Chinese Tea

Chinese Tea

Tea, which pronounced as cha in Chinese, is an essential drink in Chinese culture. Tea is served at every traditional Chinese meal, and it is considered as one of the seven necessities in Chinese life besides firewood, rice, oil, salt, vinegar, and sauce (mostly referred to soy sauce). The ancient Chinese used tea for medical purposes, and thus, until today, Chinese still believes that drinking tea can purge the digestive system toxins, help digestion, and even beautify skin and keep young. This is true with the facts that tea has been proven to be effective in improving beneficial intestinal microflora, as well as providing immunity against intestinal disorders and in protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage.

Chinese tea can be categorized to green tea, white tea, yellow tea, black tea, oolong tea, red tea, scented tea and compressed tea. All of the teas originated from different varieties of Camellia Sinensis plant. The variations of tea come from the difference strains of Camellia plant, local growing condition, tea processing methods and steps and etc. The highest grade of white tea, yellow tea, and green tea are made from tender tea shoots picked early Spring; where else more oxidized tea such as red tea and oolong tea are made from matured tea leaves.  

The traditional way of preparing tea is to put the tea leaves into a teapot, tea infuser or tea cup; and then pour hot water over the leaves. After couple of minutes, the tea can be served and consumed. Most of the tea leaves can be brewed several times. The first infusion will be poured out to wash the tea cups, and the second and further infusions will be drunk.

Different teas have different shelf lives that vary with storage conditions and type of tea. Black tea will have longer shelf life than green tea, flower tea may go bad in a month or so, and Pu-erh tea improves with age. Tea will stay fresh when it is kept in dry, cool, dark and air-tight storage. Improper tea storage may lead to lose flavor, or even become moldy.    

 

Chinese Tea
Green Tea Oolong Tea Pu-erh Tea Flower Tea Quick Tea Kudin Tea	White Tea Black Tea Yellow Tea Pressed Tea Medicinal Tea Chrysanthemum Tea

Back to Main Page