Wu Long Tea and the Chinese Tea Culture

If you are at all interested in tea, you may have heard references to the Chinese Tea Culture or The Way of Tea as it is often called. Chinese and Japanese tea masters have served up Wu long or Green tea for centuries, following specific rituals and following specific steps when brewing tea. Japanese tea ceremonies are very formal affairs which follow very stringent guidelines.  Chinese tea ceremonies are more relaxed, with the focus being more on getting the best from the tea, rather than the ceremony itself.

Traditionally, especially amongst Chinese cultures, drinking tea is not just a social occasion but it is also supposed to aid enlightenment, clear the mind and enhance your overall thought patterns and cognitive processes. For this reason, masters of any trade frequently started their training sessions with a tea ceremony. This was not only for those studying martial arts, but for any student no matter what they were learning. This belief has been passed on through generations and is still firmly held to amongst Chinese cultures. In other words, there is much more significance attached to drinking green tea than the mere fact of quenching your thirst or enjoying another’s company.

If you sit down to discuss business, inevitably you will start your meeting by your host preparing and offering tea, frequently following the basic procedure that any tea master would follow, although not as stringently. You actually do feel quite different after imbibing many cups of tea, whether it is all in the mind or the tea does actually have a tangible effect on your thought processes is something you will have to decide!

Additionally, in China and Taiwan, the tea culture is very much intertwined with their arts. Perhaps this stemmed from the fact that the famous clay Yixing teapots were often handcrafted by master craftsmen, artists, who also designed other beautiful pottery. Whatever the reason, the two circles are very closely related.

If you ever have the chance to participate in a Chinese tea ceremony, or to learn  how to properly prepare and serve tea the ‘Chinese way’ it is well worth doing. You will have a lot of fun, you will learn a lot about tea culture and it is guaranteed to be an enlightening and fascinating experience.