Tea seems to be endowed with a special power: it fills with comfort, connects people, cures and relieves fatigue..

We treat tea drinking as an accompaniment of spiritual conversation, in Japan it is customary to maintain complete silence during the tea ceremony, the Chinese treat tea drinking as meditation.

In China, importance is attached not only to varieties and brewing, but also to the place: traditionally, tea houses and gazebos have always been built in the most picturesque landscapes, among flowering gardens and singing birds..

Despite the fact that the Chinese drink tea daily, it is customary to brew it on special occasions.. For example, if one person offended another and repents, he pours tea as a sign of apology. At the wedding, the newlyweds must serve tea to each member of the new family.. A bad sign if someone refuses it: this means that the relative does not bless the new family union. According to ancient tradition, tea should not be poured by a person occupying a senior position in the social hierarchy, but in modern China this rule is no longer so rigid..

Worked - rewarded myself with tea. You get sick - you are treated with tea with honey. You can't put your thoughts in order and get down to work? I brewed tea, poured it into a cup - and life is getting better.

Invite for tea - the first act of hospitality between unfamiliar people. It’s not a shame to ask for a cup of this drink even in the poorest house.. Relaxation while drinking tea sets you up for a leisurely frank conversation, restores harmony in the soul and body.

What you need for a tea ceremony Tea table. It is necessary in order to beautifully serve tea utensils and warm them with hot water.. The first tea leaves are poured into a special recess-tray in the tea table..

bowls. Just as in Central Asia there is a concept of “pouring tea with respect” (which means at the bottom, and then pouring a hot drink to the guest in a timely manner), in China, tea is drunk from miniature bowls for 4-5 sips and only hot. A Chinese man will not appreciate if he pours tea into a 200-gram mug.

How to make tea?

The traditional way of brewing is in a gaiwan, in other words, in a “cup with a lid”. Best of all, such dishes are suitable for lightly fermented varieties.. But if you are going to use a gaiwan, you still need a tea strainer and a " It looks like a ceramic gravy boat, and is called so because the tea master, pouring tea from it, sees the contents of the teapot and pours it “fairly”, that is, equally.

Yixing clay teapot - a ceramic teapot familiar to us with a strainer at the base of the spout. In clay teapots, pu-erh or dark oolongs are best revealed..

The tea flask is the most modern and convenient vessel for brewing tea, which has recently appeared in China.. Such a flask consists of a lid and two glass cylinders - external and internal, with holes. It is easy to brew any kind of tea in it..

Brewing steps 1. If you follow the Chinese tradition, before all tea leaves you need to “get acquainted”. To do this, dry leaves are poured into a saucer - chahe. The guests take it in turns to take it in their hands and take a few reverent, thoughtful breaths and exhalations, also appreciating the appearance of the variety..

After that, the contents of the chahe are poured into a teapot (in a tea flask) preheated with boiling water or into a gaiwan - still without water - and shaken. Then the leaves reveal their fragrance.

Next up is welding. It is believed that the higher the degree of fermentation of tea, the higher the water temperature should be.. The most weakly fermented - green, white and yellow teas - are brewed with water at 60–80 ° C; oolongs (semi-fermented teas) are brewed depending on the degree of their fermentation,.

black teas - with boiling water, but pu-erh (post-fermented teas), which are kept in the ground for several years, can be brewed like coffee.

The first brew (1.5–2 minutes after the tea leaves were poured with boiling water) will have to be ruthlessly poured out. It is designed to clean from dirt and open tea leaves.. Also, with the first tea leaves, you can wash and warm the bowls..

Green tea can be brewed up to five times. In China, tea is not insisted.

Brewing should be short - no more than 1-2 minutes.

The drink is poured into bowls and eaten. The audience watches how the color of the drink “sheds” from each brew, how its taste changes - this is a kind of meditation. Contrary to expectations, many varieties only improve the aroma and taste with each subsequent brew..

“Mindful tea drinking” usually takes about an hour, but if desired, it can drag on for a whole day..

Tatyana Zhuravleva nedug. en.