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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
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?
Leave a Reply