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It's all about H2O
By Wang Yong |
March 23, 2009, Monday
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PURE, fresh spring water is what makes a good cup of tea. Superior water and ordinary leaves make better tea than ordinary water and superior sprouts. Wang Yong explains
What makes a great cup of green tea? You probably would say it's all about the quality of the tea sprouts you buy, whether green, black and other varieties.
I would have said the same °?- before my visit last spring to the China Tea Museum in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. I returned last month when the plum blossoms were everywhere, and tea sprouts were a month away from the year's first harvest.
Situated between the sweep of hills and the slope of tea fields to the west of fabled West Lake, the museum is a scenic spot unto itself: gardens, bamboo and brooks encircle the main building that harbors the secrets of Chinese tea culture.
It was in the museum that I came to know - a revelation - that ultimately the flavor and essence of a cup of tea depend more upon the water than on the tea leaves.
You have the best tea only if you have the best water, ideally from a mountain spring. Tap water is unacceptable and bottled water less than ideal; anything less than pure spring water is a disappointment.
In other words, a cup of tea brewed from clean spring water and second-rate leaves tastes much better than one from tap water and top-quality leaves.
Alas, "modern" civilization has turned clean spring water from a common "commodity" for our "poor" ancestors into a modern-day luxury.
If someone shows off his or her expensive tea sprouts in a cozy room on the Bund, take pity on him or her. The tea to which you are treated is second-rate at best.
If someone shows off expensive teacups, dismiss them.
Buying cups made of fine bone china, or whatever, seems the ultimate idiocy these days, now that the water we drink in big cities is dirtier than that drunk by our agrarian ancestors and a few farmers today who live deep in mountains where clear springs run.
My newly gained knowledge about the relationship between water and tea is the result of illuminating exhibits of tea culture in the museum. Most exhibits have English translations.
There you will see how tea culture flourished in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) °?- unrivaled before and after. A large scroll copy of an ancient painting shows Song people reveling in tea culture contests.
They vied for the honor of making the best tea and creating the best poems about tea.
There you will also see Cha Ching, or the Classic of Tea, China's first treaties on tea. The author, Lu Yu (733-804 AD), is regarded as the father of Chinese tea culture. In that book, which you can buy in the museum, Lu linked tea to one's inner value for the first time in the written history of Chinese tea culture.
He said: "The effect of tea is cooling and as a beverage it is most suitable. It is especially fitting for persons of self-restraint and inner worth."
He was essentially saying that tea was not just another beverage. Drinking it thoughtfully could help shape your character into that of a worthy man, and only a worthy man would be able to relish tea in its purest taste.
A statute of Lu stands in a garden near the entrance to the museum. His image °?- a smiling face and a flying robe - embodies the freedom of spirit long cherished by ancient Chinese intellectuals.
Rich as it is in history, the museum is not wholly about the past. At the entrance is a room where tourists can sit quietly and sip a cup of tea for free, attended by a young female tea expert immersed in tea culture indeed.
The room has a literary name: Jia Ye Tang. The name is derived from China's first prose in praise of tea, written by one of China's greatest scholar-officials Su Shi (1037-1101). In that prose, Su personified tea as a man named Ye Jia, which literally means "fine sprout." So Jia Ye Tang means "the hall of fine sprouts."
Three European women were buying tea and teapots in Jia Ye Tang last month when my wife and I sat there, sipping different kinds of tea for free. Prices are lower than in most tea shops in downtown Hangzhou or Shanghai.
The tea expert said she was a Hangzhou local who had just graduated from a tea science college in northern China. Her dress was simple, her knowledge about tea was deep, and she was smiling all the time.
Her image comes to mind whenever I see those vain and flighty Shanghai girls who know much about showy fashion and nothing about real culture.
What makes a great cup of green tea? You probably would say it's all about the quality of the tea sprouts you buy, whether green, black and other varieties.
I would have said the same °?- before my visit last spring to the China Tea Museum in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province. I returned last month when the plum blossoms were everywhere, and tea sprouts were a month away from the year's first harvest.
Situated between the sweep of hills and the slope of tea fields to the west of fabled West Lake, the museum is a scenic spot unto itself: gardens, bamboo and brooks encircle the main building that harbors the secrets of Chinese tea culture.
It was in the museum that I came to know - a revelation - that ultimately the flavor and essence of a cup of tea depend more upon the water than on the tea leaves.
You have the best tea only if you have the best water, ideally from a mountain spring. Tap water is unacceptable and bottled water less than ideal; anything less than pure spring water is a disappointment.
In other words, a cup of tea brewed from clean spring water and second-rate leaves tastes much better than one from tap water and top-quality leaves.
Alas, "modern" civilization has turned clean spring water from a common "commodity" for our "poor" ancestors into a modern-day luxury.
If someone shows off his or her expensive tea sprouts in a cozy room on the Bund, take pity on him or her. The tea to which you are treated is second-rate at best.
If someone shows off expensive teacups, dismiss them.
Buying cups made of fine bone china, or whatever, seems the ultimate idiocy these days, now that the water we drink in big cities is dirtier than that drunk by our agrarian ancestors and a few farmers today who live deep in mountains where clear springs run.
My newly gained knowledge about the relationship between water and tea is the result of illuminating exhibits of tea culture in the museum. Most exhibits have English translations.
There you will see how tea culture flourished in the Song Dynasty (960-1279) °?- unrivaled before and after. A large scroll copy of an ancient painting shows Song people reveling in tea culture contests.
They vied for the honor of making the best tea and creating the best poems about tea.
There you will also see Cha Ching, or the Classic of Tea, China's first treaties on tea. The author, Lu Yu (733-804 AD), is regarded as the father of Chinese tea culture. In that book, which you can buy in the museum, Lu linked tea to one's inner value for the first time in the written history of Chinese tea culture.
He said: "The effect of tea is cooling and as a beverage it is most suitable. It is especially fitting for persons of self-restraint and inner worth."
He was essentially saying that tea was not just another beverage. Drinking it thoughtfully could help shape your character into that of a worthy man, and only a worthy man would be able to relish tea in its purest taste.
A statute of Lu stands in a garden near the entrance to the museum. His image °?- a smiling face and a flying robe - embodies the freedom of spirit long cherished by ancient Chinese intellectuals.
Rich as it is in history, the museum is not wholly about the past. At the entrance is a room where tourists can sit quietly and sip a cup of tea for free, attended by a young female tea expert immersed in tea culture indeed.
The room has a literary name: Jia Ye Tang. The name is derived from China's first prose in praise of tea, written by one of China's greatest scholar-officials Su Shi (1037-1101). In that prose, Su personified tea as a man named Ye Jia, which literally means "fine sprout." So Jia Ye Tang means "the hall of fine sprouts."
Three European women were buying tea and teapots in Jia Ye Tang last month when my wife and I sat there, sipping different kinds of tea for free. Prices are lower than in most tea shops in downtown Hangzhou or Shanghai.
The tea expert said she was a Hangzhou local who had just graduated from a tea science college in northern China. Her dress was simple, her knowledge about tea was deep, and she was smiling all the time.
Her image comes to mind whenever I see those vain and flighty Shanghai girls who know much about showy fashion and nothing about real culture.
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