called tea bricks, tea cakes or tea lumps, and tea nuggets according to the shape and size, are blocks of whole or finely ground black tea, green tea, or post-fermented tea leaves that have been packed in molds and pressed in ...
brick style and replaced it with the whole, loose-leaf tea style, and also declared people instead pay tribute with tea buds. This amendment especially helped relieve tea farmers of some of the pressures of the laborious and complicated tea production processes. These complex processes for farmers included: steaming tea leaves, breaking them down into fine remnants, mixing the powder with plum juice, then baking them with molds to shape into tea bricks.
Tea in Ming literature
Literature during this time also largely focused on tea pickers, with writings and artwork regarding aspects such as tea picking and processing.
''Tea-picking Poem - Gao Qi''
It is getting warm after the spring rain and thunder,
New tea leaves start sprouting among branches.
Girls with silver hairpins sing folk songs to each other,
Competing to pick the most tea leaves in the shortest time.
They get home with the fresh scent of tea leaves on their hands,
The highest qualities will be sent to the Prefecture first.
The newly baked tea leaves are not tasted yet,
They are packed into baskets and will be sold to Hunan merchants.
Satirical poems and songs were also created and reflected struggles of tea farmers and ridiculed greedy officials.
After Mid Ming, the amount of tribute tea soared due to an increased pressure upon citizens by higher bureaucrats. Officials demanded higher taxation and escalation of the requirement of tribute tea.
Some citizens began to grow angry with these demands, including poets
Gao Qi
Gao Qi (, 1336–1374), courtesy name Jidi (), pseudonym Qingqiuzi (), was a Chinese poet who lived in the early Ming dynasty. He is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest creators of Ming poetry. Gao Qi was born and raised in the shore o ...
and Han Bangqi.
Although their main occupations were government officials, they were also generally acknowledged writers who voiced their complaints through poems that became widespread folk ballads. Through their writings they requested the reduction of taxation and tributes. However, Gao was accused by the government of "involvement in a rebellion conspiracy” and was executed, while Han was imprisoned by officials wanting to hide their written works.
''Fuyang Ballad - Han Bangqi''
Tea-picking women and fish-catching men
Feudal officials torture them so they don't even have unscathed skin
How come the Heaven is not humane?
Have people here done anything wrong?
Tea farmers
Tea households were normally small, family-based operations for tea cultivation.
There were also tea merchants who set up tea firms to create their own tea plantations and/or to process tea leaves after buying from local tea farming families.
Different from tea households, seasonal workers were often employed by tea firms. Seeking work during the harvesting seasons, they often took boats to
Tunxi, Anhui and other places where tea leaves were abundant.
Tea production process
Harvesting tea was heavily dependent on weather conditions, so tea could not usually be produced throughout the entire year. Various weather conditions throughout different areas limited tea to be grown in a few specific regions:
Jiangnan
Jiangnan or Jiang Nan (; formerly romanized Kiang-nan, literally "South of the River" meaning "South of the Yangtze") is a geographic area in China referring to lands immediately to the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, incl ...
,
Jiangbei Jiangbei () may refer to:
* Henan Jiangbei Province, during the Yuan dynasty
* Jiangbei District, Chongqing, China
* Jiangbei District, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
* Jiangbei, Meizhou, Guangdong, China
* Jiangbei (region), north of the Yangtze, Yangtze ...
,
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...
and
Xinan. These areas provided stable warm weather and rainfall- two essential components of growing tea plants. The general production of loose, whole-leaf teas mainly included: tea seedling plantation, fertilization/weeding/spraying, tea picking, sunning/firing/rolling, and sorting and packaging.
= Tea picking
=
Tea picking was a central component of the entire tea production process. Time spent working and the intensity of labor fluctuated due to the inability to accurately predict weather conditions. This created uncertainties regarding ideal tea picking times. However, generally “the ideal time for picking tea leaves was early morning before sunrise.” Tea pickers would usually leave their homes early and do work using careful techniques efficiently to ensure the leaves were gently picked in whole.
[Mo, Liyun 莫麗蕓. “南方有嘉木——我本草木”(Jiamu Tea in the South – I Was to Be Vegetation), 美人美茶(The Beauty of People and Tea) (2017): pp. 2 – 27, p. 4.] To do so, pickers used one or both hands to nip the green stems with their index fingers and thumbs, then held the leaves until they had palms-full before tossing the leaves into their baskets.
Women were preferred for this occupation because of their ability to more gently and carefully pick off the whole tea leaves. No matter the age or marital status, women were expected to be capable of performing this duty.
However, there were also limitations on women during this time. According to Luo Lin's ''Explanation of'' ''Tea'', women were not allowed to participate in any aspect of tea making during their menstrual periods. They were to avoid “female pollution” from their “unclean” bodies.
= Sunning, firing and rolling
=
After picking tea leaves, families first sorted out the damaged or rotten leaves then began the sunning process.
This process inhibited water evaporation within tea leaves to promote oxidation. Over-oxidation can alter the taste of the tea to become "grass-like" or thick and bitter, so farmers heated the leaves to stop the oxidation once the desired level was reached- a process known as 'firing'. Then, leaf cells were broken down by gently rubbing the tea leaves- this process helped volatilize the scents and tastes when brewing. Tea leaves were damped then rolled into shapes, making its storage convenient while also allowing sap to squeeze out and provide additional flavoring.
= Sorting and packaging
=
Once the leaves were dried again, they were sorted and packaged and sold. Tea was usually "transported by a train of porters who used carrying poles to transport multiple chests of tea to the shippers", as the tea was largely sold to merchants and also largely produced to be exported.
Culture
Customs and etiquette
In some places of China, in restaurants, it is common for customers to clean their bowls and utensils at the table by rinsing them with tea from the pot. Tea may be poured over utensils into one of their bowls, or a larger bowl is may be provided as a waste receptacle for tea used to rinse bowls. In restaurants in China, tea is usually served in lieu of water, and hence tends to be a light drink flavoured.
However, when sipped as a daily beverage, Chinese people tend to use a special personal tea bottle, in which water is allowed to infuse with tea leaves for hours, and sipped continuously. This method, which is more prevalent in day-to-day Chinese life, involves the repeated use of the same tea leaves throughout the day.
Utensils
A traditional Chinese tea set consists of special clay or porcelain teapots, teacups, tea spoons, tea strainers, draining trays, tea
forceps
Forceps (plural forceps or considered a plural noun without a singular, often a pair of forceps; the Latin plural ''forcipes'' is no longer recorded in most dictionaries) are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Fo ...
(for the leaves), a large forceps (for the tea cups) and occasionally, tea caddies. All of these are kept on a special wooden tea tray with an inbuilt draining arrangement and a holder for the drained water. however, in more modern times, specially built electric hotplates for tea sets are used by some Chinese people.
Location
Tea garden
A tea house which features a Chinese garden or a domestic Chinese garden in which people enjoy their tea.
Tea house
Chinese tea houses refer to the public place where people gathered to drink tea and spend their spare time. Chinese tea houses have a long history. It first took shape during the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...
Kaiyuan era
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), personal name Li Longji, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712 to 756 CE. His reign of 44 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early ...
(713–714) and became common during the
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. From the
Ming
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peop ...
and
Qing dynasties, tea house culture became integral to regional culture.
Drinking morning tea is a custom within various provinces regardless of what status or identity people are. People often go to tea house in twos to threes to relax, be entertained, and gather information all while sipping tea. One could find old folks reminiscing over their joys and sorrows, or youth discussing their ambitions.
In 1970s, Chinese tea houses spread to Hong Kong. Some notable ones include “Yen Yen”, “Tsui Heung Yuen”, “Pak Cheuk”, “Yin Bun Lau”, and “Wun Tin”, among others. Merchants would use tea houses as a place for exchanging information and business. For example, a jade merchant might complete a transaction in a tea house.
Ba-Shu culture and Sichuan teahouses
Sichuan teahouses have various sizes. The large ones have hundreds of seats, while the small ones, only a few. They also have excellent services. Traditional Sichuan teahouses use red copper teapots, tin saucers, teacups with covers made of Jingdezhen porcelain, tuocha- a bowl-shaped compressed tea leaves- and tearoom keepers expert at all manner of work. What's more, Sichuan teahouses have social functions. They play an important role in spreading the state affairs information. People can chat with each other there. They also serve as unofficial courts.
Wu-Yue culture and Hangzhou teahouses
Wu-
Yue area is famous for tea producing and green tea produced in
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
province play a decisive role. In Hangzhou, most tearooms are elegant, simple and unsophisticated. They emphasize making tea with good-quality water and tasting tea in an excellent environment in order to achieve the true meaning of tea art.
Tianjin teahouses, Shanghai Fuchaguan teahouses and Guangdong tearooms
Most of the Tianjin teahouses meet the needs of business people from different parts of China. People of various trades drink tea while eating refreshments and appreciating performances which include singing of
opera arias, storytelling and
dagu (a versified story sung to the accompaniment of a small drum and other instruments).
In the past, Shanghai teahouses are regarded as learned and refined places in Shanghai. Shanghai people called teahouses fuchaguan to express their longing for leisure. The most typical teahouse with local features was situated in the old
Chenghuangmiao area.
The old Guangdong tearooms were inexpensive. Regular customers would be served with a cup of tea, and two
steamed buns stuffed with diced grilled pork, steamed dumplings with the dough gathered at the top, or dumplings with shrimp stuffing. However, teahouses become different now. Nowadays, customers are provided with a pot of strong tea as soon as they arrive, and have many choices from a great variety of refreshments on the food cart.
Beijing teahouse culture
Beijing teahouses show most of the advantages of other local teahouses. They are known for their various functions, and rich and profound cultural aims.
There are many kinds of Beijing teahouses, which include Shuchaguan, Qingchaguan, Qichaguan, Yechaguan, Dachaguan, and Erhunpu.
Shuchaguan
Teahouse culture made a special contribution to the development of the novel, and shuchaguan was the best evidence to explain. At shuchaguan, tea is only acted as a medium and supplement because people came mainly to listen to storytelling. Storytelling was performed two times a day and a long story would last two or three months. Famous shuchaguan were exquisitely furnished with cane or wooden tables and chairs, and decorated with works of calligraphy and painting in order to build an atmosphere for storytelling. The purpose of drinking tea in shuchaguan is increasing their historical knowledge, killing time and amusing themselves. So shuchaguan were best suited to old people.
Qingchaguan
Qingchaguan provides places for people from all walks of life to entertain themselves elegantly. In the past, most of the Qingchaguan were simply furnished with square tables and wooden chairs. Teacups with covers were used to serve tea. However, tea was served without refreshment in Qingchaguan.
Qichaguan
Qichaguan provides places for customers to play chess. Qichaguan were simply furnished with timber or lumps of wood painted with chess boards, which were partly buried in the ground, or chessboards with benches on both sides. When people played chess while drinking tea, they will feel that the chessboards was like a battlefield of life. Usually they would temporarily forget about their sufferings, and that's why tea was also called wangyoujun (Mr. Worry-free).
Yechaguan
People went to Yechaguan to appreciate beautiful gardens. People of Beijing in old times were keen on enjoying beautiful scenes in different seasons. So yechaguan were mostly built in those places with beautiful gardens and nice views.
Dachaguan
Dachaguan provided tea, food and services to people in various trades such as business men and scholars. In terms of service, it includes Hongluguan, Wowoguan and Banhuguan.
= Hongluguan
=
Hongluguan were installed with red stoves which baked Manchurian and Chinese pastries. They served all kinds of pastries, which were smaller and more exquisite than those made by pastry shops. Customers could drink tea while sampling these pastries.
= Wowoguan
=
Wowoguan served various refreshment, including
aiwowo, steamed sponge cakes, paicha, pengao and sesame seed cakes.
= Banhuguan
=
Characterized by a large copper pot, banhuguan suited varied tastes.
Erhunpu
Erhunpu served tea without refreshments but provided dining and wining facilities. It supplied customers with food cooked from in-house ingredients or ingredients brought by customers.
Literature
Symbolism and significance
The ''
China famous tea
This is a list of Chinese teas. Chinese tea is a beverage made from the leaves of tea plants (''Camellia sinensis'') and – depending on the type of tea – typically 60–100 °C hot water. Tea leaves are processed using traditional Chi ...
'' () or ''The Ten Great Chinese Teas'' () are the ten most notable Chinese teas. Below is a list of ten common teas in China.
Economics
Production
The highest grades of
white tea
White tea may refer to one of several styles of tea which generally feature young or minimally processed leaves of the ''Camellia sinensis'' plant.
Currently there is no generally accepted definition of white tea and very little internationa ...
,
yellow tea
Yellow tea can refer to Chinese ''huángchá'' () and Korean ''hwangcha'' ().
Chinese ''huangcha''
It is an increasingly rare and expensive variety of tea. The process for making yellow tea is similar to that of green but with an added step ...
, and
green tea are made from tender tea shoots picked early spring. These young tea shoots may consist of a single terminal bud, a bud with an adjacent leaf or a bud with two adjacent slightly unfurled leaves. It is generally required that the leaves are equal in length or shorter than the buds.
The more-oxidized tea—such as red or
oolong tea
Oolong (, ; (''wūlóngchá'', "dark dragon" tea)) is a traditional semi-oxidized Chinese tea ('' Camellia sinensis)'' produced through a process including withering the plant under strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting.Zhonggu ...
—are made from more mature leaves. For example, the Anxi
Tieguanyin
''Tieguanyin'' (; Standard Chinese pronunciation ) is a variety of Chinese oolong tea that originated in the 19th century in Anxi in Fujian province. Tieguanyin produced in different areas of Anxi have different gastronomic characteristics.
N ...
(grown in the tea region of Anxi in
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
), is made from one bud with two to four leaves.
Not all high grade green tea is made from tender tea shoots. The highly regarded green tea
Lu An Gua Pian is made from more matured leaves.
Traditionally these tender tea shoots are picked before 5 April, or
Qingming Festival. The standard practice is to start picking when 5% of the garden is ready, or when the tea buds reach certain size. In some tea gardens, tea shoots are picked daily, or every 2 days.
[Amazing-Green-Tea.com, , www.amazing-green-tea.com]
Trade
One of the event happened in before 1980s is that The trade missions of European countries in Shanghai that imported and carry out china tea to European countries, which will raise the export of Chinese tea.
China has experienced declining trends in tea export growth rate since the mid-1990s. Compare to 1980s that the export volume is decreased 232 tons to 170 tons, is around 26.7%, because the coverage of tea safety standards and Maximum Residual Limit of pesticides negatively affected China's exports.
The increase in export of green tea from China has not been commensurate with production. During 2010, China exported 234 M kg of green tea as against 163 metric kg in 2001. Its share of export in the global market has been found to fall from 87% to 78% between 2003 and 2007. However, in 2010, China contributed 79% of the total green tea exported worldwide.
Varieties
Spelling of varieties often reflects English usage, and historical or southern-Chinese pronunciation rather than official modern
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
, for example;
Bohea
Wuyi tea, also known by the trade name Bohea in English, is a category of black and oolong teas grown in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian, China. The Wuyi region produces a number of well-known teas, including Lapsang souchong and Da Hong ...
(武夷茶 wǔyí chá),
Congou
Congou () is a description of a black Chinese tea variety used by 19th-century tea importers in America and Europe. It was the base of the 19th-century English Breakfast tea blend.
Name
The etymology of the tea is the same as kung fu, from the C ...
(工夫 gōngfu),
Hyson
Hyson, or Lucky Dragon Tea, is a Chinese green tea that comes from the Anhui province of China. It is made from young leaves that are thinly rolled to have a long, twisted appearance that unfurls when brewed. The name Hyson is probably derived ...
(熙春茶 xīchūn chá),
Souchong
Lapsang souchong (; ) or Zhengshan xiaozhong () is a black tea consisting of leaves that are smoke-dried over a pinewood fire. This smoking is accomplished either as a cold smoke of the raw leaves as they are processed or as a hot smoke of pre ...
(拉普山小種 lāpǔshān xiǎozhǒng),
Chunmee (珍眉 zhēnméi),
Sowmee (秀眉 xiùméi),
Pekoe
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
The highest grades for Western and South Asian teas are referred to as "orange pekoe", and the lowe ...
(白毫 báiháo),
Keemun
Keemun () is a famous Chinese black tea. First produced in the late 19th century, it quickly became popular in the West and is still used for a number of classic blends. It is a light tea with characteristic stone fruit and slightly smoky note ...
(祁門紅茶 qímén hóngchá).
[Kit Boey Chow, Ione Kramer ''All Teas in China'' Page 179 1990 "for promotion purposes, many non-Chinese companies borrow names from Chinese teas, such as Bohea, Congou, Hyson, Souchong, Chunmee, Sowmee, Pekoe, Keemun, etc. Such labels may contain little or no tea of ..."]
See also
* ''
All In This Tea
''All in This Tea'' is a 2007 documentary film co-directed by Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht, about Chinese tea. It follows the American tea connoisseur David Lee Hoffman as he travels to remote tea-growing areas of China. Hoffman attempts to inter ...
'', a 2007 documentary
*
List of Chinese teas
This is a list of Chinese teas. Chinese tea is a beverage made from the leaves of tea plants (''Camellia sinensis'') and – depending on the type of tea – typically 60–100 °C hot water. Tea leaves are processed using traditional Chi ...
*
Taiwanese tea
Taiwanese tea includes four main types: oolong tea, black tea, green tea and white tea. The earliest record of tea trees found in Taiwan is from 1717 in Shui Sha Lian (), present-day Yuchi and Puli, Nantou County. Some of the teas retain the isl ...
References
Further reading
* Evans, John C., ''Tea in China: The History of China's National Drink.'' Contributions to the Study of World History, Number 33. Greenwood Press: New York; Westport, Connecticut; London, 1992. ,
* Forbes, Andrew ; Bently, David (2011). ''China's Ancient Tea Horse Road''. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN: B005DQV7Q2
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Tea