Chinese Tea Drinking In The Tang Dynasty
A Nation’s Age-Old Fancy for Tea
Wherever the Chinese go, tea follows. Take to any bystreet of Beijing, Guangzhou or Xi’an, you’re likely to see elderly citizens seated in twos and threes, gathering around a teapot for to enjoy some authentic Chinese tea.
For many centuries, the Chinese holds an untiring craze for tea, emperors and commoners alike. This craze is especially obvious in the Tang dynasty nearly 1,000 years ago.
To attest, Tea Classics – China’s very first tea monograph – was compiled this time.
Tea and the Tang Dynasty Emperors
During Tang dynasty, imperial China was at its peak. With its military holding the nomadic invaders back, and the economy prospering, Tang’s greatness was felt far beyond its borders. For the Tang emperors, there seemed not to be much to worry about.
They went to enjoy themselves, with tea!
The Grand Event of Chinese Tea Drinking
In the fourth month of each lunar year, a grand banquet would be held in the imperial palace. Invited are only those eminent figures: royal members, high-ranking officials, and foreign ambassadors. No one wanted to miss the highlight of the banquet– a tea party that had the best Chinese tea.
Each year, imperial tea plantations several thousand miles away in southern China supply the tea for the grand banquet. Local officials were entrusted to oversee the picking and processing of the Chinese tea. No one could afford to make any mistake for the emperor wanted only the best tea to be served in the grand banquet.
Once the tea was processed, it would be transported around the clock to the capital for the upcoming banquet known as the ‘Qingming Banquet.’
Natural spring water fetched from local Zhejiang province streams also travelled with the tea. Spring water is said to brew the best Chinese tea, and no one knew that better than the emperor himself.
At the time, the tea leaves were not fermented. So first the tea leaves were baked as workers prepared for the banquet. The process was helpful in extracting the moisture out of tea leaves and giving it a breezy, delicate aroma. Bakers had to master the special baking skill otherwise the delicate flavor would be destroyed and all the previous work to grow and ship the tea compromised.
Next, as the tea leaves were dried, workers grinded them and selected only the finest powder for the next step. Some might find it strange, but the truth is, in the Tang dynasty, tea was prepared for eating instead of drinking!
Next, when the water boils, salt were added, together with the powder from the dried tea leaves. After the water was brought to a boil, the tea was finally ready. Now it was more like a thick soup than a clear Chinese tea brew!
As the Chinese tea was served, and if anyone was hoping to make a request from his emperor, he couldn’t find a better time than this. The tea would be an excellent topic to start from!