Tag: Chinese Tea Culture

Produced in Qimen County and the neighboring areas close to Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province, China, Keemun black tea is a competitive type of black tea in China. This is attributed to the high yield and excellent quality of tea trees growing in the region thanks for the rich soil and favorable weather. Tea production in Qimen County has a long history which can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. The county was initially teemed with green tea and then turned to produce black tea in the Qing Dynasty over 100 years ago.

"Yunan Black Tea" is a general name for black tea produced in Yunan. There are two types of Yunan Black Tea: “Yunnan Kungfu Black Tea” and "Yunnan Broken Black Tea". First produced in 1939, "Yunnan Black Congou" is characterized by stout and strong sprouts, golden sharp ends, red infusion color and strong flavor. When it was produced in 1939, 15 tons of Yunnan Black Congou were sold to the UK. As the output increasingly grows, the tea has been exported to over 30 countries and regions in the world, such as Russia and Poland in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America.

Tea gift, or “Tea Silver”, is a sort of betrothal gifts. In the Tang Dynasty, tea was an indispensable gift in marriage. It has been over 1300 years since Princess Wencheng brought tea into Tibet in line with to the Han etiquette. Tea was evolved from a trousseau gift into a gift prepared for a man’s proposal of marriage in the Song Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, “Tea gift” almost stood for marriage, with a maid’s acceptance of tea gift being known as “Drink Tea”. Such concept was retained in the Qing Dynasty, when the saying “A good maid will not accept tea gifts from two families” was prevailing.

China is the homeland of tea. The Chinese minority ethnic groups not only have their own tea customs, but also formed their own unique tea culture.

Oolong tea, also known as green tea or semi-fermented tea, is a unique Chinese tea variety with distinctive characteristics. It is said that the inventor the tea was named "Oolong", hence the name of the tea.

Tea house (Chaguan), a special place for the Chinese to have tea, is very popular in the Yangtze River area; it is mostly called tea house (Chalou) in provinces like Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan, and is called tea pavilion (Chating) in Beijing and Tianjin of north China. Historically, there are some other names for it, such as Chaliao, Chafang, Chasi, Chashe, Chayuan, Chawu and Chashi. Although these names vary, the forms and contents are basically the same.

Xihu Longjing Tea, a famous kind of green tea in China, grows in the mountains around the Xihu Lake (West Lake) of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, including areas like Lion Mount, Longjing Mount, the Wuyun Mountain and Hupao. Depending on the differences of producing areas’ partial ecological environments and producing technologies, Xihu Longjing Tea can be classified into three kinds, “Lion Mount Longjing”, “Meiwu Longjing” and “Xihu Longjing”, among which, the first one produced in Lion Mount is best in quality.