For all the Chinese`s tea
By admin on 2014-12-26

Nowadays, who drinks tea? Back in North America or Europe, generally our parents'generation drank tea. It was Indian tea, strong and black in color. Some drank it white and sweet, some black with lemon, some straight out of the kettle, boiled over an open fire so it had the taste of smoke and gum leaves. The younger generation is more likely to drink coffee or fruit and herbal teas. But many do not realize there are so many different varieties of Chinese tea which makes it an integral part of Chinese culture.

In my time here, I have learned to love tea and one of my favorite activities is to hit the tea markets and spend all day there, chatting to the tea sellers, sipping different teas, drooling over the beautiful teapots and trying to decide what to buy, and how much my wallet can stand getting lighter.

Little tea shops are lovely places to start learning about tea. My favorite small tea shop owner, in the Muslim Quarter in Xi'an, is happy to spend time chatting with me about tea. His family comes from Fujian, so he heads back home each spring to buy wonderful new teas. He sells aromatic teas as well – chrysanthemum, jasmine, rose, lychee and pear teas, all lovely tasting and fragrant teas. I can buy 'proper' tea here too – pu'er, oolong, tieguanyin, longjing and many others.