Tea comes from ancient China and spread gradually around the world. Various countries have developed their own way of brewing and serving tea, influenced by their culture and geography. I talked in this article about how tea is prepared and served in different places around the world. But here I want to distil the main differences between how we drink tea in the UK and how the Chinese or Japanese drink tea. I also hope you’ll learn from the Asian approach, which in my view has great meditative benefits.
Tea culture in the East
The traditional way of drinking tea in China, Japan or South Korea is seen as a ritual; a ritual whose purpose is to help you disconnect from your worries and dedicate your full attention to those moments of making and savouring the tea. In turn that should improve your mood. It definitively helps me to be mindful of my tea time.
According to some sources, tea became even more popular due to Buddhism since the two complement each other.
According to Ni Wen, Chairman of China Tea Culture Community in Hangzhou, ‘Tea in China is not only a beverage. Clothing and decorations all go along with it, everything to make people comfortable and relaxed. You see, the making of tea is a very spiritual ceremony. Chinese come to tea houses to settle down and let go of their sorrows.’ Moreover, ‘The Chinese focus on the tea itself and consider it to be an expensive delicacy if prepared in the correct way.’
People brew and serve the tea in small wares. They believe that tea should be sipped slowly, and drinking it from a small cup is more suited for that purpose. If we think logically about it, it makes perfect sense – we better appreciate what’s scarce.
When brewing, the person adds more leaves to a Gaiwan or Yixing teapot (which usually holds up to 200 ml of water) and infuses them for a short period (usually less than a minute). A short brew is necessary to avoid the tea becoming too bitter or astringent. The leaves are brewed various times. With each new brew, the leaves release more flavour or even new flavours may emerge.
Seeing tea drinking as a ritual led people to craft a variety of teaware to delight our visual sense too. I am a big lover of Chinese teaware, they come in so many shapes, colours and engravings. I believe that drinking tea from different recipients adds more diversity to the experience.
Chinese and Japanese serve tea mostly plain, although sometimes they consume it with nuts and fruits. Flavoured teas (with some exceptions like Jasmine tea) are a rarity in these countries. That should come as no surprise since residents have easy access to a plethora of amazing teas. And they won’t add anything to a tea that is delicious on its own.
Tea culture in the West
Unfortunately, in the western world, people see tea mostly as a beverage without too much spiritual connotation. We can say that Anglo-American countries favour pragmatism over spirituality, at least when it comes to tea. But I’m hopeful that this will change as more people are being introduced to speciality tea and meditation/mindfulness. The two can mingle beautifully.
While people in the East have easy access to all 6 types of tea, the western world prefers black tea. That’s due to a lack of awareness of the full spectrum of teas as well as misconceptions such as green tea is bitter.
Western drinkers emphasise the flavour of the tea over all other senses. That explains why flavoured teas are so popular in this part of the world. But at its root cause, by flavouring teas people intended to ‘rescue’ poor quality teas as well as to add more diversity.
When brewing, the person adds fewer leaves to a larger teapot (500-600 ml) and infuses them for longer. The longer steeping time means that the leaves will release most of their compounds into the water. Due to that, we can only brew the leaves only once or twice.
It’s common for people in the UK to serve tea with their meals or as part of an afternoon tea. They usually add milk and/or sugar.
To conclude
I wouldn’t like to end this article without saying that I am a big advocate of mindful tea drinking. Check out this article for more on this approach. I know from my experience the mental benefits of drinking tea in a way that engages all my senses. Many times I feel anew just by breaking my routine and evading in a peaceful state of mind with the help of my favourite tea. I become calmer and more grounded. I recommend you give it a try a few times. It might become a habit, and I hope it does.
Thanks for reading!
