Delicious sweetheart: the origin of matcha

When it comes to milk tea drinks or cakes in restaurants in China, people will think of matcha, which has a long history. However, most people always think that matcha is Japanese, but in fact, matcha originated in China and only flourished in Japan, so this food culture is the origin of popular science matcha.

Matcha (called late tea in China in ancient times) originated from Sui and Tang Dynasties in China. After the tender leaves of spring tea were steamed, they were made into cake tea (group tea) for preservation. Before eating, put it on the fire, bake and dry it again, and grind it into powder with a natural stone mill. Since ancient times, literati have left a large number of poems praising matcha. "Blue clouds lead the wind to blow constantly, and white flowers float to congeal the noodles" is the praise of Lu Tong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty.

as early as the Tang dynasty, people invented steamed green loose tea (ground tea), and also revised the method of evaluating the color and aroma of tea, which became an indispensable daily drink for people. In the Song Dynasty, it developed into a tea feast. Cai Xiang, the most famous tea expert and great writer at that time, commented on the method of fighting tea in Tea Record: break the group tea into small pieces, then grind it into fine powder, sieve out the tea powder, take two cents and put it into a scalded tea cup, pour boiling water into it, and the soup flower will taste the color, fragrance and taste, and the best one is the best. In Yue Yan's interpretation, Ru Dunhe in Qing Dynasty said that the ancient tea must be a little, and his tea (matcha) was a pinch of tea, so one or two delicious fruit snacks must be chosen, which was called point tea. The tea ceremony in China in the Tang and Song Dynasties is the way to drink matcha. It can be seen that the tea ceremony in China has a history of more than 1,111 years, hundreds of years earlier than the present Oolong Tea Road. But unfortunately, since the Ming Dynasty, matcha was no longer popular, but tea was used instead, and tea residue was discarded.

the matcha road in China was lost, thus forming a historical dating. At present, Japanese tea ceremony and Japanese matcha, which are quite famous in the world, were brought back to Japan in China by Rong Xi, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and matcha was preserved, inherited and carried forward in Japan. Japanese matcha and Japanese tea ceremony have now become the quintessence of Japan, cited as national guests' gifts and praised as the best in Japan.