From Eating Tea to Drinking Tea: How Tea Habits Changed
People were eating tea long before they drank it. When tea was discovered, people chewed fresh leaves; later they boiled tea into a soup with spices like green onion, ginger and orange peel, eating the leaves and drinking the broth. By the Tang Dynasty, tea was boiled with just a pinch of salt, and drinking pure tea gradually became the mainstream.
Did people really start by eating tea?
Yes. When tea was first discovered, people ate fresh tea leaves directly, chewing them. Gradually, they began to cook tea and both eat and drink it. Even today, the expression chī chá (吃茶, “eating tea”) survives in many parts of China, and some regions still have dishes and drinks where tea leaves are eaten. Read the origin of tea.
How was tea prepared around 230 AD?
According to the Guang Ya (广雅), a dictionary completed around 230 AD, people in Hubei and Sichuan pressed tea into cakes. To prepare it, they:
- roasted the tea cake;
- ground it into powder;
- boiled it in a pot, or poured boiling water over it;
- added spices such as green onion, ginger and orange peel;
- then ate the tea and drank the soup together.
When did people start drinking pure tea?
In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu’s The Classic of Tea (茶经, Chá Jīng), finished around 760 AD, describes tea boiled with only a pinch of salt. From then on, drinking pure tea without spices became the mainstream. See the history of Chinese tea for the full timeline.
Interestingly, tea with orange peel is still loved today. Our Xiao Qing Gan packs ripe pu-erh inside a Xinhui mandarin peel, an echo of those ancient recipes.
FAQ
What does chi cha mean?
Chī chá (吃茶) means “eating tea,” an old expression still used in parts of China.
What spices did ancient Chinese people add to tea?
Green onion, ginger and orange peel, according to the Guang Ya.
When did pure tea become popular?
From the Tang Dynasty, after Lu Yu described tea boiled with only a little salt.