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Chaozhou Kung Fu Tea
Publish Time:2021-04-26 17:05:00

Kung Fu Tea can date back to the Song Dynasty, which is proved by a poem written by Zhang Kui, describing a scene where friends were saying goodbye and wishing each other all the best with a cup of tea. According to Yu Jiao’s book of Romance of Chaojia, by the mid-Qing Dynasty, Kung Fu Tea had been prevalent to the locals and appreciated throughout Southeast Asia. In a Kung Fu Tea ceremony, a brewer has to clean their hands after introducing the vessels. What follows is to boil water in a clay teapot on lan coal, a special fuel, and warm the teacups with hot water. The brewer then checks the tea leaves on a piece of white paper and has them rinsed in the pot with boiling water. The pouring stops when the pot just overflows, followed by removing the foam slightly with the lid. Next, the brewer pours over the teapot with the top on while washing the cups all over again. After all these steps, brewed tea will be dribbled into the cups in equal amounts. When appreciating, it is a norm to smell the scent before sipping at the tea. Lastly, the process ends up with the taster sniffing the aroma left in an empty cup. Besides the brewing technique, the application of oolong tea is another reason that Kung Fu Tea stands out. The tea is a nice touch for a small get-together of friends anytime and anywhere. To sum up, Kung Fu Tea, an essential part of the local culture, symbolizes the attractiveness and values of the city and its people and is healthy. However, a changing society, where people are accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle, contributes to a simplified brewing process replacing the traditional one that the younger generations know little about. Under the circumstance, urgent protection must come to play to revive the endangered art and the values it stands for.


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