Chinese Tea Culture
Tea-drinking is a part of Chinese culture. China is an original producer of tea and is renowned for its skills in planting and making tea. Its customs of tea-drinking spread over to Europe and to many other regions through cultural exchange via the ancient “Silk Road” and other channels of trade. The Chinese nation has written a brilliant page for its tea culture in the history of world civilization. The development and promotion of tea has been one of China’s principal contributions to the world.
The tea industry in China is the largest in the world, and has been dominating the global tea industry for centuries, since China introduced tea to the world. Now, tea is one of the most popular beverages worldwide. In 2022, nearly 6.9 billion kilograms of tea were consumed globally, and nearly one-third was made in China. The tea consumed around the world equals all other drinks (coffee, chocolate, soft drinks and alcohol) combined.
The earliest credible record of tea drinking in China dates to around the 3rd century AD. For centuries, tea has been treated as China’s national drink and plays a significant cultural and social role.
Within China, tea is also important in the economy for employment, as more than 80 million people work in the tea industry as farmers, workers, or sales people.
Tea plantation acreage (种植面积) in China has been consistently growing, with the most prolific tea-cultivation areas lying around and south of the Yangtze River valley in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Hubei provinces.
A tea ceremony is the most direct display Chinese tea culture. Tea artist prepares tea in a many carefully executed steps. The tea artist often wears a traditional Chinese dress sitting behind a tea table or tray. She greets you, shows you the tea, and starts with heating and rinsing the tea ware.
Chinese tea ceremonies are often accompanied with several tools, such as a small spoon to shove the tea inside a teapot. The tea is always first transferred into a pitcher (gong dao bei) before it’s poured into cups. And depending on the kind of tea ceremony, another tool may be used to move the tea cups from the tray to the audience. The amount of steps and tools required depends on the the version of a tea ceremony one is performing.
According to a survey, around 95 percent of respondents (调查对象) said they were tea drinkers, and nearly one-third drink tea daily. Though most Chinese still prefer to enjoy tea at home, tea shops generated an increasing amount of profits in the past years due to the trend of freshly-brewed new-style beverages. The tea-based drinks infused with milk, fruits, and even cream cheese have recently won the hearts of many young Chinese consumers.