Chinese love tea and pay more attention to drinking tea. There is only tea on a tea table, but it is not interesting, and there are always some fruits, tea meals or a variety of small snacks.
The development process of tea food is particularly complex, just like China's food culture, which is diverse and profound.
The development of tea through the ages
In the early days, people "boiled tea for food", and in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, drinking tea and eating were differentiated. In the Jin Dynasty, tea feasts began to have tea food.
▲ Southern Tang "Night Banquet Tea"
During the Tang and Song dynasties, the influence of tea gradually expanded. It was not only presented to the table as food, but more as an independent drink, becoming the elegant hobby of the literati rioters. At the same time, the food with tea has gradually gained its own style, and the word "dim sum" comes from the Tang Dynasty, and tea food has been formed.
In Bai Juyi's "Xie En Gift Tea And Fruits and Other Forms", it is recorded: "Today, Du Wenqing, a high-grade product, was enshrined in the decree of xuanjin, and the ministers and others were written in the courtyard to write questions, and gave tea fruits and pears and so on." It can be seen that at that time, most of the tea was mainly "preserved fruit".
In the Song Dynasty, there were more tea shops, and the supply of tea snacks was also very rich, and pasta food began to become a major component of tea food.
The Ming and Qing dynasties were the mature stage of tea development. Ming Dynasty teahouses serve a variety of refreshments, tea fruits, and their refreshments vary from season to season. "Zhuyu Mountain House Miscellaneous Department" mentions pasta system, flour food system, indigo flower system, white sugar system, sugar entanglement and other refreshments, but also with tea food.
▲ Bao Yu, Dai Yu and others joined the poem fragments, and various teas were placed on the table. Photo / "Dream of the Red Chamber" film and television stills
In the Qing Dynasty Yuan Ming's "Suiyuan Food List", more exquisite dim sum is included, such as bamboo leaf dumplings: "Take bamboo leaves and wrap white glutinous rice and cook them." The tip is small, like a nascent diamond horn". Xiao Meiren dim sum: "Outside the south gate of Yizhen, Xiao Meiren is good at making dim sum, where steamed buns, cakes, dumplings and the like, small and lovely, white as snow."
"Dream of the Red Chamber" even recorded a lot of tea, the thirty-seventh time, the osmanthus sugar steamed new chestnut flour cake brought by the attacker, just listening to the name makes people itch.
Tea culture in different regions
Tea is more or less as old as tea, and they exist according to the concept of "not being noisy". Do not be too sweet, sour, spicy, salty and thick, in order to become a qualified companion for tea.
Different teas have different refreshments to match, and the tips we often hear about "sweet with green, sour with red, melon seeds with oolong" are cultural products formed by different teas in different regions.
Let's take a look at what special refreshments are available in various places.
Huzhou 丨 Tea Food Four Treasures
Jiangsu and Zhejiang people like to say that drinking tea is "eating tea", because in addition to tea, there are also tea food matching.
In Huzhou, rose crisp candy, pretzel peach slices, and brown candy are known as the traditional tea food "three treasures", plus the peach cake created by the present people, which is now the famous "four treasures of tea food".
The refreshments here are mainly crispy, which is both a snack and a sugar. Not only can it take care of the appetite, but also take care of the blood sugar that is lowered due to drinking tea.
Suzhou 丨 Four Seasons Tea
There are many kinds of tea in Suzhou, every four o'clock and eight festivals of the lunar calendar, there are its seasonal varieties, including spring cakes, summer cakes, autumn crisps, winter sugar production and marketing rules.
Spring cakes include sake cakes, snow cakes, etc., summer cakes have mint cakes, mung bean cakes, small square cakes, etc., autumn cakes have ruyi crisp, chrysanthemum cake, qiao crisp, puff pastry mooncake, etc., winter sugar has sesame shortbread, meat oil rice flower candy and so on.
Suzhou tea food is mostly delicate and colorful, just like the daughter of Jiangnan, taking exquisite and winning.
Beijing 丨 京八件
Beijing-style refreshments have a long history and a wide variety of varieties, with crisp and soft, pure and sweet taste. The most representative is the eight pieces in Beijing, which are divided into eight large pieces, eight small pieces, and eight fine pieces.
The big eight pieces include Fuzi Cake, Taishi Cake, Shou Peach Cake, Xizi Cake, Silver Ingot Cake, Roll Shortbread, Chicken Fat Cake, Jujube Flower Cake, each with the meaning of Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi, Cai, Wen and so on.
Not only does it taste good, but it also has a special connotation. Some are harmonic, the chicken fat cake means "auspicious and more", and some directly carry the word.
Yangzhou 丨 Weiyang fine point
Yangzhou between Jianghuai and Huaihuai has gradually produced tea with both northern and southern characteristics in the exchange between the north and the south. Yangzhou tea food uses fine grains, high-quality oils, exquisite sugar and eggs as the main ingredients, nuts, preserves, meat, dairy products, sesame seeds, pine nuts and other ingredients, supplemented by osmanthus flowers, roses and other natural spices, made of different forms and flavors of cakes, cakes, crisps, slices and other varieties.
Yangzhou people do not drink black tea, mostly green tea, so most of the tea food has the essence of "not boring".
Guangdong 丨 Cantonese morning tea
In Guangdong, when you meet and greet in the morning, you usually have to ask "have you drunk tea", which shows the importance of tea there.
Morning tea refreshments are divided into dry and wet, dry points include dumplings, powder fruits, buns, pastries, etc.; wet spots include porridge, meat, turtle paste, tofu flowers... From the starter to the dessert, you can readily readily available.
The matching tea is mainly black tea, which warms the stomach and is easy to digest, and also forms an excellent combination with the strong taste of refreshments.
In addition to the necessary things for daily use, there must be a little useless game and pleasure to make life interesting. We look at the sunset, look at the autumn river, look at the flowers, listen to the rain, smell the incense, drink wine that does not quench our thirst, and eat snacks that do not seek to be full, all of which are necessary in life - although they are useless decorations, and the more refined, the better. - "Tea food in Beijing" Zhou Zuoren
Contrary to Zen, the common people drink tea and drink a firework.
Tea is a bridge connecting elegance and customs, and thousands of styles of dim sum make the fairy-like tea blend into the fireworks of the world. A cup of tea, a plate of refreshments, whether it is for the elegant people who are loyal to Wenmo, or the travelers who return home at sunset at sunrise, are all good medicines to soothe the hearts of mortals.