Drinking tea

CCTV.COM (04.09 2003 16:07)

    The mountains from Hangzhou to the bamboo forest in the countryside are lined with tea plantations. The tea from around the West Lake is among the best quality in China.

    The leaves are picked in spring. The best leaves come out before the Qingming festival 錛?that's usually in early April.

    The leaves are bitter at this point but turns sweet after being fried.

    The newly picked leaves are first dried and then fried with a special oil. It may be an age錛峯ld tradition but there has been one concession to technology 錛?electric ovens/fryers. You can鈥檛 fry the tea with machine錛?but only with hands. The temperature at the bottom of the cooking is some 100 degree.

    When all is done錛?the drinking of the tea is yet another art in itself.

    You could write a whole book about it. There's ritual to everything from pouring the water to soaking the leaves. But the bottom line is that a good cup of tea depends on a few simple things 錛?the leaves' color錛?shape錛? fragrance and taste.

Editor:Inner