Interesting Tea Drinking Customs

China has a vast territory. Over the centuries, a wide variety of tea drinking methods have emerged in different regions. Traditionally, the Hakka people in Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong have enjoyed "mashed tea, and the skills of tea mashing are even regarded as a yardstick of the competence of a housewife". Hakka girls who don't know how to mash tea will have a lot of trouble finding their Mr. Right.

A typical Hakka household is armed with a set of devices for masking tea: a pottery mortar, a wooden pestle, and a bamboo sieve for filtering out dregs. Tea leaves, soybeans, peanuts, can, sesames and gingers are placed in the mortar and mixed with a small amount of cool boiled water. These ingredients are then crushed with the pestle, and the bamboo sieve is used to filter out the dregs, resulting in a "mashed mixture" like syeast or fruit concentrate. The "mashed mixture" is kept in a pottery jar. A few scoops of the mixture infused in boiling water will make a cup of mashed tea which will leave a long aftertaste and lingering aroma.

Guangdong people are famous for their passion for "morning tea". Despite its name, the morning tea is not necessarily consumed in the morning. It can begin in the early morning and last until two or three o' dock in the afternoon. Teahouses typically offer a wide array of teas, such as oolong tea, green tea, black tea, and flower tea, for customers to choose from. They also provide a varied range of small dishes for the tea, such as roast pork buns, shrimp dumpling pork and mushroom dumplings, and wontons. Morning tea customers often chat with each other or read newspapers while sipping the tea and nibbling on the snacks. Morning tea occasions give people the opportunity to socialize and enjoy one another's company.

Sichuan is the birthplace of Chinese tea and the cradle of the Chinese tea culture. Streets in cities around Sichuan are lined by teahouses of every description. Sichuan people are fond of "bowl tea". Ceramic tea sets of bowls, consisting of a "tea vessel", a tea cover, and a tea bowl, is typically used. The "tea vessel" holds the tea bowl for insulation purposes. The tea cover is perhaps the greatest invention of Sichuan people in tea tasting. It serves various purposes. It can be placed on top of the tea bowl to form a tight space in which the flavor of the tea leaves can be extracted at a faster rate. It can also be used to scrape off the tea leaves floating on the top of the bowl. People who cannot wait to savor the tea can simplely pour the hot tea onto the overturned tea cover so that it will cool down faster. A customer may also place the tea cover upside down on the bowl as a gesture for the waiter to get a refill. Sichuan people believe that the water boiled by iron ware or aluminum ware may undermine the flavor of the tea, and therefore they usually boil water in copper kettle with a long nozzle. Tea is poured from the copper kettle by a skilled waiter. He just aims the nozzle of the kettle at the bowl and raises his arm, and the water will shoot into the bowl. As the water fills to the brim, he will just lower his elbow, and the water shooting will immediately stop without spilling a drop. The bowl is then covered, ready to serve.

Tibetans don't infuse tea; they decoct it with salt in the way of the people of the Tang Dynasty in Lu Yu's time. A Tibetan saying goes, "Tea without salt is as tasteless as water; a man without money is as terrible as a ghost." Tibetans not only add salt to tea; they also put other ingredients in their tea. Tibetans are particularly fond of buttered tea. Most Tibetan households keep a special bucket for preparing buttered tea. They pour water-decocted tea leaves into the bucket and add butter, salt, egg, and walnut kernels. They then vigorously press and stir the mixture with a wooden stick whose lower end is fitted with a round disc unless the tea soup and the butter are fully integrated, resulting in a buttered tea which will leave a pleasant lingering taste. Tibetans, who live in high-altitude frigid regions, drink buttered tea to fend off cold, replenish their energy and prevent chapped lips, and therefore the buttered tea is immensely popular among the Tibetans.