Tea-Drinking Customs in China

China is the home of tea, and drinking tea is a national obsession. The Chinese are the most likely to delight in drinking tea as well as being the most discriminating in the way tea is made and served.

The tea-drinking tradition from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which features infused tea, has been inherited in most of China. But people from different areas favor different teas. Generally, people in northern China, northeastern China and Sichuan Province, love jasmine tea; those living in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces favor green tea; and along the southeast coast, Oolong tea is preferred. People from Hunan Province have an interesting habit: they chew and swallow the tea leaves after drinking the infusion.

Distinct customs in different areas and minorities compose the variety of China's tea-drinking tradition.

"Gongfu" Tea from Fujian Province

Preparing and drinking "Gongfu" tea involves elaborate procedures. This tea is popular in Yunxiao, Zhangzhou, Dongshan and Xiamen in southern Fujian Province, and Chaozhou and Shantou in Guangdong Province.

The antique-looking "Gongfu"tea set includes "Four Treasures for Tea-Making": one is a reddish-brown kettle, "yushuwei," with an oblate body that holds only 200g of water; the second is "Shantou Wind Stove," which is a small, exquisite and vented stove, used to boil water. Today, for convenience, many people use the electric stove. The third is a teapot, "Mengchen Pot," the size of a goose egg, made of zisha, a fine clay from Yixing that holds just over 50g of water. The last is "Ruochen'ou," an extraordinarily small cup about the size of half a pingpong ball, which holds only 4ml of the brew. Usually, four cups make a set and are placed on an oval tea tray. Besides pottery tea sets, there are porcelain ones, which look distinct with blue floral patterns glazed on a white background.

With "Four Treasures", you can make tea. In preparing "Gongfu" tea, you must undertake a unique process. First, rinse the tea set in clean spring water and place it on a tea tray. When the water in the kettle is boiling, use some to warm the pot and cups. Then put tea leaves in the tea pot until it is half-full and add boiling water until it reaches the brim. Purists will immediately pour out the first infusion and warm the tea cups with it. Again, fill the pot with boiled water, using the lid to skim off the foam before covering the pot to preserve the aroma. Arrange the four cups in a square, their mouths all touching. Wait a moment (less than one minute) before lifting the pot and moving it in circles over the cups while pouring tea until each cup is filled. Known locally as "General Guan Patrollinging the Town," this ensures that the density of tea is the same in each cup. Even the final and most dense bit is poured evenly into the four cups-- known as "General Han Xin Dispatching Troops."

Once the tea has been poured in the tea cups, that does not mean you can drink it immediately. According to the practice of "Gongfu" tea, you should first lift the cup to your nose and inhale the fragrance. Then take a sip, and hold it in your mouth to taste its flavor; in no time you will feel your nose and mouth filling with the fragrance, your throat moistening, and the secretion of saliva increasing, which will comfort your whole body. Add more water to the pot and enjoy another round of tea. After, at most, the fifth round, replace the tea dregs with new tea and start over.

The best leaves for "Gongfu" tea is Oolong -- for green tea has a "cold nature" that pains the stomach and black tea has a "hot nature" that seems to dry the stomach; neither is suitable to be drunk undiluted. Only the half-fermented Oolong, having a "warm nature" and enduring infusion, is best for "Gongfu" tea.

Guangdong Morning Tea

To Guangdong people, drinking well-known tea over delicious snacks is a supreme treat. They like to eat in teahouses, especially in the morning. Known locally as "one cup of tea and two snacks," the morning tea is regarded by the Guangdong people as "a joy of life."

Teahouses in Guangdong serve various teas and famous Guangdong-style snacks. The tea includes black tea, green tea, Oolong tea, jasmine tea and Liubao tea. The snacks include steamed buns stuffed with diced grilled pork, diced pig fat and sugar, minced pork, shrimp or crab meat, steamed dumplings with the dough gathered at the top with various fillings; and all kinds of flaky cakes. Before going to work in the morning, drinking a fragrant pot of tea and relishing the delicious snacks in a teahouse, proves a most relaxing experience. In recent years, with business burgeoning in Guangdong Province, people like holding business talks in teahouses. In Hainan Province, the practice has reached the extent that you can not enter the business circles without frequenting a teahouse. Drinking tea for business purposes has become a peculiar way of life in Guangdong and Hainan provinces, although it is far removed from the Chinese traditional purpose of tasting tea.

Unlike those in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and in northern provinces, Guangdong teahouses provide breakfast for customers. Called "morning tea" by Guangdong people, it evinces the importance of tea at breakfast. Today Guangdong-style morning tea has gone beyond Guangdong and Hainan provinces and found its way into large hotels in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, although patrons do not number as high as those in Guangdong.

"Gaiwan" Tea in Sichuan

In Sichuan Province, "gaiwan" tea is so popular that you will find people drinking it everywhere, especially the elderly, who can usually be seen sitting leisurely nursing a cup of tea in front of their houses or in their backyard. Tea rooms in larger factories and mines provide "gaiwan" tea for employees. Teahouses in cities provide mostly "gaiwan" tea. It may well be said that "gaiwan" tea distinguishes the Sichuan way of tea drinking.

Besides using high-grade tea such as jasmine tea, Dragon Well tea and "Biluochun" tea (both green teas), what sets "gaiwan" tea apart is the tea set: a handleless teacup, a lid and a saucer, which is where "gaiwan" tea got its name, for "gaiwan" means "lidded teacup." The most interesting part is the lid. It has many uses: first, it preserves the fragrance of tea in the cup; second, it can be used to skim off some tea dust and foam; and third, when you need to drink tea immediately after it is made, you can place the lid upside down and pour tea into it so that the tea will quickly cool down. The saucer, known locally as "tea boat," is leaden and protects the table surface from being damaged by the hot bottom of the teacup as well as making it easier to lift the teacup.

The copper kettle used for "gaiwan" tea is another unique item. The Sichuan people believe that water boiled in an iron or aluminum kettle does not taste good. The copper kettle, which retains the natural, sweet taste of water, is the best. Besides, a copper kettle holds the heat better than iron and aluminum.

The teahouse keepers walk around with their copper kettles, adding water for customers. They are very deft, and the most skilled can add water immediately at a customer's call without going to the table: a line of water can be seen descending from the air into the cup, sounding like the wind soughing in the pines. The line will then suddenly disappear, the cup filled, with not a single drop having been spilled. It is truly a wonderful art.

Teahouses are very popular in Sichuan, especially in large and mid-sized cities. Some are decorated with rockery, calligraphic works, paintings, flowers, potted plants and potted landscape, enhancing the quiet, elegant and comfortable ambiance, like the poem, "Flower fragrance by the seat keeps the guest drinking, / tea waves in the cup sounds like the soughing of wind in pines." Most teahouses offer extra bamboo chairs so that customers can sit at any table they want. Sichuan people spend most of their spare time in teahouses, drinking and talking. Occasionally, there are folk art performances. Such crowded, lively teahouses, with their pronounced Sichuan color, have become a must for tourists from all over the world, and are often seen in literary works.

Fried Tea of Northern Guangxi

Minorities such as Dong, Miao, Yao and Zhuang living in northern Guangxi Autonomous Region, and Hunan and Guizhou provinces, despite their different folklore, have a common habit -- drinking fried tea.

To make fried tea, first pour tea oil into a wok and add raw sticky rice. Stir-fry the rice until it turns yellow. Add tea leaves. Keep frying for a time; then add lukewarm water and salt. When the water is boiling, use a bamboo strainer to filter the tea and pour it into a special pot. The next step is "popping" the sticky rice. Boil tea oil in a wok and fry sticky rice in it. Put the popped rice in a bamboo saucer. Then fry soy beans and peanuts, and prepare other materials. Thus tea is ready.

Every day, in the gauzy mist of the morning, a Dong housewife will rise to fry tea. Before drinking tea, the family and guests, if there are any, will gather around the fire. As many bowls as people will be arranged in a circle, which contain chopped green onions and green vegetables. The hostess will put into each bowl a spoonful each of popped rice, fried peanuts and fried soy beans; then she will pour in hot tea. Next, she will politely present a bowl of tea with chopsticks to each guest, saying, "Please have fried tea." The guest in turn will rise to accept the tea with both hands. While drinking the fragrant, delicious tea and eating the crisp peanuts and soy beans, the guest will show his or her appreciation by smacking the lips. After finishing a bowl, the guest will just put down the bowl for the hostess to refill. According to local custom, a guest should drink at least three bowls of tea, because "after three bowls of tea nobody is a stranger." After the third bowl, the guest may place a chopstick across the bowl, which means that he or she has had enough; otherwise the hostess will keep refilling the bowl. For honored guests, refined teas are provided, such as tea with glutinous rice cakes, tea with glutinous rice dumplings (the size of a fingertip, boiled in tea), tea with rice cakes wrapped in Chinese mugwort leaves, tea with small shrimps and fish fries and tea with sausage stuffed with bean starch paste. The first two kinds are rarely made, except for weddings.

Drinking fried tea is the Dong people's traditional way of entertaining guests. Fried tea parties are also popular. Generally, there are all sizes of fried tea parties.

Small fried tea parties are usually held during the Spring Festival, when people visit their relatives, drink fried tea and wish each other a happy new year.

Medium-sized fried tea parties are generally held on such occasions as wedding, baby's birth and housewarming, when the host will invite people to have fried tea for pleasure as well as good luck.

Large fried tea parties are lively get-togethers of young people from the whole village or several adjacent villages, where can be as many as over 100 people.

Some Dong villages in Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County in Guangxi still observe the custom of making fried tea with tea dust for weddings. The tea dust is made by grinding dried tea leaves in a stone mortar. They believe that after drinking such tea the bride will never forget her ancestors.

Buttered Tea in Tibet

Tibet is the highest tea-consumption area in China, with annual tea consumption per capita being about 15 kg. Without tea, the Tibetans might find themselves listless, weak and suffering from indigestion. So they make and drink tea every day. The most common tea they drink is "buttered tea."

It has been said that Princess Wencheng, a Han princess married to a Tibetan king in the Tang Dynasty, invented buttered tea. The story has it that she introduced tea to Tibet and that she was in the habit of treating court ministers with buttered tea that she had made. However, according to historical records, Princess Wencheng brought with her several teas including a famous kind from Yuezhou (present Yueyang, Hunan Province), and spread the habit of drinking tea, but did not necessarily invent buttered tea.

It needs a special barrel to prepare buttered tea. The kettle is usually made of silver, copper, aluminum and other metals, and is decorated with gold or silver designs. The body of the kettle is painted mostly with Tibetan patterns. The spout and handle are uniquely shaped. Teacups are made of porcelain or wood, and inlaid with silver or copper. The tea set is as brilliant as a work of art.

The first step in making buttered tea is to boil tea leaves in the kettle. Then, the brew is strained into the barrel and materials and butter are added. The materials differ with people's preferences, but the most common are chestnut paste, sesame powder, peanuts, melon seed kernels and pine nuts, eggs and salt. The materials are stirred before the mixture is put into the kettle and warmed on the fire for about one minute instead of being boiled. The buttered tea will then be ready.

Certain protocol must be followed in drinking buttered tea. The hostess first puts a bamboo box that contains zanba (a dough of roasted qingke barley flour and tea), and sets teacups in front of each person. Then the host will pour the buttered tea into each cup and say warmly, "Please drink the tea!" The guest will drink the tea and eat zanba with fingers. The buttered tea, a little salty, is rich, fragrant and delicious. But the cup should not be emptied. Some tea should be left, which will indicate that the guest appreciates the host's skill in making the tea and desires more. The host will then refill the cup. After the third cup, if the guest has had enough, the cup can be drained and the dregs thrown on the ground. The host will not refill the cup.

Buttered tea is a high-grade drink for the Tibetan people. Poor families only make it during festivals or to entertain close relatives or honored guests. In everyday life they drink simple, salted tea. Whether buttered or salted tea, the Tibetan people prefer their tea thick and strong, so they usually use brick tea.

Mongolian Tea with Milk

Mongolians never have meals without tea with milk. In fact, they have "three teas and one meal" every day, rather than three meals. They have tea in the morning, at noon and in the evening, and have supper after work with their families. If they have beef and mutton for supper, they will have an extra tea before they retire for the evening. Their tea, of course, is not pure tea, but fragrant tea with milk, and is usually accompanied by such snacks as fried rice, milk cakes, deep fried milk products and boiled mutton.

To make tea with milk, first pound brick tea into pieces and put the pieces into an iron wok or an aluminum or copper kettle. Add water and boil for about 10 minutes. When the water turns reddish-brown, add boiled milk and salt, and stir. Thus the hot, fragrant and delicious tea will be ready. If the tea is boiled in a wok, it must be strained into a kettle and kept warm on a slow fire, so that people may drink it any time.

The Mongolian people usually make a kettle of tea after they get up in the morning and keep it warm on a slow fire all day. Generally, a kettle of tea is better to boil once, but lesser well-off families might add a few tea leaves and boil it a second and third time. A guest will be entertained with tea with milk, snuff and fried rice.

The Mongolian tradition of drinking tea with milk may have been influenced by Tibetan buttered tea. In ancient times, the Mongolian way of drinking tea was similar to the Tibetan way. Qi Yunshi, a Qing-dynasty scholar, described the Oirat Mongol's tea-drinking customs in his book, A Brief Record of the Western Borders: "The high officials and rich people eat yogurt in summer and beef and mutton in winter, while the poor live on tea with milk. Besides animal husbandry, making Tibetan tea is another important work round the year." Later, as tea became increasingly popular among the Mongolian people, both rich and poor started the practice of drinking "three teas" every day, and Mongolian tea with milk has become one of the distinct features of the Mongolian people.