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Tea
茶
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Tea was called “Tu” in the Chinese ancient classic Shi Jing (The book of Songs).
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During the Han dynasty, the word “tu” took on a new pronunciation, 'cha', in
addition to its old pronunciation 'tu'.
Periods in the history of tea
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From prehistoric time to Spring and Autum Period (221 BC) Tu was used as
sacrifice for ceremony.
According to Chinese historical record, ca 1000 BC, there were already tea farm
in Sichuan and Yunnan.
From end of Spring and Autumn Period to early Western Han dynasty, Tu was
used as vegetable food on table.
Xia Zhong’s Treatise on Food : “Since Jin dynasty, the people of Wu (now
suzhou city) cooked tea leaves as food, and called it tea broth”.
From the beginning of Western Han to middle Western Han, Tu was used as
medicine.
From the late Western Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdom Period, tea was
imperial beverage.
From the Western Jin dynasty to Sui dynasty, the use of tea as beverage spread in
the Chinese population.
From the Tang period onward, tea became one of the seven essentials of daily life.
During the Southern Song Dynasty a Japanese monk 明菴栄西 Eisai came to to
study Zen Buddhism (1168 AD); when he returned home in 1193 AD , he brought
tea from China to Japan, planted it and wrote the first Japanese book on Drinking
Tea for Health. This was the beginning of tea cultivation and tea culture in Japan.
From then on, the history of tea in Japan took their own way.
In the Song Dynasty, tea was a major export good, through the Silk Road on land
and Silk Road on the sea, tea spread to Arab countries and Africa.
Marco Polo mentioned tea in his travel dialogue.
Types of Chinese Tea
Chinese tea may be classified into five types of teas according to the different methods by
which it is processed.
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Green tea
Green tea is the variety which keeps the original color of the tea leaves without
fermentation during processing. This category consists mainly of Longjing tea of
Zhejiang Province, Maofeng of Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province and Biluochun
produced in Jiangsu.
Black tea
Black tea, known as "red tea" (hong cha-) in China, is the category which is fermented
before baking; it is a later variety developed on the basis of the green tea. The best brands
of black tea are Qihong of Anhui , Dianhong of Yunnan, Suhong of Jiangsu, Chuanhong
of Sichuan and Huhong of Hunan.
Wulong tea
This represents a variety half way between the green and the black teas, being made after
partial fermentation. It is a specialty from the provinces on China's southeast coast:
Fujian, Guangdong and Taiwan.
Compressed tea
This is the kind of tea which is compressed and hardened into a certain shape. It is good
for transport and storage and is mainly supplied to the ethnic minorities living in the
border areas of the country. As compressed tea is black in color in its commercial form,
so it is also known in China as "black tea". Most of the compressed tea is in the form of
bricks; it is, therefore, generally called "brick tea", though it is sometimes also in the
form of cakes and bowls. It is mainly produced in Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Yunnan
provinces.
Scented tea
This kind of tea is made by mixing fragrant flowers in the tea leaves in the course of
processing. The flowers commonly used for this purpose are jasmine and magnolia
among others. Jasmine tea is a well-known favorite with the northerners of China and
with a growing number of foreigners.
Website:
http://www.chinavista.com/experience/tea/tea.html
http://www.index-china-food.com/tea-culture.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tea_in_China
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