Way of drinking tea in Song Dynasty，Dian Cha

The rulers of the Song Dynasty emphasized that the country should be governed by culture, and after receiving long-term material comfort, the people who had experienced the chaos turned to seek deeper comfort, and the appearance of tea just met this demand. As a result, people began to plant tea on a large scale across the country, and the demand and consumption of tea suddenly increased sharply. Items and customs related to tea culture, such as tea drinking customs, tea sets, and tea art, began to grow rapidly, and eventually evolved into part of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation. Among them, “Dian Cha” has become a unique cultural symbol of the Song Dynasty.

The Zhengqing roll tea which is popular in Song Dynasty was different from the processing technology in Tang Dynasty, so the way of drinking tea has also changed, which is called “Dian Cha”. The steps follows.

Step 1, grinding compressed tea

Wrap the compressed tea with paper and crush it, then put it in the grinding tank to grind it into powder.

Step 2, sieving tea.

Put the crushed tea leaves into a sieve and sieve the fine powder for use later.

Step 3, preparing water.

Refers to boiling water, keeping an eye on the state of the water to make it the most suitable for Dian Cha. When bubbles appear on the water surface like the size of fish eyes and crab eyes, the heating can be stopped.

Step 4, Dian Cha

Put the tea powder in the cup, then pour the prepared water to make it into a uniform tea paste. Next, stir with a tea whisk while pouring in water to make it foam until a full cup of foam appears.

Step 5, dividing tea  

Divide the tea soup into cups and insure that the foam of each cup of tea soup is even.