The taste and consumption of tea in China have generally undergone five changes:

First, in ancient China, tea was originally used as a medicine to detoxify and treat diseases. Legend has it that when Shennong tasted a hundred herbs all over the world, "seventy-two poisons were encountered every day, and he was relieved by tea", so he felt the grace of saving his life and broadcasted the method of planting in the world. Just like decocting traditional Chinese medicine today, decoct its juice and take it. "Tea Classic" also pointed out that "thirst, stagnation, brain pain, eye astringency, limb annoyance, uncomfortable joints" and other symptoms can all be treated by drinking tea.

Second, after the Han Dynasty, the way of drinking tea in China entered the second stage. At this time, tea has developed from medicine to a popular drink. Guo Pu of Jin Dynasty called it "can be cooked as a soup to drink" in Er Ya Zhu. The words "boiled" and "soup" here indicate the characteristics of drinking tea at that time. According to the record of Guangya quoted in the Tea Classic, leaves were picked between Jing and Ba to make cakes, and the old leaves were made from rice paste. If you want to cook and drink, first stir-fry it until it is red, mash it, put it in porcelain, cover it with soup, and mix it with onion, ginger and orange. It's sleepless to sober up. What is cooked in this way is porridge-like soup, so it is also called "tea porridge". After the Tang Dynasty, salt was also widely used. Milk tea popular among ethnic minorities such as Mongolians and butter tea popular among Tibetans.

the third is "flooding", that is, mashing tea cakes into tea powder, adding seasoning and brewing with boiling water. This method was popular in the Tang Dynasty. After the Song Dynasty, no seasoning was added, but it is still very different from drinking tea today, that is, tea must be made into powder, and the drinking method is quite similar to drinking brick tea today.

Fourth, it was not until the Ming Dynasty that tea drinking entered the stage of making tea as it is now. According to Shen Defu's "Wanli Wild Collection", "By September of the 24th year of Hongwu (1319), a dragon group was set up, but tea buds were picked to advance. ..... According to the tea flavoring, dao for thin cakes, has distorted the taste. ..... Today, people only take the essence of the first shade, and they take a fountain to buy a raft, and sip it as soon as they soak it, so they start to worship drinking forever. "It is clearly stated here that the method of making tea buds without adding auxiliary materials and drinking them with boiling water began in the early Ming Dynasty, but the wind of boiling tea still coexisted with the method of making tea for a long time.

the fifth is "cooking". Nowadays, it is the main way of tea consumption in society to make tea and still drink tea, but there are also many teas cooked well. Since the 1991s, food science and technology workers in Taiwan Province Tea Improvement Farm have created a new delicacy "Tea Banquet" based on scientific analysis and appraisal, which not only enriches tea culture, but also is a revolution in the history of tea drinking. This "tea banquet" * * * has 11 dishes, all of which are made of famous tea in China. They are green tea salad, frozen tea stuffed with tofu, black tea shrimp, qimen black tea diced chicken, steamed cod with fragrant slices, Tieguanyin stewed chicken, tea steamed buns, stewed beef with Baihao oolong tea, smoked chicken with black tea, fragrant tea ribs and bamboo meatballs. Chinese food and "tea ceremony" are perfectly integrated, which really complement each other. Fortunately, in recent years, a new edible tea product "natural ultramicro green powder tea" has appeared in Jintan City, Jiangsu Province. It will bring people a great reform in the traditional way of drinking tea.