Delicious Sweetheart: The Origin of Matcha

In Chinese catering, when you mention milk tea drinks or cakes, you will think of Matcha, and Matcha is a delicacy with a long history. However, most people always think that Matcha comes from Japan, but in fact Matcha originated in China and only flourished in Japan. This issue of Food Culture will educate everyone about the origin of Matcha.

Matcha (called mocha in ancient China) originated in the Sui and Tang Dynasties of China. The young leaves of the spring tea leaves were steamed and then made into cake tea (tuancha) for preservation. Before eating, it is baked and dried again on the fire, and ground into powder with a natural stone mill. Since ancient times, literati and poets have left a large number of poems praising Matcha. "The blue clouds attract the wind and the white flowers float on the surface of the bowl," are the words of praise for Matcha by Lu Tong, a poet of the Tang Dynasty.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, people invented steamed green loose tea (Tencha), and also revised the method of evaluating the color and aroma of tea, and it became an indispensable daily drink for people. In the Song Dynasty, it developed into a tea banquet. Cai Xiang, the most famous tea critic and great writer at that time, commented on the method of tea fighting in "Tea Records": beat the group tea into small pieces, then grind it into fine powder, sift out the tea powder, Take two qian powder and put it into the hot tea cup, pour boiling water into it, and taste the color, aroma and taste, the best one is the best. Ru Dunhe of the Qing Dynasty said in Yue Yan Shi that in ancient times, tea must have a little bit of tea, and its matcha tea was a pinch of tea, and one or two good fruits must be selected for snacks, which is called light tea. The Matcha brewing method referred to here is the Chinese Tea Ceremony during the Tang and Song Dynasties. It can be seen that the Chinese Tea Ceremony (Matcha) has a history of more than a thousand years, hundreds of years earlier than the current Oolong Tea Ceremony. But it is a pity that since the Ming Dynasty, matcha has no longer been popular. Instead, tea leaves are used to make soup and the tea residues are discarded.

The matcha tea ceremony in China was lost, forming a historical epoch. The Japanese tea ceremony and Japanese matcha, which are currently quite famous in the world, were brought back to Japan by Einishi, the envoy to the Tang Dynasty, after studying in China. Matcha has been preserved, inherited and carried forward in Japan. Japanese matcha and Japanese tea ceremony have now become Japan's national quintessence, are used as gifts for state guests, and are known as the best in Japan.