China was the first country to invent and apply tea, and tea culture has a long history. Britain does not produce tea, but it is the country with the largest per capita consumption of tea in the world. The following is what I arranged for you. I hope it works for you.

China has a long history of drinking tea. We have no choice but to find out the exact time, but there is a story about the general times. We can also find evidence that the habit of drinking tea in many parts of the world was handed down from China. Therefore, many people think that drinking tea was initiated by China people, and the habit of drinking and growing tea in other parts of the world was passed down directly or indirectly from China.

According to the origin time of tea drinking in China, it can be divided into three periods. Shennong period, Western Zhou period, Qin and Han dynasties. During the Shennong period, in the history of China's cultural development, the origin of all things related to agriculture and animals was always attributed to Shennong. Artificial cultivation began in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and there were words in the Qin and Han Dynasties indicating that tea drinking in Hunan was quite extensive.

And how did China discover the habit of drinking tea? This is a basic problem in the discussion of tea culture. In "On Sacrifice": At first, tea was used as a sacrifice, as a vegetable, later as a medicine, and finally as a tea drink. The theory of medicine is: "Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, and when he encountered seventy-two poisons every day, he was relieved by tea." Eating: "The ancients drank water like grass", "People put food first", and eating first conforms to the evolutionary law of human society.

China's tea meets England. Although Britain has the largest per capita consumption of tea in the world, it does not produce tea. Sigmund, a British scholar, once said that tea was introduced into Britain from China, which enabled British tea culture to take place and become a prosperous local development.

If we want to trace the fact that tea is suitable for introduction into Britain, according to historical records, it was introduced into Britain from the Netherlands around 1652. There is no exact time and proper sequence in historical materials, but the Dutch probably set the period when tea was first introduced to Britain as1mid-7th century. If it is divided into two periods, the first period is 16 15 to 1673, when "tea information" spread to Britain. However, from 1657 to 1660, it was the second period when "Tea Affairs" entered Britain.

1660, a British businessman made an advertisement to sell tea. Advertise the special efficacy of tea. Tea can strengthen muscles and bones, cure headache and dizziness, improve eyesight and stomach, help digestion, refresh and relieve fatigue. This advertisement opened up most British people's understanding of how to drink tea and deepened the medicinal effect of tea. In the eyes of the British, this is not an ordinary oriental drink, but a "panacea" for all diseases. Therefore, in the early stage of tea development in Britain, it is very wonderful that all roads lead to the same goal as China, that is, in the early stage, both China and Britain used tea as medicine instead of ordinary tea drinks. Although tea, as a country of origin, entered Britain many years later than China, it does not affect that tea, as a medicinal value, first entered the lives of ordinary people in China and Britain.

The history of Chinese and English tea culture

The discovery and use of tea is not the same as the formation and development of tea culture. Specifically, China discovered tea as early as the Shennong period, but it was not until the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties that tea culture sprouted. Similarly, although tea spread to the west from16th century, it was not accepted by British society until18th century, and gradually evolved from the exclusive enjoyment of court nobles to drinks of all walks of life.

In China, tea was originally used as medicine when it was discovered. Later, with the in-depth understanding of it, tea became a drink in Qin and Han dynasties; In the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, tea became the hospitality of ordinary people's homes and was integrated into their lives. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, tea was no longer just a drink, but a kind of hospitality and sacrifice, showing its cultural function beyond its own value and entering the spiritual field. As a result, the tea culture in China germinated, and its social and cultural functions gradually surpassed the natural and practical functions. However, the tea culture in this period was only indifferent, and no special knowledge had been formed. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the tea culture in China was formally formed. In the Tang Dynasty, the progress of agriculture and the activity of commerce promoted the production and sale of tea: Buddhism flourished, the imperial examination was early, the poetic style prevailed, tribute tea prevailed, and alcohol was forbidden. And other factors of the times set off a social tea drinking fashion. The Tea Classic, the world's first monograph on tea written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, greatly promoted the development and spread of tea culture, which is of milestone significance. The book not only introduces all kinds of knowledge about tea in detail, but also takes the process of drinking tea as an art for the first time, and integrates the ideological connotations of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism into it, creating a set of Chinese tea art that pays attention to artistic conception.

Tea has never been grown in Britain./kloc-Before the 6th century, there were only coffee and wine. When tea was first introduced to Britain, it was also used as an herb. It was Catherine, the queen of charles ii, who really brought tea to England. Because of the Queen's exemplary role, although the British black tea was worth a thousand dollars at that time, the nobles rushed to follow suit, and the wind of drinking tea prevailed in the British court and then entered the aristocratic family. China tea has thus become a symbol of fashion and luxurious life. With the completion of the bourgeois revolution, Britain was politically peaceful and economically prosperous, and soon established its position as a maritime hegemon, and was able to import a large number of tea. As a result, tea entered the homes of ordinary people and gradually became a consumer product in daily life. English people have a rich breakfast and a simple lunch, while dinner usually lasts until around eight o'clock. Some idle ladies think that lunch is too simple and the interval between lunch and dinner is too long, so they take turns to hold dinner at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, eat dessert and drink black tea. This fashion gradually became popular and became an indispensable dining link and formal social activity in the Victorian era. From 65438 to 1940s, Anna, Duchess of Bedford, designed and actively promoted afternoon tea, which gradually became the living habit of almost all British people. By the time of Edward VII in the early 20th century, the simple family-style afternoon tea could no longer meet the increasing consumer demand, so it became a fashion to go out for tea. British tea culture with local characteristics was thus established.

Ways to taste and drink Chinese and English tea culture

There are two ways to drink tea in China. One is "mixed drinking", that is, salt, sugar, milk or onion, dried tangerine peel, mint, longan and red dates are added to tea according to personal taste. The way of adding orange peel and mint originated from the method of making tea before the middle Tang Dynasty: from eating, boiling fresh leaves or dried leaves into soup and drinking, generally seasoning with salt; For medicinal purposes, fresh or dried leaves are usually cooked with ginger, cinnamon, pepper, orange peel and mint to make soup. Now this method is mainly concentrated in ethnic minority areas. Tibetan butter tea is made by adding salt, butter and milk to the boiled brick tea thick soup; * * * Gaiwancha is a mixture of tea leaves, dried longan and rock sugar, commonly known as "Sanxiang Tea". Adding raisins and dried apricots is commonly known as "spiced tea". If you add medlar, peanuts and sesame seeds, it is called "eight-treasure tea". The other is the "clear drink" of the Han nationality, that is, without adding any ingredients that will destroy the original taste and true fragrance of tea, it is brewed only with boiling water, following the tea drinking tradition of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, focusing on clear drink and elegant appreciation.

At first, the British drank green tea, but later, most of them drank black tea, which was rich in taste and nutrition. It is said that green tea is not easy to store, and black tea is a fully fermented tea with a fermentation degree of more than 80%, which is not easy to mildew. However, another credible reason is that green tea is cold and black tea is warm. The British Isles are surrounded by the sea, and it is cold and humid all year round, so the climate determines people's choice. They imported black tea from India, Ceylon, Kenya and other places, added milk and sugar to the tea, removed theophylline, and turned bitter tea into a sweet drink suitable for their own taste, just as they transformed bitter coffee from equatorial countries into Sweet Caffe full of milk fragrance, which was completely different from China's taste. In addition, they add honey, cinnamon, pepper, whisky, butter, eggs and anything they want to add to tea to create many flavors at will. A few varieties such as Gray earl grey and Assam black tea, which are prepared with bergamot oil, have become classic and unique ethnic tea products, enjoying a world reputation. In addition, the British also transformed the tea itself. Bagged tea powder replaces tea fragments and is called instant tea. Put the bags together in a hot water cup and make a cup of tea with only one small bag. Household teapots and filter cups are washed down with boiling water and filtered out. This is quite different from China people who put the whole tea leaves in boiling water and enjoy the blooming camellias in the dense heat.