Chinese tea is a beverage, Chinese tea is a pass time, Chinese tea is a culture. Whatever you think Chinese tea is, Chinese tea is a life time of enjoyment.

If you are new to Chinese tea, this site contains interesting Chinese tea knowledge that would get you started. Waste no time, let's do Chinese tea!

Tea set

A gaiwan dated back to the 30's. It looks very close to a modern gaiwan except that the cup part is more bowl-shaped, and the plate has a big hole in the middle to hold the cup.

The Origin of Chinese Tea

Where
“神農氏”, God of Agriculture (GoA), was one of the prehistoric representatives of Chinese people. He was know to have invented agriculture, medicine. And he was said to be the one who found tea.

In ”神農本草經”(GoA's Book of Herb), it says "GoA personally tasted hundreds of herb. In a single day, he was hit by 72 poisons. But he discovered the tea tree and used the tea leaves to neutralize all poisons."

 

That is probably the earliest record of tea among Chinese people.

 

The Evolution of Chinese Tea

Chinese tea has been around for thousands of years. Chinese tea was first discovered and used as medicine. Then it evolved into a beverage, and further in to part of Chinese culture.

  
Chinese Tea's Infancy

Before 8th century B.C., Chinese tea was primarily used as a medicine.
During the Chun Qiu Period (770 BC - 476 BC), Chinese people chewed tea leaves and enjoyed the taste of tea juicy itself.

 

Chinese Tea Became Food & Beverage

In the next stage, Chinese tea was cooked like a soup. Tea leaves were eaten along with the soup. Tea leaves were even mixed with food. Ancient Chinese books documented that tea was eaten and used with other spices to cook at this stage.

 

During the Qin, Han Dynasty (221 BC - 8 AD), simple processing of Chinese tea emerged. Tea leaves were pressed into ball shapes, dried and stored. When served, tea balls were crushed and mixed with green onion, ginger, etc., and then boiled in teapots. This is the point where Chinese tea turned from a medicine into a beverage. Also, it marked the beginning of Chinese tea being used to treat guests.

 

Chinese Tea as Part of Chinese Culture

Chinese tea evolved from a palace treat to a common beverage during the Jin Dynasty and Nan Bei Zhao (265 AD - 589 AD).

 

Later during the Tang Dynasty (618 AD - 907 AD), Chinese tea trading had became extremely busy. Techniques in tea plantation and processing advanced in great speed. Lots of famous teas were developed. 

 

In the Tang Era, Chinese tea was processed and circulated in the form of tea cakes. People started to get serious about making tea. Specialized tea tools were used and tea books were published - including the most famous "Literature of Tea" by Lu Yue. The art of Chinese tea started to take shape. That was a big leap of Chinese tea into the cultural territory.

 

"Tea became popular in Tang and prospered in Song (960 - 1276)". In the beginning of Song Dynasty, Chinese tea was kept in the shape of balls and cakes. When served, tea was crushed and boiled with seasoning material. But as tea drinkers became more particular, they paid more respect to the original shape, color, and taste of tea leaves. Seasoning material faded out and loose leave tea started to take the center stage.

 

Chinese Tea from Boiling to Brewing

From the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) onward, loose leave tea had completely taken over. During 1531 to 1595, Chinese tea completed the process of moving from boiling to brewing. Specialty tea tools like YiXing teapots became popular from then on.

 

Chinese Tea Today

After Ming, numerous types of Chinese teas were invented. The Art of Chinese Tea is being perfected continuously. The famous Kung Fu Cha (or Kung Fu Tea) is one of the landmark development of Chinese tea brewing.

 

Why the name "TEA"

Is it Chinese? Or from other Language?

 

"CHA", "TAY", "TEA"

The Chinese character "TEA" written with Chinese calligraphy brush.
In Chinese dialects, pronunciation of "tea" is divided into two classes based on phonetic similarity. In mandarin, "tea" is "CHA"; in XiaMenese (FuJian province), "tea" is "TAY".

CHA and TAY had different time and route spreading out to the rest of the world.

 

It dated back to the 5th century that CHA went beyond the Chinese border. Japanese simply use the Chinese character of tea (see insert on right) for tea. In Persia, tea was CHA and then later evolved into CHAI in Arabic, CHAY in Turkish and CHAI in Russian. Tea was also brought to India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh where it's called CHA.

 

TAY started spreading later than CHA but had reached much further than CHA did. Near the end of the Ming Dynasty, AD 1644, British merchants set up trading posts in XiaMen and came into contact with Chinese tea. What the XiaMen people called TAY, the British spelled as TEA. "Tea" then later has become wildly accepted by the English-speaking world. The French THE and German TEE are also decedents of TAY.

 

The 8 classes of Chinese tea

Chinese Green tea
Green Tea is the most natural of all Chinese tea classes. It's picked, natural dried, and then fried briefly (a process called "killing the green") to get rid of it's grassy smell. Fermentation process is skipped.

Green Tea has the most medical value and the least caffeine content of all Chinese tea classes. Aroma is medium to high, flavor is light to medium.

About 50% of China's teas is Green tea.

A tea called "bird's tongue". Each little cup of this tea consists of hundreds and perhaps thousands of small, tender new shoots. The work put into picking this tea is enormous.

 

Chinese Oolong tea
Oolong Tea is half way between green tea and black tea in a sense that it's half- fermented. It's also called "Qing Cha" (grass tea). Typical Oolong Tea leaves are green in the middle and red on the edges as a result of the process to soften tea leaves.

 

Oolong Tea leaves are withered and spread before undergoing a brief fermentation process. Then Oolong Tea is fried, rolled and roasted.

 

Oolong Tea is the chosen tea for the famous Kung Fu Cha brewing process. It's the serious Chinese tea drinker's tea. Aroma ranges from light to medium. Beginners in Oolong Tea should be careful as even though flavor is only mild to medium, the tea could be very strong.

The best tool for brewing Oolong tea - the YiXing Teapot.

Chinese Black tea
Chinese Black tea produces a full-bodies amber when brewed. Black tea undergoes withering (drying), left to ferment for a long while, and then roasted. Black tea leaves become completely oxidized after processing.

Black tea has a robust taste with a mild aroma. It contains the highest amount of caffeine in Chinese tea classes.

 

Chinese Red tea
Red leaves and red tea color, it's characteristic of Red Tea's fermentation process.
There are 3 subclasses of Chinese Red Tea - "Kung Fu Red Tea", "Ted Tea Bits" and "Small Species Red Tea".

Chinese Red Tea has low aroma and medium flavor.

 

Chinese White tea
White Tea is sometimes considered a subclass of Green Tea. It is only withered and then roasted. It gets its name from the white down on the leaf buds. It has very low caffeine content.

 

Chinese Yellow tea
White Tea is sometimes considered a subclass of Green Tea. It is only withered and then roasted. It gets its name from the white down on the leaf buds. It has very low caffeine content.

 

Chinese Flower tea
Chinese Flower Tea is an unique class of Chinese tea. It subdivides into Flower Tea and Scented Tea. 
Flower Tea is a simple concept that dried flowers are used, without much processing, to make tea. Scented Tea uses green tea, red tea as base and mix with scent of flowers.
Chinese Flower Tea has light to medium flavor and medium to strong aroma.

 

Chinese Compressed tea
Most Chinese Compressed Tea uses Black Tea as base tea. It's steamed and compressed into bricks, cakes, columns and other shapes.

 

Compressed Tea has all the characteristics of Black Tea. It can be stored for years and decades. Aged Compressed Tea has a tamed flavor that Compressed Tea fans would pay huge price for.