The Art of Tea

China tea

 

When drinking tea in China sugar and milk are not added. Putting milk in your tea is on the same page as putting ice in your beer, or chocolate syrup on your mashed potatoes. Though the Chinese make many tasty desserts using red bean puree. Using red beans as a dessert, reminds me of my mother adding zucchini or mashed potato to her cakes.

 

Shanghai tea in china

 

Tea in China is like coffee in Europe or the States. It is the favored morning and afternoon drink.

Though instead of driving through a drive through or going to a cafe for a cuppa joe. The Chinese have reusable, clear plastic containers that they use daily and prepare their personal tea rememdies. It is incredible to see the concotions brewing in their portable cups.Taxi drivers have their tea sitting beside them, I haven't seen two cups of home made tea alike yet.

 

Teahouse china

 

In China the whole tea thing ( i.e. Going to a tea salon or shop, selecting or ordering tea, and drinking tea) can be compared to a French person drinking a glass of wine.

Talking about the color, the pop of the cork, the smell, the tannin, its age and region…

Taking tea together with family and friends is serious business in China. Some teas are several years, to thirty years or more old.

 

Making tea in china

 

Chinese tea is not served with teabags, and they use tiny-two-sip cermanic cups to drink their tea. And just like wine, the type of glass, can add to the tea's value. Wine manners include how to hold ones teacup, and how the server serves the teapot, and if you put your elbows on the table…. are critical signs of etiquette and upbringing.

 

Blue frog tea pot

 

Unlike the large reusable clear plastic tea containers that they use everyday for home tea remedies, the teapot and teacup are doll size, and used for tea ceremonies and at restaurants. It is proper to elegantly hold a tea cup in China with two to three fingers.

 

Serving tea in china

 

Some tea can be several years to a couple of hundreds of years old. Pu'er tea is  the oldest tea (around 1700 years old history) formed into a pressed disc. A portion of it is pinched off and added to the tea pot. Boiling fresh water is added to the teapot, swirled around then dumped out. This action happens two to three times to "clean" the tea. Then boiling water is added again to the clay teapot, and sets for thirty seconds to a minute. Then strained into a glass teapot to allow one to see the color.

Pu'er tea and other Chinese teas are served this way. One repeats the process of pouring boiling water over the same tea leaves, in the small clay pot, several times over the course of a few hours. Drinking tea in China takes time, it is something one enjoys over conversation with friends, shared with families and in business meetings while striking a deal.

It is not just a drink, it is a tradition.

 

Holding a tea cup

 

Chelsea attempting to hold the teacup elegantly, though her hand is too stiff. There is an art to holding a teacup…

Chelsea shows off her red nails instead.

 

Tea time in china

 

We went to SongFang a teahouse in Shanghai that has both French and Chinese teas. It was created by a French woman over ten years ago. The shop is located in an old neighborhood house.

 

 

View of tea

 

I had a one of SongFang's signature French/Chinese teas, called Snow.

Chelsea opted for a Chinese tea that day. The wooden tray underneath the teapots has a twofold purpose:

Firstly, it is used to serve the tea, and secondly it is used to "pour out" one's tea. The tea can be "dumped" into the tray which has a hollow base covered with a lid to hold the excess tea. As boiling water is poured over the tea leaves in the clay pot (and over the tea pot to heat the tea pot) the tea releases its perfume creating different stages of delicate flavor. At first it is very clear, gradually with each serving it becomes darker. Each pot of tea holds a tiny amount of tea to taste. Sometimes a person likes one stage of tea over another, and can pour out the excess into the tray.

 

The art of tea

 

(Photos above are from our last trip to China, where we had tea in Yangshuo. The dark photos were taken in a very dim room at nighttime.)

A variety of tea objects are used and cherished. Spoons, tea cups, tea pots, trays, tables and strainers are just a small part of it. My favorite tea article were the tea pets:

Tea Pets are a creative addition to the Chinese tea ceremony. They are small works of art which are normally placed on a tea tray during tea time. Left over tea is poured over them, and or aa taste of tea… it is thought that pouring tea over your tea pet brings luck, fortune, or harmony with family and friends. There are many different subjects for tea pets they are highly collected and often made of clay. Over the years the tea pets take on a different color from the tannin in the tea.

 

Tea in china ceremony

 

Later the tea leaves are collected in a small porcelain container, and dried. The dried tea leaves are sewn into a pillow for sleeping with, and is said to be good for the skin.

 

Do you prefer tea or coffee? With or without cream and sugar?



Comments

38 responses to “The Art of Tea”

  1. I’m a tea drinker-with sugar. I love going to chinese places and having tea but I really hate the tea after it has sat awhile as it tastes really bitter to me, which means I must like the first stage in tasting. I think I need to find a Japanese or Chinese tea room here in Paris. It looks like a really wonderful experience.

  2. We drink a lot of tea in Poland. Usually without milk, just black (with or without sugar) or with a slice of lemon.
    Do they tell future from tea leaves in China?

  3. jend’isère

    Mother/daughter downtime while reassuring your mother! My 1994 travel to China with a group of Swedes was humurous as they carried little packets of coffee to feed their habit. A few winters in Scandinavia can convert anyone to “fika”.

  4. You’re living such an experience!
    I really envy you for this great time spent alone with your daughter….Thanks for sharing all of this with us.

  5. One more reason to travel to China: Your tea report, words and visuals.
    And so good to see you are having such a great time with Chelsea!
    I went immediately to SongFan’s website,and searched all over for an “order here” button, alas, unsuccessfully.

  6. American style coffee (read “weak and watery”) with lots of milk, no sugar and some flavor, like Irish cream, or hazelnut. I am a coffee plebian.

  7. Tea, tea, tea. I have never developed a taste for coffee in spite of living in Brazil for years. I like all kinds of tea–with lemon, without anything, with cream and sugar at 3 p.m. Just give me tea!

  8. I am not a tea drinker and I can’t bring myself to even try coffee but I love to collect tea cups of all sorts.

  9. Fascinating insights into the Chinese art of tea. With these fragrant teas in all their varieties it really is sacrilege to add milk or sugar – the equivalent of diluting wine with water! Song Fan looks wonderful – a must if I ever get back to Shanghai.

  10. Denise Moulun-Pasek

    Coffee with cream in the morning. Herbal tea is preferred after that. I found one that is called Spring Break at David’s tea, it has a light taste of coconut. I have it with milk and honey. Mmmmmmm!
    Thanks for the travel log, I am really enjoying it and thinking about travel to China in the future.

  11. I loved the information regarding tea today. Did you know that tea comes from the camellia plant, C. sinensis, in factd. I am collecting camellias that were introduced in the United States prior to 1900 to be planted at the Louisiana State University Burden Center. I have not been able to locate a number of them and have been been to France to collect cutings there. It’s been a wonderful experience and I am still looking.
    I like tea with both cream and sugar.

  12. Kristin

    Tea please! Coffee is nasty! But I need milk and sugar too! I would never survive in China!!!

  13. What lovely pictures, Chelsea is glowing. Mom knows best, girl time is exactly what she needed.
    Asking me to pick between coffee and tea is like asking you to pick between Chelsea and Sacha. Love them both, straight up or with additions.

  14. girl! black coffee, and LOTS of it!
    we lived in San Antonio for twenty years, and
    shopped at H-E-B … since our move to
    Ft Worth, we have to make a trip fifteen
    miles south to a new H-E-B just built…there
    isn’t one in Ft Worth, only Central Market
    [which is H-E-B wearing a suit, pffft]
    we drink Taste of San Antonio, and if we
    get visitors from the south, they know to
    bring us a bag of beans, or else!!!

  15. martina

    Latte on weekday mornings, black coffee on weekends. With cream and sugar if it is bad restaurant coffee. Tea in the evening or on cold, rainy afternoons. I do like iced tea with extra lemon.
    Chelsea looks fantastic!

  16. I’ve been a coffee drinker all of my life. My mom let me have coffee with lots of milk and sugar when I was a child. I now take my preferred drink straight up.
    Tea not so much. Mom gave it to me with toast when I was sick—-so that makes it medicine.

  17. Wonderful post! I’ve been waiting for this post. Did you get to see any of the tea gardens? Thanks for sharing… loved all the photos…. love tea!

  18. Kimberly

    I am a tea drinker! Sometimes with sugar and cream and sometimes straight up! 🙂 Blessings, Kimberly

  19. I am a morning coffee drinker with half and half. However, having started to read your post, I have a cup of tea beside the computer…

  20. Ha! Fellow Texas here and I totally hear you about Taste of San Antonio…it is a staple in our household too.

  21. Love coffee, and dabble in tea but this post puts the wow-factor in tea and the sharing of it. Tea pets…who knew?! This is so fascinating and from all your globetrotting I can only assume that your foot is all better. It is a joy to share in this journey with you and your girl.

  22. I am so confused by all those teapots on the table. I wouldn’t know how to begin. At least I know with wine that I should simply drink it instead of mixing this, mixing that.
    I like both coffee and tea. I’m currently on a mocha kick. I make a deal with myself that if I exercise and don’t eat wheat, I can have a mocha. Yum.

  23. This puts ALL to shame my bagged organic green tea (super-anti-oxidant, by the way) drunk from a bright blue insulated mug emblazoned with the logo of the company where I work…

  24. Brenda L. in TN.

    I am a coffee with cream and sugar and an ICED tea drinker….I have never really liked HOT tea but the tea pets are really interesting…I have never heard of them until now but I love the “…pouring tea over them”…and “they change colors” part. I would “do” a high tea to get to do the pouring tea over a tea pet.

  25. Lovely post! What a lesson on tea. The drink I choose depends on my mood. Green tea in the morning, caffe latte in the afternoon or visiting with friends, nothing soothes my soul like a cup of chai, herbal tea at night to ease me into sweet dreams. How grateful I am that we are able to share in your treasured time with Chelsea in China.

  26. Fascinating! As you probably know, tea is also a very big deal in Japan as well, but quite different from Chinese style – which I now know, thanks to you!
    I drink my green tea Japanese style – no milk or sugar, of course – unless we’re talking matcha latte, which is a whole other thing. The Japanese are masters of trying new ways while keeping the old intact. Coffee – black, or not, hot or cold – just not instant, please. Black tea really does need to have sugar and milk (which is also something I learned in Japan!). ;o)

  27. wow how very intricate their tea tradition is
    i am a tea drinker mainly, milk with 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar.
    although i do love coffee as well.
    i am still getting my head around the fact that they pour boiling water over the tea then tip it off , then do it again, tip it off and then leave the next lot of water on the leaves and drink….
    must try that next time

  28. Love this.
    So want to be a sophisticated tea drinker.

  29. I would love this!
    I love the ritual of taking tea and found your story here to be so interesting. I’d not heard of the tea tray before. How I would love to see this, and how interesting to be able to sample the tea at different stages in the brewing. I will have to remember this when I try out new teas here.
    I can’t thank you enough for sharing this.

  30. Hey there, Corey. It’s been a while since my last visit – life got really busy! I have to tell you, though, that it has been such a treat to visit your blog tonight. This blog post is so interesting and the photographs are beautiful and should be in a magazine! I enjoyed reading about the etiquette and ceremony over tea…I have much to learn before visiting a teahouse! Thank you for taking us along with you and Chelsea.

  31. Love your teapot! I prefer coffee with cream and a bit of sugar.

  32. Marie-Noëlle

    Keeping savouring my learning !!!
    While sipping your post, I wish I were a tea drinker …

  33. The information on how people in China drink tea, in a traditional way, is well-presented. I like how you write about it… The images are very good. I hope I could also enjoy drinking tea in China someday…

  34. Can you sweeten your tea with honey? I love honey in my tea instead of sugar :-0

  35. I’m a tea girl these days. I used to be a coffee woman, working right upstairs from Peet’s Coffee on Domingo Ave. in Berkeley, CA – and making two trips per day for their yummy, intense brew (0h, and my hair USED to be straight!), but as time passed my body revolted, forcing me to switch to the more genteel, mellow tea. I’m so glad I did. I think/hope I will live longer. It’s been almost 10 years since the switch and, though I do sometimes miss a good mocha, I’m convinced of tea’s health benefits. There is nothing like a perfectly brewed cup of Winter White Earl Grey and I still visit Peet’s for their Jasmine Lime Coolers which are heaven on earth! So good and so bad all at the same time 🙂 Loved your post – as usual!!

  36. I like an occasional cup of coffee but am enamored of tea. I like black tea with milk and stevia or a tiny bit of honey. I really learned to love tea on my trip to England, Scotland and Ireland a decade ago. I love getting out of my comfort zone and trying many kinds of tea. The ritual of having tea is very pleasant and conducive to relaxed conversation. The most fun was having a huge elaborate tea at church for all the ladies and encouraging them to dress up for it. It was the first time many of them tasted tea.

  37. Different flavored coffees and teas…I love them both!

  38. Tea then is more than just a relaxing beverage, or the usual morning cup. It is a drink built on thousand years’ tradition, so much that it should be elegantly prepared. Even drinking it should be an art, as we can put it. Beyond that, tea is healthy for the skin. Its wide range of antioxidants rid your skin – and body – of the bad elements. Good for the skin, heart, and soul.

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