People throughout China drink tea daily. Tea is to the Chinese as wine is to the French, as beer is to the Germans, as cigars are to the Cubans.

History

It is true that the word for tea, cha, never appeared in ancient Chinese texts; the character cha was created by Lu Yu in the 8th century during the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Based on written records and more recently excavated archaeological evidence, we know that tea as a beverage had become rather popular in Central China along the Yangzi River and its tributaries during the Western Han period (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) at the latest.

Chinese drink tea at meals and serve it to friends when they come for a visit. "On such occasions, it is served continually as long as they remain together engaged in conversation," wrote Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), an Italian Christian missionary who stayed in China for 28 years, in "China in the Sixteen Century: The Journals of Matthew Ricci: 1583－1610." "This beverage is sipped rather than drunk and it is always taken hot," Ricci wrote. He also remarked that the bitter taste of tea was not unpleasant and was good for one's health.

Category

Because of the geographic location and climate, different places grow various kinds of tea. In general, there are five kinds of tea classified according to different techniques involved in the brewing process.