Tea as a beverage was first consumed in China and has played a significant role in Asian culture for centuries as a staple beverage, a curative, and a status symbol; that’s the reason why theories of its origin are often religious or royal in nature.To drink some tea in former China could be considered as a self consideration or an art. It is also a way to better appreciate life.

A famous tea drinker in China’s Tang Dynasty told tea had ten virtues: melting away depression, dissolving lethargy, encouraging liveliness, breaking up illness, bringing virtue and courtesy, expressing respect, making a distinction between different tastes, nurturing the body, practicing Dao, and improving one’s aspirations. “Tea brings Dao and elegance,” he was often heard saying.

The tea culture reflects the oriental traditional culture, combining the tea with Tao wisdom, pronounced in Chinese as Dao, which is an integral part of the Chinese culture.The Dao of tea stresses the fact of being harmonious, quiet, optimistic and authentic. Peace of mind being the first step to get to tranquillity as a spiritual purpose in order to combine harmony and serenity. The idea is that as long as a person keeps quiet inside, she can always take advantage of the enjoyment of the conversation, of laughter, of the music and the opera.

To drink tea alone can be a wonderful and introspective journey, a meditation on beauty through the synergies of flavor, smell, and taste. To drink tea among friends under the right circumstances magnifies the sensations of the tea, making it easier to see the beauty that tea has to offer.

The easiest way to create the conditions needed for communal enjoyment and feedback in tea is to organize your own tea tasting among sympathetic friends. All the better to make the tasting a monthly event so that you can become really comfortable with the way your companions taste and describe tea. Organizing a tasting is a pretty simple task with only a few basic considerations to start:

This is possible because as you taste your tea and describe your experience, others can learn from you and look for the sensations you pinpointed. You can do the same by listening to friends describe their experience. Fine tea presents a vast spectrum of sensations, and we are all individually attuned to different elements of flavor, texture and smell based on our past experience. By drinking among friends, you are able to widen the spectrum you perceive and respect the tea more fully.

Preparation for Tea Tasting

Properly preparing the tea you’re about to taste is crucial. Interestingly, preparing tea for a formal tasting is quite different from your normal home preparation. Here’s what you’ll want to do:

Your average tea sachet or cup of loose tea is going to hold around  3-5 grams of tea, steeped in 350 mL of water. For your tea tasting, measure out double the amount of tea you would normally sip, or just use half the water – 175 mL. We’ll explain why in the next section.

Heat your water. Here, you’ll want to be very careful about what temperature your water reaches. 

Gongfu tea is famous in every household in chaoshan district. It is often the case that they make tea and serve their guests. Chaoshan gongfu tea is very well-known custom in China culture and it is one of four Golden Flower in the southern place. The fundamental spirit of it can be seen as the following: peace, love refinement and nobleness. Peace represents the harmonious atmosphere. Love represents the kindness, refinement represents the beauty of tea set and the particular way of making tea and nobleness represents the nobility of the mind.

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There are fifteen major tea-producing provinces in mainland China, and Taiwan also produces tea. Chinese teas are generally divided into six major types, mainly according to the method of production. These types are: green tea, black tea, Oolong tea, white tea, yellow tea and dark tea.

Besides these, there are processed sorts such as jasmine tea and compressed tea. Each type has its representative “celebrity tea”, each with its unique appearance and aroma, and some are even associated with beautiful legends.

After finished the new pot initiate process, now you are now ready to use Yixing teapots for preparing your first pot of tea.

1. Fill your Yixing teapot with freshly boiled water to heat up the pot. Drain the water.

2. Put one teaspoon of tea leaves into your pot. Again, fill the teapot with freshly boiled water. Drain the water quickly to rinse the tea leaves.

3. Fill the teapot a third time with boiling water, allow it to steep for at least 1 minute and enjoy your tea

Before using a new Yixing teapot you should prepare it so that the teapot is ready for absorbing all the fragrance of the tea leaves.

In order to season a perfect Yixing teapot, and get a good taste of your tea soup, remember only use one type of tea for that yi xing teapot. Because of the micropores of the material, which giving Yixing clay its “breathing” property and potential to render fine infusion, the taste matters of tea also very gradually build up into the pot too.This is good and bad for the user. The good part is that with repeated use, the infusion itself actually improves. The bad part is that you cannot use the same pot for a different variety of tea to avoid conflicting taste substances from different tea blending together. For example, a green style tieguanyin cannot be steeped in a pot that has been used to make golden tip puer, or even a bouquet style Phoenix oolong.

Recognized by artisans and literati centuries ago, these characteristics of the Zisha or purple clays help to make Yixing pots especially well-suited for brewing tea. Excavations have shown that the composition and structure of the clays used in making authentic Yixing teapots today closely resemble those used in pots from the 1500s and later.

Yixing Teapots are made by a very special unglazed clay material called “zisha” clay. The yixing purple clay teapot is reputed as the “first of all tea-sets in the world” for its unique material and characteristics.

Yixing clay has very special characteristics chemistry composition and texture, a 4% 0f the water absorption rate, a very low thermal conductivity, and other unique qualities, it already is confirmed and is received that Yixing clay is best raw materials for made teapot in whold world. When properly refined and fired to a high (but sub-porcelain) temperature, it produces a type of pottery that is slightly absorbent. Legend has it that if you have prepared tea in an Yixing teapot many times, you can reach a point where by adding boiled water alone you can make tea, because the teapot itself  holds enough of the tea flavour.

Besides the exceptional structure and mineral composition of Yixing clay, the most unique characteristic about the Yixing teapot is the traditional coiling technique of “forging the body” that is used to make a Yixing teapot. Unlike the common “earth clay” which comes in the form of “mud,” the raw Yixing clay comes in the form of rock, and it only appears to be like “mud” after many steps of preparing and refining. For this very reason the true Yixing clay cannot be turned on a pottery wheel. The modeling methods of Yixing clay pottery, since the Zhengde period in Ming Dynasty, have been becoming more and more perfect, owing to generations of Yixing artists’ exploration and improvement as well as the progress of science and technology.

Iced tea (or ice tea) is a form of cold tea. Though usually served in a glass with ice, it can also refer to a tea that has been chilled or cooled. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with common flavors including lemon, raspberry, lime, passion fruit, peach, orange, strawberry, and cherry. While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), herbal teas are also sometimes served cold and referred to as iced tea. Iced tea is sometimes made by a particularly long steeping of tea leaves at lower temperature (one hour in the sun versus 5 minutes at 180-210 °F / 80-100 °C). Some people call this "sun tea". In addition, sometimes it is also left to stand overnight in the refrigerator.

Enjoying tea is an integral part of Chinese life, and drinking herbal tea is also a popular yet affordable way for ordinary people to relieve common ailments. Depending on what causes your sleep problem, a specific tea should be able to help you. For example, for a restless mind unable to sleep, sour jujube seed, Chinese arborvitae kernel, tuber fleece flower stem or schisandra can be used to make a tea; for insomnia due to mental fatigue, a tea made from longan aril, red dates, wolf berry or ginseng are helpful. With a nauseous or upset stomach, a hawthorn fruit or tangerine peel tea can relieve the discomfort; sleep disturbed by a headache can use a tea made from chrysanthemum, Sichuan lovage or cassia seed; a depressive or irritable mood will be alleviated with a tea made from lotus plumule, albizia flower, rose bud or jasmine.

Generally, the tea may be a combination of leaves, bark, buds and roots. When using roots or bark or other coarse components, you need to grind them properly or boil them to make a decoction. You are advised to drink the tea in the evening, which help release tension and soothe the mind after busy work.

The following are some simple tea recipes that help promote sleep.

Any cozy cup of tea is likely to feel soothing when you’re under the weather or otherwise not at your best. But you can get an extra health-promoting boost from certain teas made with herbs and other natural ingredients, which practitioners of Chinese medicine have used for centuries.

In the return to nature under the influence of the wave, take a variety of health care habit of tea is popular in the world. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), human bodies function differently with season changing. That means we’d better change our drinking, eating and living style .

 Most of us think Pu’er when thinking of dark tea, but a visit to Yaan in Southwest China’s Sichuan province will surely put a surprise on their faces.

Pu’er is actually a small sub-division of China’s dark tea, a category of tea that requires a secondary fermentation process, also called a post-production process. Dark tea is commonly known to have the function of aiding digestion and revitalizing energy, and it has been a daily drink of the Tibetans for more than a thousand years.

The Chinese herbal tea or cold tea is a drink concocted from medicinal herbals to ease the summer heat in human’s body or sore throat caused by the dry winter.

Drinking herbal tea is an age-old custom in Guangdong, Guangxi provinces, Hongkong and Macau special administrative regions, where the climates are damp and hot result in people living there easily suffer from excessive internal heat. In order to repel internal humidity and heat, people collect herbs which can clear away heat and dampness from mountains and valleys to concoct into herb tea.

Pu'er Tea rose up in the Eastern Han Dynasty, turned into comity in the Tang Dynasty, began to be popular in the Sing Dynasty, as finalized in the Ming Dynasty and was prospered in Qing Dynasty with a history of thousand of years. Pu'er Tea tea was originally named by its central trading area, in 1729 Qing government had first established an administrative zone named Pu'er Tea zone in Yunnan. From the 1970’s, Pu'er Tea become hot in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and so on. Pu'er Tea is hot because its habitat of high elevation and fogy growing environment, in is pollution-free in nature, is mellow in taste and long in the aftertaste; Moreover, the unique manufacture, transportation, packaging of Pu'er Tea made it become a unique second fermenting tea, thus has formed it’s the unique crusted fragrance and the health care function.

Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea, the equipment used to make tea and the occasions in which tea is consumed in China. The terms chayi, 茶藝 ("Art of Tea") and "Tea Ceremony" have been used, but the term 茶文化 ("Tea Culture") includes more than just the ceremony. Also "culture" is easier to translate into English than the Chinese term 藝 ("art").

Tea culture in China differs from that of Europe, Britain or Japan in such things as preparation methods, tasting methods and the occasions for which it is consumed. Even now, in both casual and formal Chinese occasions, tea is consumed regularly. In addition to being a drink, Chinese tea is used in traditional Chinese medicine and inChinese cuisine.

Wu Yi Rock Tea --- Da Hong Pao

Tea sets
 tea sets are superfine, it is no exaggeration to say that they are half of the tea culture. To study the tea is to know and understand the tea sets well.

Chinese regard Tao as a complete system which is the rule and law of universe and life. Therefore, Chinese do not speak of Tao easily, which is different from Japanese who have tea ceremony for tea, ikebana for flower, incense lore for scent, kendo for sword, even judo and taekwondo for wrestling and striking. Among Chinese food culture, entertainment and other activities, it is tea ceremony that can only be qualified to Tao.

None of the so-called “four treasures of the teahouse” can be dispensed with. They are Yushu (Shiwei), Chaoshan Furnace, Mengchen Jar and Ruochen Cup.

HangZhou was known in the ancient times as WuLin. The West Lake of HangZhou faces the city in the east and is encircled by mountains on the other three sides. The western, southern, and northern mountains are called Mt.WuLin as a whole. Between the lake and the mountains are many famous historic and cultural sites. The most famous are the ten views of the West Lake, namely the Melting Snow at the Broken Bridge, Autumn Moon ove the Calm Lake, Lotus in the Breeze at the Crooked Courtyard, Spring Dawn at Su Causeway, Twin Peaks Piercing the Clouds, Viewing Fish at the Flower Harbor, Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, Evening Bell at the Nanping Hill, Sunset Glow at LeiFeng Pagoda, and Orioles Singing in the Willows.

Mt.Huangshan is located in Huangshan City of AnHui Province. It is a world famous scenic resort and a famous tea-producing area in China. According to the legend. Yellow Emperor once practiced self cultivation and alchemy in the mountain, hence the name as “huangshan” (yellow mountain in Chinese). Mt.Huangshan has produced tea since the ancient times. Among the many famous teas it produces, the MaoFeng Tea is the most will-known.

Mt. WuYi stands in the territory of wuyishan City of FuJian Province. With beautiful landscape, it is a famous tourist resort. The well-known WuYi JiuQu stream flows through the mountain. In fact, the WuYi Rock Tea has played an important role in putting Mt.WuYi on the map.

Mt.Emei is located in the southwest of Emei City of SiChuan province. It is one of the four Buddist holy lands in China and the well-known site for Budda Puxian. Mt. Emei has many famous historic and cultural sites, including the Baoguo temple, Wannian temple, QingYin valley, Golden Summit, and BaiLong Cave. The board above the gate of the Baoguo temple bears 4 Chinese characters meaning “Tea and Zen in the same taste”, which reveal the in-depth relationship between the tea prodced in Mt.Emei and Buddhism.

Mt.LuShan is located in the south of JiuJiang City of JiangXi province. It stands by the yeangtze River and the PoYang Lake. It is a key national scenic resort and has been included in the list of world natural Heritages. Mt. Lushan is a horst block mountain and has been known for its majesty, uniqueness, precipitous terrain, and elegance.

China has vast tea-production areas. Almost all the great mountains in the country produce famous teas. The great mountains have lush forests, misty cloud seas, and clear springs. Together, they make a warm, humid, and shady environment suitable for the gowth of tea trees. Almost all the famous teas made in the past and modern times are from the great mountains.

How to Preserve Pu-erh Tea?

Good perservation of Pu-erh tea requires appropriate tools, clean environment, ventilation and light.

The dark tea has a bard texture. To fully dissolve the nutrients in the tea leaves, teapot brewing is usually adopted and the fresh boiling water is used. The tea leaves applied should occupy three and four tenth of the teapot volume. In addition, the loose dark tea can be brewed with a tureen. In that case, five to eight gram of tea leaves are applied.

Brewing of the Oolong tea requires the best-planned and most complicated producedures. Normally, the zisha clay teapot is the best for brewing the Oolong tea.The size of the teapot is chosen based on the number of the tea drinkers. There are many Oolong tea varieties and they vary widely in appearance. Different Oolong teas have the different application amounts. For the strip-shaped semisphere oolong tea, the tea leaves should fill 20% to 30% of the teapot. For the loose strip-shaped oolong tea, the tea leaves should fill 80% of the teapot. The tea ceremony of the oolong tea is called gongfu tea ceremony. In a sense, gongfu tea ceremony is the origin of modern tea ceremony.

There are 2 ways to brew the black tea:brewing pure tea and brewing laced tea. To brew pure tea,each gram of tea leaves needs 50ml to 60ml of water. If the broken black tea is brewed first,each gram of tea leaves needs 70ml to 80ml of water.To brewed laced tea, the condiments such as suger, milk, honey, and lemon juice are added into the tea soup. The quantity of the tea leaves depends on the taste of the drinker.

The true aroma, taste, and quality of the tea can be displayed only through correct brewing and tasting. There are diversified Chinese teas and each tea has its unique flavor that requires a unique way of brewing. Only by understanding the characteristics of the teas, grasping the reasonable brewing procedures, and practicing them repeatedly can one succeed in making a good cup of Chinese tea. Tea brewing can not only meet people’s material demands, but more importantly, cultivate their moral characters and mould their temper in the process.

The history of Chinese ceramic production is very long, starting about 7,000 to 8,000 years ago in the Neolithic Age by humanity’s ancestors who started the craft of making and using pottery. Among other accomplishments, porcelain is one of the most significant inventions from ancient China. The people made primitive porcelain early in the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC), and real porcelain was first made in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220). Porcelain manufacturing in China then gradually developed from the early Wei, Jin, and North and South dynasties to the most recent Ming and Qing dynasties. Ceramic, as well, was one of the 3 greatest specialties from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - 9 AD) and its products have become internationally known. The town of Jingdezhen in the Jiangxi Province is regarded as China’s "Porcelain Capital."

As the national beverage of China, tea is produced in vast areas in the country, from Hainan Island down in the extreme south to Shandong Province in the north, from Tibet in the southwest to Taiwan across the Straits. According to a report released by the China Social Science Academy Press, China is the world's largest tea producer. It produced 1.3 million tonnes in 2009, accounting for 31 percent of the world total. China's tea plantations amount to a total area of 1.86 million hectares, about half of the world's total tea growing space.

Because of varying geographic location and climate, different regions grow various kinds of tea. In general, there are four tea-producing regions.

"ManSheng 18 Type" is 18 types of zisha clay teapots created by ManSheng Chen.

ManSheng Chen is one of Chinese great artists in Qing Dynasty."ManSheng 18 types" is very important in the history of Chinese arts and crafts design.

Yellow tea is a broad class or type of tea, usually considered as a category of its own, alongside green, black, white, oolong, and dark/hei cha (Pu-erh) teas. Of these more well-known types, yellow is most similar to green tea, but it has certain distinctive characteristics of aroma, color, and flavor, and is produced in a distinctive way.

The processing of yellow teas is similar to that for green teas, but differs in that there is an additional step, in which the gathered leaves are allowed to sit and yellow somewhat, giving the tea its distinctive character (and name). Most teas processed in this way, like huangya and Junshan yinzhen, are made exclusively from buds or leaf tips.

These teas are thus slightly more oxidized than green teas. Like greens, further oxidation is halted by the heating of the leaf, which is contrasted with white teas which are minimally processed and often will continue to oxidize somewhat in storage.

White tea is a true tea, meaning it is made from the buds and leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, grown traditionally in China but now also parts of Taiwan and northern Thailand. It is uncured and unfermented. Unlike other more processed teas, the leaves and buds of white tea are left to wither in natural sunlight to prevent oxidation allowing for more pure and potent nutritional value.

Here are 11 health benefits of white tea:

Black tea is one of the most widely consumed teas. This tea is prepared from the leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis and is more oxidized than oolong, green and white teas. Thus, it generally has a stronger flavour than other varieties of tea.

The method of black tea production makes it different from other varieties of tea. After being plucked, the tea leaves are set out to be withered in order to release the moisture from them. When they lose maximum amount of moisture, the leaves are rolled either manually or with the help of machines through exposure to high temperature. Once the leaves are oxidized fully, they are sorted according to their size.

Oolong tea is a traditional Chinese tea which is primarily grown and processed in China and Taiwan. This tea, being semi-fermented, has a unique taste that is quite distinct from the traditional black or green teas. Also known as wu long, this tea derives its name from the Chinese harvester of the same name who created it. Being native to China, it is frequently served in Chinese restaurants with meals and is commonly known as ‘Chinese restaurant tea.

Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits. It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health. And if you're not drinking three to four cups of green tea today, you're definitely not doing your health a big favor. Here are the 25 reasons why you should start drinking green tea right now:

Yunnan province produces the vast majority of pu'er tea. Indeed, the province is the source of the tea's name, Pu'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County. Pu'er is produced in almost every county and prefecture in the province, but the most famous pu'er areas are known as the Six Famous Tea Mountains.

There are mainly two collecting uses: one is for appreciation, the other is for personal taste. Due to different uses, you can choose different types of tea products. 

Since ancient times, it has a tradition of tea treatment. It is recorded in ancient medicine book that people used aged tea to treat diabetes, dysentery and colds. According to the modern medical science tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharide, tea saponin, amino acid, alkaloids and inorganic elements have health benefits on human beings. Tea is a special drinking which enhances human immunity and resists oxidation and aging, prevents canceration, lowers blood fat and regulates the metabolism.

 Dark Tea is one of the six tea categories and only exists in China. It is also an indispensable beverage for the Chinese ethnic minorities in their daily life. Dark tea has a pleasant earthy and strong bouquet yet soft on the palate, and this aroma distinguishes itself from the other 5 major tea groups. It is great to drink this tea especially after meals. The beneficail tea microbes, formed as a result of 100% fermentation and only found in dark tea, are good for digestion and breaking down the fats. Dark tea, which is 100% fermented and and crafted, is the King of all teas. It is a century's old treasured art form for the process of making dark tea.  As the complexity of the tea develops and matures over time, the value of dark tea increases with age.

Jingdezhen, the only one city notable for its handicraft art among the first 24 famous cities & towns for their brilliant history & culture designated by the State Council, not only has two-thousand-year history in production of porcelain, but also is a city where all previous traditional techniques in making porcelain were synthesized & brought to their highest development in as early as the Qing Dynasty. A book written in Qing Dynasty entitled Record of Jingdezhen's Porcelain, a detailed account of Kilns in the Tang Dynasty, truly reflected how the traditional techniques were synthesized & brought to the highest development.

Celadon is a word that is synonymous to Longquan greenware.  Besides blue and white, this is definitely one of the best know type of Chinese porcelain.  It could be found in countries along the ancient maritime silk route which linked Southeast Asia, South/west Asia. middle-east and East Africa.  The quantity of Longquan celadon wares exported during the Song and Yuan period was enormous.
The kilns producing Longquan celadons were located in southern Zhejiang province, covering ten counties with most kiln sites located at Longquan (龙泉), Qingyuan (庆元), Yunhe (云和), and Lisui (丽水).   Longquan had the most kiln sites with those located at Dayao and Jincun produced the best quality Longquan wares during the Song, Yuan and Ming period.

Black tea is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, green and white teas. All four types are made from leaves of the shrub (or small tree) Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the species are used – the small-leaved Chinese variety plant, used for most other types of teas, and the large-leaved Assamese plant, which was traditionally mainly used for black tea, although in recent years some green and white have been produced.

Yellow tea usually implies a special tea processed similarly to green tea, but with a slower drying phase, where the damp tea leaves are allowed to sit and yellow. The tea generally has a very yellow-green appearance and a smell different from both white tea and green tea. The smell is sometimes mistaken for black if the tea is cured with other herbs, but similarities in taste can still be noticed between yellow, green and white teas.It can, however, also describe high-quality teas served at the Imperial court, although this can be applied to any form of imperially-served tea.

Oolong  is a traditional Chinese tea (Camellia sinensis) produced through a unique process including withering under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. Most oolong teas, especially those of fine quality, involve unique tea plant cultivars that are exclusively used for particular varieties. The degree of oxidation can range from 8% to 85%,depending on the variety and production style. This tea category is especially popular with tea connoisseurs of south China .

Jiangxi Province 江西

A,Lu Shan Yu Wu(Lu Shan Cloud&Fog green tea)-from Lu mountain

B,Wu Yuan Ming Mei(Wu Yuan Eyebrow green tea)-from Wu Yuan county

Jiangxi Province is located in Chinese green tea golden triangle with Zhejiang and Anhui Province. 54% of the province is covered by mountains, and its rich natural resources give its teas sound quality. Currently the province ranks the 10th in Chinese tea production.

Chinese tea may be classified in many ways. Categorizing according to processing techniques, Basic tea includes green, yellow, white, Oolong, black and dark tea. Green tea is the c to nature among all tea types.Green tea is the earliest tea processed and consumed It accounts for approximately 70% of China’s total tea yield international green tea market, China’s contribution is 70% or greater.

Praising words of Wuyi tea in history

Emperor Qianlong
"Wuyi Tea is the best. Its flavor is delicate and vigorous at the same time."
Lu You, Poet in Song Dynasty
"Tribute tea from the Jian River is the best in the world. Its fragrance will not fully arise until the light snowfall. Don´t worry about your tea. It can only taste better in heavy snow."
Imperial officer Sun Qiao called Wuyi tea "Wanganhou"
"Fifteen marquis of lingering sweetness were sent to Zhaige Pavilion. Pick tea leave when thunder struck, and mix the leaves in water. Tea trees grow on sunny mountain slopes near water and shrunded in mist."
Lian Heng, scholar from Taiwan
"Wuyi tea, Meng Chen´s pot, and Ruo Chen´s cup, are three necessities for appreciating tea. Without them the drinker does not feel proud, and the host does not feel polite enough to entertain guests."

Assessment of the World Heritage Committee
The Wuyi Mountains is the most renowned biological reserve in southeastern China, and also the refuge for many ancient plants including ones that only grow in China. The valley along the Jiuqu Stream is beautiful and there are many temples on both sides of the stream, although some have been ruined. Mount Wuyi once provided an excellent geographical environment for the idealistic philosophy of the Tang and Song Dynasties to develop and spread. Since the 11th century, the idealist philosophy heavily affected the culture of China’s eastern regions. In the 1st century, the governors of the Han Dynasty established a large administrative capital beside Chengcun village. The capital was surrounded by thick and solid walls and has extremely high archeological value.

Many people have heard of the Tea-Horse Trail, a network of horse paths that originated in southwest China's Yunnan Province, bringing tea to Myanmar, India and Tibet. But there was also a northern route which in the grand scale of Chinese history, has been less famous but still important. 
For almost 300 years, the Tea Road, also known as the Russian Caravan, Moscow Route or the Siberian Route, carried tea from southeast China's Fujian Province to Mongolia and Russia. The "Jin Merchants" of Shanxi Province helped build an economic relationship between the three regions and brought China's tea culture to the northern world.

Wuyi Rock Tea enjoys a long history. Being one of the top tea in China, it is also the forefather of Oolong tea. It played an important role in the tea development in China. During the North and South Dynasty (about 479 A.D) the tea had already been well-known. Later in Song and Yuan Dynasty it was paid as a tribute to the royal family. In the sixth year of Dade Reign in Yuan Dynasty (about 1302 A.D), a Royal Tea Garden was set up by the bank of the Fourth-bend of the river. In Ming Dynasty tea makers improved the tea-processing techniques, thus producing the oolong tea, which is the present Rock tea. In the 17th century, Wuyi tea was even sold abroad and enjoyed an even greater reputation.

Gongfu tea is famous in every household in chaoshan district. It is often the case that they make tea and serve their guests. Chaoshan gongfu tea is very well-known custom in China culture and it is one of four Golden Flower in the southern place. The fundamental spirit of it can be seen as the following: peace, love refinement and nobleness. Peace represents the harmonious atmosphere. Love represents the kindness, refinement represents the beauty of tea set and the particular way of making tea and nobleness represents the nobility of the mind.

Matcha is a variety of finely-powdered green tea. Matcha Uji means "froth of liquid jade" and the cultural activity called the Japanese tea ceremony centers around the preparation, serving, and drinking of matcha. In modern times, matcha has also come to be used to flavour and dye foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of wagashi (Japanese confectionery).

Rooibos, meaning "red bush” in Afrikaans, is a South African plant of the Legume family  with bright green, needle-like leaves that turn red upon processing. The shrub, Aspalathus linearis, has a very limited growing area, only in the Cedarberg Mountains of the Western Cape of South Africa. The plant is totally unrelated to the normal tea plant (Camellia sinensis). The mountain-dwelling people of the Khoi tribe who live in that area were the first to develop a method for making tea from rooibos, a practice traced back at least 300 years. This tea was also appreciated by the European settlers in the 19th and 20th century. 

Chai Tea

Chai is the word for "tea" in much of South Asia and many other parts of the world.Chai is so prevalent in India and Sri Lanka that it could be called their "National Drink". Chai tea is quickly becoming extremely popular in the West as people are becoming exposed to it as lattes in coffee and tea houses. Chai tea is a rich and complex beverage that has been savored for centuries in many parts of the world, especially India. In its most basic form, chai is black tea that is brewed strong with a combination of spices and is diluted with milk and sugar. The spices vary from recipe to recipe, but usually consist of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, pepper and ginger. Chai tea is traditionally consumed hot and sweet. The sweetness is needed to bring out the full flavors of the spices. Of course the modern world has elevated chai to new planes of experience--chai ices, milkshakes, chocolate chai, non-fat, low-cal sweeteners, decaf, and so on.Masala chai is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. for many English speakers outside those regions, particularly in the Western hemisphere, "chai" automatically implies "masala chai". Conversely however "chai" or "char" is also British slang, referring to tea.

Quality characteristics of Tie Guan Yin tea:

Appearance: fat, tightly

Color: green jade bloom, sand green

Soup color: green bright

Aroma: fragrance lasting

Taste: mellow and thick, sweet after taste, “Melody” clearly

Infused leaves: fat, soft and bright

white tea was first discovered during the Tang Dynasty, about the sixth century, and soon became the choice of the royal courts.White tea has undergone much change since 1885, when specific varieties of tea bushes were selected to make Silver Needle白毫银针 and other specialty white teas. Modern white tea appeared after that. Chinese export of these fine white teas began in 1891.

White tea is named from its unique characteristics, covered with white hair.白毫The unique quality is obtained as a result of a special processing procedure of “nofrying and no crushing.” The annual production of white tea is relatively small, just2,000 tons, about 0.1% of that of black tea. White tea is mostly produced in Fuding,Zhenghe, Jianyang, and Songxi of Fujian Province in China, and this accounts formore than 90% of the annual world production of white tea.

Although different  teas may be produced by different processing techniques,the general  tea processing is achieved as follows: fresh tea leaves plucked →

Green tea: Fixed（or de-enzymed） -Rolled -Dried steamed or pan-fried to inactivate oxidase) 

Yellow tea: Fixed -Rolled -Yellowed 闷黄-Dried(piled and smothered to auto-oxidize)
Dark tea: Fixed -Rolled -Pile渥堆 -fermented -Dried(oxidized by the oxidases of resident microbes)
White tea: Withered -Air dried or baked Re-fired(with more fine hairs/flosses)
Oolong tea: Withered -Bruised (shaken)Partially fermented -Fixed -Rolled -Dried
Black tea:Fresh tea leaves -Withered -Rolled- Fully fermented- Dried(orthodox rolling传统造型 or CTC红碎茶)

Tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world after water. Regular intake of tea is associated with improved antioxidant status in vivo, which may contribute to lowering the risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer. There are three major categories of tea: the nonfermented green tea, the partially fermented oolong tea, and the fully fermented black tea. (actually it is oxidation)Besides these three major teas, other teas, such as white tea and Pu-erh tea(post-femented), have also been introduced to the Western marketplace in recent years. In China, it into six types:white tea,green tea,yellow tea,oolong tea,black tea and dark tea,which are distinguished by the processing method.

Pu-erh tea, a well-known traditional Chinese tea, has been categorized as sun-driedgreen tea, and its pressed products from large tea leaves 大叶种晒青毛茶为原料(Camellia sinensis O. kuntzevar. assamica Kitamura) are manufactured mainly in Yunnan, China. In the markets,three kinds of pu-erh teas have been sold: loose pu-erh tea, pressed pu-erh tea,and pu-erh tea bags.Pu-erh tea is a popular tea with a long history, which originated from the districtsof Xi-shuang-ban-na西双版纳州, Si-mao思茅, and Lan-chuang-jiang valley澜沧江, Yunnan Province云南省,China.

Pu-erh tea is of interest to consumers because of its quality and health care function and is distinct from other kinds of tea. Because of its health care function,especially when aged, pu-erh tea is loved by many tea drinkers. The collection and drinking of pu-erh tea has become a fashion and a unique pu-erh tea culture. It is generally believed that the older the pu-erh tea, the better（under certain circumstances.

By english.chinese.cn

Good Health Can Be Kept by Drinking Tea Properly

China has been famous for people’s love for drinking tea since ancient times. Chinese tea is divided into five categories; these are green tea, black tea, jasmine tea, brick tea, and Oolong tea. Green tea is the best for health. Its leaves contain effective ingredients even after they have been processed while the effective ingredients in black tea and jasmine tea are partly destroyed during the processing. According to the analysis report, vitamins contained in green tea are 5-6 times more than those contained in black tea.

By english.chinese.cn

The Unique Tea Making Method

1. Please choose a quiet and elegant environment with fresh air.

2. Please use clean tea cups and tea sets free from extraneous odour.

3. Please use mineral water of a high quality.

Pure and Lofty, Not Known to Common People –

Refined Scholar Tea文士茶

Since the ancient times, tea has indissoluble bond with refined scholars. The aura of tea drinking is related to refined scholars’ lifestyle of appreciating natural landscapes and a tranquil life indifferent to fame and wealth. Refining inclination and cultivating virtue with tea shows an internal moral practice of Chinese scholars. This set of Refined Scholar Tea originates from the hometown of Zhu Xi, the greatest Chinese scholar in the 12th century China – Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province and what it reflects is the general style and features of refined scholars’ tea drinking in regions at the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the late 19th century and early 20th century. 

By livestrong.com & free-press-release.com

Wu Yi tea is the brand name for a type of tea known as "oolong" tea. Oolong tea is considered a brown tea and encompasses the benefits of green and black tea. One of the main benefits of drinking Wu Yi tea is weight loss, but the tea has many other benefits.

The difference between raw pu-erh tea(sheng cha) and ripe pu-erh tea(shou cha)

1,Raw pu-erh tea

Appearance:The main color of raw pu-erh tea is green ordark green. Some of them are red and yellow.White of them are Bud.

The cultural history of  Pu'er Tea
Pu'er Tea rose up in the Eastern Han Dynasty, turned into comity in the Tang Dynasty, began to be popular in the Sing Dynasty, as finalized in the Ming Dynasty and was prospered in Qing Dynasty with a history of thousand of years. Pu'er Tea tea was originally named by its central trading area, in 1729 Qing government had first established an administrative zone named Pu'er Tea zone in Yunnan. From the 1970’s, Pu'er Tea become hot in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and so on. Pu'er Tea is hot because its habitat of high elevation and fogy growing environment, in is pollution-free in nature, is mellow in taste and long in the aftertaste; Moreover, the unique manufacture, transportation, packaging of Pu'er Tea made it become a unique second fermenting tea, thus has formed it’s the unique crusted fragrance and the health care function.

The gongfu tea ceremony or kungfu tea ceremony(Chinese: 工夫茶), is a commercialized show based on the tea preparation approach originated probably in Fujian or Guangdong.The original term "Gongfu Cha (工夫茶)" literally means "making tea with efforts". Sometimes '功' instead of '工' is used thus 功夫茶. Today, the approach is used popularly by teashops carrying tea of Chinese or Taiwan origins, and by tea connoisseurs as a way to maximize the taste of a tea selection, especially a finer one. The "ceremony" show aspect has become an entertainment in various fairs, ceremonies and tourist programs.

BY china internet resource for reference 

1, The category of wuyi yancha
Wuyi Yancha modern varieties are named to tea, tea species complement each other, therefore, the most prominent of tea were complicated.  To facilitate the application, in addition to Need Yancha, the rest of the property for special tea, to identify the people, by definition.
 Wuyi Yancha with ancient tea, tea were replaced frequently.  Therefore Yancha classified by different people wind-chi, there is no definite conclusion.

By Wang Yanfang China.org.cn, July 5, 2011

Of the big three beverages: Tea, coffee and cocoa – tea is consumed by the largest number of people in China.

China is considered the home of tea. Chinese tea had begun to be exported to Japan and Korea before the Tang Dynasty (618-907). In the early period of the 17th century, Chinese tea was exported to Europe.

The tea from China is in great abundance and variety. To tell if a pot of tea is nice you can mainly rely on the color, smell, taste and form. According to these principles China.org.cn selects 10 of the most excellent from the whole of the country.

1,West Lake Dragon Well Tea (西湖龙井)

the West Lake Dragon Well Tea is a variety of green tea from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. It is well-known worldwide and is highly praised for its green color, long-lasting elegant fragrance and mellow taste.

The tea has a recorded history of over 1,000 years, and was mentioned in the oldest tea book of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The tea is frequently offered to visiting heads of state, including the British Queen Elizabeth II and former US President Richard Nixon.

Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since the pre-dynastic periods, and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art. China is richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese Ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court. Porcelain is also occasionally called "china" in English.

Loose leaf tea is more fragile than it might appear. When exposed to moisture, loose leaf tea can develop mold and become unusable. Heat and sunlight can leech the flavor from the tea, making the brewed drink bland or giving it an unpleasant flavor. Even strongly scented products can affect the final cup of tea; storing your loose leaf tea in a container with garlic and onions, while an extreme example, would give your finished cup a very odd flavor. With proper storage, you can keep loose leaf tea for two to 18 months depending on the type of tea.

Porcelain, also called 'fine china', featuring its delicate texture, pleasing color, and refined sculpture, has been one of the earliest artworks introduced to the western world through the Silk Road. The earliest porcelain ware was found made of Kaolin in the Shang Dynasty (17th - 11th century BC), and possessed the common aspects of the smoothness and impervious quality of hard enamel, though pottery wares were more widely used among most of the ordinary people. Anyway it was the beginning of porcelain, which afterwards in the succeeding dynasties and due to its durability and luster, rapidly became a necessity of daily life, especially in the middle and upper classes. They were made in the form of all kinds of items, such as bowls, cups, tea sets, vases, jewel cases, incense burners, musical instruments and boxes for stationary and chess, as well as pillows for traditional doctors to use to feel one's pulse.

Chinese tea culture refers to the methods of preparation of tea, the equipment used to make tea and the occasions in which tea is consumed in China. The terms chayi "Art of Tea " and "Tea Ceremony" have been used, but the term "Tea Culture" includes more than just the ceremony. Also "culture" is easier to translate into English from the Chinese term "art ".
Tea culture in China differs from that of Europe, Britain or Japan in such things as preparation methods, tasting methods and the occasions for which it is consumed. Even now, in both casual and formal Chinese occasions, tea is consumed regularly. In addition to being a drink, Chinese tea is used in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese cuisine.

Scented tea is processed from first-class green tea scented with sweet-smelling flowers. The scented teas are named after the flower with which the tea is scented: Jasmine Tea, Yulan Tea (Chloranthus Tea). Processed with flowers of subtle and distinctive scents, the teas yield a variety of refined flavor. The rich aroma of the flower and the brisk taste of the tea make the beverage a work of art.

Jasmine tea is the most popular variety of flavored tea. This is, in part because Jasmine has been used to scent and flavor every variety of tea: white, black, green and oolong. So, no matter your preference in tea, there is a Jasmine tea for you.

Black Tea & Weight Loss

Black Tea Increases Metabolism:Tea can accelerate weight loss by boosting the body's metabolism. At the same time, it also blocks the fattening effects of carbohydrates. This is especially true of Oolong tea. Both black tea and Oolong tea are derived from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. With black tea, the leaves are left to oxidize after they are picked. With Oolong tea, the leaves are wilted in the sun and then "bruised" to expose the juice to the air, where partial oxidation is allowed to take place before being fully dried. 

Loose Leaf Tea vs. Tea Bags
Tea bags are convenient. But the quality of the tea is inferior to loose leaf teas for many reasons. Cassandra informed me that the tea in tea bags are what’s called “dust.” It’s the waste that falls from mesh screens when sorting loose leaf tea. Sometimes the dust is from lower quality tea to begin with. The paper used for the bag can also interfere with the flavor of a tea.

Common Method:Take 3-5g of the tea into a cup and steep it with 85-90℃ boiling water about 3-5minutes before drinking.

Gaiwan tea is a type of tea brewing that uses a lidded bowl for the tea. Learn more about making tea with a Gaiwan tea set with tips from a tea connoisseur in this free video on brewing tea.

Green tea is prepared in many different ways, and the process of steeping green tea varies as well. Learn how to brew green tea in this free video about brewing loose leaf tea.