The way of making tea

(1) For Black Tea
Take utensils for brewing tea into consideration, there are two types; brewing by cups and in teapots. Many people like to brew Congon, black Souchong tea, tea bags and instant tea by cups; and other people prefer teapots to cups for tea broken, sifting and dust with a purpose of separating the dregs from the liquid.

Speaking of additive, there are plain tea and tea with additives. Most people in China are accustomed to drink plain tea without any additives. In European and Amercian countries, people like to drink tea with milk and sugar added. Black tea can be prepared as a cool beverage. The usual way is that: pour luke warm water over instant tea to make a strong liquid, then pour the liquid into a glass filled with ice cubes, add honey or sugar to taste and one or two slices of lemon. Then a cup of cool beverage with sweet and acid taste is ready.

（2）For Green Tea
In China, most tea-drinkers drink their green tea in higher quality from glass cups to enjoy the crispy green color while savor the tea. For Mee tea and Gunpowder (Zhu tea) people like using the porcelain cups, the delicate tone of the cups, glaze enhancing the tone of tea.

People living in other countries brew green tea in different ways. In Northwest Africa and Mali etc. People are fond of drinking tea with mint, by boiling tea then add two or three sprigs of fresh mint leaves and sugar and boil them together again. It makes a feature of refreshing and cool taste and keeps off the mental fatigue when savored.

(3)For Oolong Tea
People are particular concerned about the way of making Oolong tea. The utensils used for making tea form in a complete sets named as “four treasures”, namely: Yui shu wei (kettle), Meng chen guan (teapot), Ro shen ou (cups) by pouring boiling water from Yu shu wei (kettle). Then put oolong tea leaves into the teapot about sox or seven tenths full and pour boiling water over the leaves and cover the teapot with its cap tightly. Pour hots water over the capped teapot to retain the heat. Brew for about half a minute then pour the tea liquid into cups usually four cups from each teapot. The tea liquid is poured into each cup only half full, one after another, then pour again until the cups filled about three fourths full. It ensures tea with even and unified flavor. This gives a bracing and lasting aroma while sipping it slowly.

(4)For Scented Tea
Scented tea is processed from green tea scented with fresh sweet-smelling jasmine flowers. Complemented with flowers of subtle scents the tea yields a kind of refined flavor.

Having savored the Chinese jasmine tea, a foreign poet wrote a verse, saying: “I feel the flavor of spring, when I sip the the tea of jasmine.”

Most tea-drinkers like to brew scented tea in porcelain cups with caps on them to keep the aroma from escaping. The way of making is quite simple: just put a tea-spoonful of tea leaves into a cup and pour over it boiling water then cover the cup with its cap for four or five minutes and the tea is ready to serve.

(5)Some special ways of making tea In ancient China tea had been served as soup and vegetables. Nowadays, a number of special methods of making tea have handed down from very ancient times and remained popular in some minority regions.

Roasted tea Minority nationality residing in Pu-er and Menghai in Yunnan Province are found of drinking roasted tea. First, put an empty pottery jar over a fire pool to warm up then put a handful of sun-dried green tea leaves in the jar and roast for a while. The tea leaves turn to brown color after being roasted and send out pleasant smoky smell together with bursting sounds. Then the roasted tea is ready to serve by pouring into cups. Roasted tea is orange in color with pleasant and lasting aroma. It is apt to be addictive when drink it from time to time

Customs in Tea Drinking

Seven “must” in daily living of Chinese people are expressed in a proverb often recited when people talk about their family budget:
“On opening the gate, there are seven matters you encounter:
fagots, rice, oil and salt, also sauce, tea and vinegar.”
Traditional social decorum has it that to every visiting guest a cup of tea should be served. A poem by Du Luei of Tang times shows an aspect of the function of tea:
“Guests coming in, in the cold, cold night I serve cups of hot tea in the place of warm wine”.

How to serve the cup of tea to a visiting friend differs in places. In Jiangsu and Zhejing provinces, a porcelain cup ora glass tumbler is used to brew Longjing, Piluochun, Maojian or just or dinary green tea. Chrysanthemum tea is sometimes used in hot summer season. During the spring festoval holidays, in the well-off families the guests may be entertained with Yuanbao tea (gold-ingot tea) to two fresh olives submerged in the tea to bestow blessings. In the countryside, when people visit relatives, they are usually served with “egg-tea”. In fact it is not tea but a bowl of pouched eggs, so called to show the publicity of the idea of tea.

Hosts in the northern provinces usually entertain their guests with a cup of scented tea, the kind very popular in the North China cities, while in the colder north-eastern provinces, the enthusiastic hosts would provide warm black tea with sugar added to ensure warmth.

In the coastal provinces Guangdong and Fujian, a pot of Oolong tea, congou tea or Pu-er tea is the usual treat. If you go to visit a family in the mountainous Xiushui County, you would be served a cup of “sesame-bean tea” (sesame seeds and baked beans scattered in the liquor which are to be chewed and swallowed on emptying the cup). Iced tea is even common in modern families as most homes are equipped with refrigerators.

Serving tea to guests is a common Practice among the 56 ethnic nationalities in China. But in the border districts different tea is used. In Mongolia, a guest is entertained with yogh art tea. In the Jingpo family, you would be given baked tea(tea in water and baked in an oven to make hot). There still have Leicha, Dayoucha, etc.

On Tea-wares

Tea wares consist of mainly teapots, cups ,tea bowls and trays, etc. Tea wares have been used for a long time in China. The unglazed earthen wares, used in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces for roasting tea to-day, remind us the earliest utensils used in ancient China. Tea drinking became more popular and pubic in the Tang Dynasty. In the palaces and nobles, houses tea wares made of metals were served and for civilians porcelain and earthen wares were commonly used. In the Song Dynasty tea bowls, like an upturned bell, were common. They were glazed in black, dark-brown, grey, grey/white and white colors. Grey/white porcelain tea wares predominated in the Yuan Dynasty and white glazed tea wares became popular in the Ming Dynasty. Teapots made of porcelains and earth clay were very much in vogue during the middle of Ming Dyasty. Gilded multicolored porcelain produced in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province and the bodyless lacquer wares of Fujian Province emerged in the Qing Dynasty. Among various kinds of tea wares, porcelain wares made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province ranked first and brown earthen wares made in Yixing, Jiangsu Province occupied the top place.

In line with the popular of tea drinking, various kinds of tea wares went on to develop, such as wares made of earthen clay, porcelains, copper, tin, jade, agata, lacquer, glass and ceramic, etc, All of which makes a rich and colorful varieties of tea wares in the history of tea-drinking in China.

Porcelain Tea-wares of Jingdezhen In the early part of the Tang Dynasty white porcelain had been regarded as “Inmitation Jade”. In the Song Dynasty white/grey glazed produced in Jingdezhen predominated the market. Jingdezhen, as a porcelain capital, made its name known to the world by its grey glazed porcelains with flower patterns since the Yuan Dynasty. Tea-wares of this kind were not only highly valued in the domestic market but also exported and well received by foreign countries. In Japan a special name were given to the porcelains – “Pearlite grayish porcelains”.

On the basis of grey porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, the multi-colored porcelains appeared. The products were known of their fine and thin wall and exquisite forms as well as their colorful and vivid drawings. They were also highly valued at home and abroad. Thanks to the porcelains exported, China won its name as “Country of Porcelains” since then.

Production of white glazed porcelain tea-wares was thriving in Jingdezhen in the Qing Dynasty. Two new products-“enamel” and “translucent colors” to be decorated on the glaze of porcelains were innovated and the multi-colored enamel porcelain tea-wares had reached to their perfection for their thin body wall, crystal pure white and classic styles. They were used only in the royal palaces and could hardly be found in the houses of common people at that time.

Tea, either black or green, infused in those rich varieties of tea-wares made in Jingdezhen, not only provides warmth and taste, but also gives tranquility and esthetic satisfaction because of their texture and colors.