The Chinese people, in their drinking of tea, place much significance on the act of “savoring.” “Savoring tea” is not only a way to discern good tea from mediocre tea, but also how people take delight in their reverie and in tea-drinking itself.
Snatching a bit of leisure from a busy schedule, making a kettle of strong tea, securing a serene space, and serving and drinking tea by yourself can help banish fatigue and frustration, improve your thinking ability and inspire you with enthusiasm. You may also imbibe it slowly in small sips to appreciate the subtle allure of tea-drinking, until your spirits soar up and up into a sublime aesthetic realm.
Buildings, gardens, ornaments and tea sets are the elements that form the ambience for savoring tea. A tranquil, refreshing, comfortable and neat locale is certainly desirable for drinking tea. Chinese gardens are well known in the world and beautiful Chinese landscapes are too numerous to count. Teahouses tucked away in gardens and nestled beside the natural beauty of mountains and rivers are enchanting places of repose for people to rest and recreate themselves.
China is a country with a time-honored civilization and a land of ceremony and decorum. Whenever guests visit, it is necessary to make and serve tea to them. Before serving tea, you may ask them for their preferences as to what kind of tea they fancy and serve them the tea in the most appropriate teacups.
In the course of serving tea, the host should take careful note of how much water is remaining in the cups and in the kettle. Usually, if the tea is made in a teacup, boiling water should be added after half of the cup has been consumed; and thus the cup is kept filled so that the tea retains the same bouquet and remains pleasantly warm throughout the entire course of tea-drinking. Snacks, sweets and other dishes may be served at tea time to complement the fragrance of the tea and to allay one’s hunger.
The origin of Tea Drinking
There are three kinds of non-alcoholic drinks in the world, they are tea, coffee and coco. The people drinking tea are the most numbers of the three kinds and at present people from more than 160 countries consume tea. Drinking tea spread almost all over the world.
China is an original producer of tea and its skills in planting and making tea. According to Lu Yu’s Tea Classics, tea-drinking in China can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty (1100- 221 B.C.): Tea was discovered by Shennong, who was know to have invented agriculture, medicine and also was said to be the one who found tea. As the legend has it, Shennong personally tasted hundreds of herb. In a single day, he was hit by 72 poisons. But he discovered the tea tree and used the tea leaves to neutralize all poisons.” That is probably the earliest record of tea among Chinese people.
Tea drinking in China has a history of more than four thousand years. For a long time, tea was used as an herbal medicine and people ate fresh tea leaves as vegetables. With the popularization of Buddhism from the Three Kingdoms to the Northern and Southern Dynasties, tea’s refreshing effect made it a favorite among monks in Za-Zen meditation.
Tea as a drink prospered during the Tang Dynasty, and tea shops became popular. A major event of this time was the completion of Tea Classics, the cornerstone of Chinese tea culture, by Lu Yu, who is known as the “Tea Sage”, wrote the Tea Scripture. This scripture describes in detail the processes of planting tea bushes, picking tea leaves and preparing leaves for brewing.
Over the long history of drinking tea, Tea is indispensable in the life of the Chinese people and the development and promotion of tea has been one of China’s principal contributions to the world.
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