Chinese tea

The tea is an original drink of China. According to some certain students poems of his most ancient work "The book of the Singings", compiled about the VIIth century to. C, already they refer to the tea. For many centuries the tea was considered to be a medicinal drink, used especially for fighting the poisoning. It was not up to the dynasty T'ang (618-907), when the monk Lu Yu compiled the knowledge of his ancestors in the first "Book of the Tea" that his consumption became popular in China. Since in those years China was a bubbling of travelers and merchants, the culture of the prompt tea spread over the nearby countries, like Japan or Korea. And in the proper China his consumption did not stop increasing impregnating all the aspects of his culture.
At the beginning of the XVIIth century, the Dutch Company of the East Indies took the tea for the first time to Europe. But they were not they but the Englishmen those who popularized the consumption of the tea all over the world, and in fact in the following century the tea was turning into the pretext for the rebellion that would give place to the United States of America.
The tea grows in the south of China, especially in the basin of the river Yangtze, not suitable mountainous areas for the rice have been used for centuries to cultivate the tea. The plant of the tea is a shrub that grows well in moderate climates. His average life is 100 years, although they are cut every 25 years so that it grows with more vigor. There are gathered his tender sprouts, which after being toasted will be ready to prepare the infusion. The compilation of the tea is realized of continuous form throughout the whole year, although the quality changes with the stations
In general it is possible to speak about 3 fundamental types of tea:

- Green tea: There are the tea leaves, toasts. It is the most natural and most healthy. They usually take it in the center of the country.
- Jasmine tea: It is a green tea to which jasmine flowers have been added. Very aromatic, is the preferred one by those of the North.
- Black tea: It takes place fermenting and toasting the tea leaves. It is the one that is consumed in the South of China (where they call him a red tea) and in many countries of the world with the breakfast.

The tea is prepared adding water boiling to the tea leaves. In China tea is consumed at any time. From the morning until the night many Chinese go with his tea bottles in the hand. In the offices every Chinese has his, to which he is adding boiled water from time to time, since the same sheets are used several times. With the meals, to receive a friend or to entertain a guest, the tea is consumed abundantly. To facilitate the concentration and to accompany the meditation tea is consumed. They say that the warm tea refreshes in summer and warms in winter, his biggest enthusiasts make sure that it has 400 elements favorable to the health, and for his wealth in microelements and vitamin C they recommend it to prepare the digestive and hepatic complaints, to reduce the hypertension and even to improve the sight and to avoid the alopecia. In fact every time there are discovered new therapeutic properties of the different varieties of tea.

The tea is a determinant factor in the Chinese social life. The tea houses have been along his history the principal social interaction place. Before a tea cup there have developed the most beautiful moments of the Chinese life, and his most painful tragedies.

The most famous teas of China are the following ones:

- Longjing or Well of the Dragon. It is cultivated in the Hangzhou surroundings. The most expensive and most valued. Formerly the spring harvest, when the sprouts are more tender, was paid like tax for exclusive consumption of the emperor. It is a green tea of soft flavor. It is drunk in big cups and warm water is spilled on the tea leaves for 3 times. They say that the first water is a meeting, the second one a pleasure and the third one a farewell.

- Biluochun: it is cultivated in the shores of the Lake Taihu.

- Yinshi. Of the island Junshan in the Lake Dongting, of Hunan.

- Oolong. It is a semi-fermented green tea that is completed in the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and in Taiwan, although every time it is becoming fashionable throughout the country. It takes after a complicated ritual in which he gets ready of two teapots, one with the tea leaves and other one with water boiling, with that successive passes are done by the tea. Every time, in a few seconds, it takes the extract of the infusion. It makes use in small cups.

- Mofeng of the Mountain Huangshan.

- Puer: A black tea that is cultivated in the Yunnan province. In the hearth of the minorities.

All this turns out to be a little complex for the western consumers, but it will help to understand it if the culture of the tea is compared in China with the culture of the wine in Spain.

The ceremony of the tea, a little left in last years, is becomes fashionable again, in many cities there have been opened modern houses of tea, in which not only it is necessary to choose the tea that it wants to drink, but also the type of teapot, cup and other complements.

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