Tea culture – Tea is more than just a drink

Drinking tea will allow you to experience a phenomenon deeply rooted in Chinese culture.

Because of the rich history and the love for tea in the East, tea is much more than a drink. When you’re offered a cup of tea, you can feel the history and culture. This begins with the way of drinking the tea, the tea ceremony. In northern China people use a glass or a bowl. In the South people practice the gongfu (Kungfu) tea ceremony using small cups, which are a symbol for the preciousness of tea. Depending on the type of tea and place where the tea is consumed, there is a large variety of glass, porcelain, stone, wood, iron or clay tea sets available. Each type of tea set has its own impact on the taste. For instance, Puerh tea tastes best in the Yixing teapot (clay) and iron goddess tea is best served in porcelain. Anyone who tries tea using the different sets will notice that the tea tastes significantly better by using the right tea ware. In many ways Chinese tea culture is very ritualistic. The host or hostess will follow a sequence of handing out cups to the guests by order of importance. Cups should only be seven-tenths full, because the last three-tenths is filled with friendship and affection (if the cups are completely full it is a sign for the guest to leave). Using three fingers to drink from the tea cup will show strength or the beauty of a flower. Also, you should to drink the tea in three sips, but not before enjoying the tea by smelling the fragrance.

Of course rituals and ceremonies vary by region and type of tea, which makes tasting Chinese tea a real adventure.
 

History – What is the origin of premium tea

The history of tea spans thousands of years and over that time it has gone from being an imperial delicacy to the most consumed drink in the world
 
China has several stories about the origin of tea, the most famous being the story about Emperor Shennong. In the year 2737 B.C. the emperor was drinking hot water when the wind blew a leaf into his cup causing the color of the water to suddenly change. Curious about this colored water, the emperor took a sip and was pleasantly surprised by the delicious flavor. The leaf was of the camellia sinensis plant, and with this auspicious accident the first cup of tea was created. Nowadays, however, we assume that the first tea comes from Xishuangbanna in southern Yunnan, where the oldest living tea-tree is still producing leaves at the ripe old age of 2,700. Originally, tea leaves were used as spices in food, but later the people of Xishuangbanna began to mix tea leaves with hot water. Later on, the ancient Tea-Horse Road played an important role in spreading tea to both the high plateaus of Tibet and the mountains of Sichuan. Eventually, tea was growing throughout southern China. The botanical name of tea is Camellia sinensis, the name sinensis indicating that this species has origins in China disputing the stories that tea originated from India or Vietnam.

In the West we had to wait for a long time before we discovered the pleasures of drinking tea. After the 16th century cautious trade relations between East and West began when the Portuguese discovered tea in Japan. In 1610 the Dutch shipped the first tea to Europe. These were only small, very precious amounts. However, from the 17th century Dutch traders started to use Batavia (in Indonesia) for trading larger quantities of Chinese tea to Europe. Since China was not very generous with its precious supply of tea, the Dutch soon started to cultivate tea on the islands of Java and Sumatra. The British followed suit in Sri Lanka and India. Nowadays, most tea still originates in countries like India, Sri Lanka and Kenya (Africa). However, the quality of Chinese loose tea has always remained the highest. This is because the Chinese are lovers of Chinese tea themselves, and even today only a small percentage of total production is exported.

Health benefits of tea – Probably the healthiest drink in the world.

There are so many health benefits to drinking tea that we may sometimes wonder why we are not drinking it more.

The Chinese have already known for centuries about the health benefits associated with drinking tea. In the West, research is recently emerging to prove these ancient ideas to be true..Research has shown that drinking premium tea (especially green and white tea) helps against cancer, obesity, improves cognition, fights heart diseases and high cholesterol, and stimulates the kidneys. Moreover, after drinking a cup of tea you find yourself feeling energetic. This is due to the small amounts of caffeine found in tea..However, the level of caffeine is much lower than that of coffee. Tea is a delicious and healthy drink. Along with tea, wine has the most anti-oxidants responsible for the above mentioned health benefits. So why not drink premium tea?