Delicious sweetheart: the origin of matcha

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

Matcha (called the last tea in China in ancient times) originated in the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China. After the young leaves of spring tea are steamed, they are made into cake tea (group tea) for preservation. Put it on the fire before eating, then dry it and grind it into powder with a natural stone mill. Since ancient times, literati have left a lot of poems praising matcha. "Yun Lan attracts the wind and blows constantly, and the white flowers float on the surface" is a praise word of Lu Tong, a poet in the Tang Dynasty.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, people invented steamed green loose tea (ground tea) and revised the method of evaluating the color, aroma and taste of tea, which became an indispensable daily drink for people. In the Song Dynasty, it developed into a tea feast. At that time, Cai Xiang, the most famous tea expert and great writer, commented on the method of fighting tea like this in "Tea Story": break the group tea into small pieces, then grind it into fine powder, sieve out the tea powder, take twenty cents and put it into the scalded tea cup, and pour in boiling water, so that the soup tastes good, fragrant and delicious, and the best is the best. In Yue Yan's explanation, Ru Dunhe in Qing Dynasty said that the tea of the ancients must be a little, and his tea (matcha) is a pinch of tea, so one or two delicious fruit snacks must be chosen, which is called Diancha. Tea ceremony in Tang and Song Dynasties in China was the way to drink matcha. It can be seen that the tea ceremony in China has a history of 1000 years, hundreds of years earlier than the present Oolong Tea Road. But unfortunately, from the Ming Dynasty, matcha was no longer popular, replaced by tea, and tea residue was discarded.

China Matcha Road was lost, forming a historical dating. At present, Japanese tea ceremony and Japanese matcha, which are quite famous in the world, were brought back to Japan by Rong, an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and matcha was preserved, inherited and developed in Japan. Japan's matcha and Japanese tea ceremony have now become the quintessence of Japan, and have been cited as national guests' gifts, which are regarded as the best in Japan.