H ang Out

in the Bridge of Tea Culture and Coffee culture

TITTLE : Chinese Tea and

American Coffee Cultures

NAME:Wei Wenjia University:HNU E-mail:2769322408qq.com Phone number:15716693250

Abstract：Tea and coffee play important roles in our life. And tea and coffee cultures are also broad and profound.

Keywords: tea coffee culture history exchange wealthy exchange

friendship

Introduction: Tea and coffee cultures have long histories and they are our valuable culture wealths. Through our culture communication, we can know more about each other and promote our friendship. So at this time, I want to choose the topic of tea and coffee cultures to make people better understand the eastern culture and western culture.

Body: Tea culture and coffee culture recently have been given more and more attention. Ok, today we will concentrate on these two fomous drinks ---- tea and coffee.

In the first place, let’s study the Chinese tea clture. You can see, we Chinese people, in our drinking of tea, place much significance on the act of "savoring."

Snatching a bit of leisure from a busy schedule, making a kettle of strong tea, securing a serene space, and serving and drinking tea by yourself can help banish fatigue and frustration, improve your thinking ability and inspire you with enthusiasm. You may also imbibe it slowly in small sips to appreciate the subtle allure of tea-drinking, until your spirits soar up and up into a sublime aesthetic realm. Buildings, gardens, ornaments and tea sets are the elements that form the ambience for savoring tea. A tranquil, refreshing, comfortable and neat locale is certainly desirable for drinking tea.

Chinese gardens are well known in the world and beautiful Chinese landscapes are

1 too numerous to count. Teahouses tucked away in gardens and nestled beside the natural beauty of mountains and rivers are enchanting places of repose for people to rest and recreate themselves.

China is a country with a time-honored civilization and a land of ceremony and decorum. Whenever guests visit, it is necessary to make and serve tea to them. Before serving tea, you may ask them for their preferences as to what kind of tea they fancy and serve them the tea in the most appropriate teacups. In the course of serving tea, the host should take careful note of how much water is remaining in the cups and in the kettle. Usually, if the tea is made in a teacup, boiling water should be added after half of the cup has been consumed; and thus the cup is kept filled so that the tea retains the same bouquet and remains pleasantly warm throughout the entire course of tea-drinking. Snacks, sweets and other dishes may be served at tea time to complement the fragrance of the tea and to allay one's hunger.

Chinese tea culture has a long history. Tea culture entered its most prosperous ear in Tang and Song Dynasty, which had evolved into a condition that the fashion drinking tea had extended all over the country and tea had thus won the status as national beverage. The Scripture of Tea appeared which promoted the Chinese tea culture to an altitude that had never been previously attained. Those continually emerging eminent figures in the tea industry propelled an intentional pursuit for water, tea, tea set and decoction in tea drinking to such an extreme elegance, perfection, delicacy and sophistication, so that in late Tang and Song Dynasty, an extravagant fashion was formed and occurred in tea culture.

2

Tea culture is of much elegance. In the contemporary society, tea culture plays a role of enriching cultural and leisure life, promoting the development of tea-related economy and trade, and propelling culture exchange between nations. In the 21st century, tea culture will grow to an even larger scale, involve an even wider range of fields, perform an even stronger function and bring an even closer integration of tradition and modern times which will in turn promote tea culture to an international level.

Tea culture is one of the common traits shared by all the 56 ethnic groups in China.

Many Chinese people believe that a day is not perfect without a cup of tea. Either in the warm southern mountain area or on the frozen northern grassland, stuff like

Gongfu tea, buttered tea and milk tea are all among the favorite drinks. Furthermore, both ancient and modern Chinese people tend to indulge in elaborating on poems, essays, dances and dramas on the tea. Chinese tea is part of Chinese culture. Many people likes drinking tea, and a lot of kinds of tea have become famous. There are a variety of good tea which attract many foreigns. So we must do more to improve the fame of Chinese tea .

Do you like drinking coffee? Next, let’s talk about the coffee culture. The history and development of the beverage that we know as coffee is varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political intrigue, and the pursuit of wealth and power.

According to one story, a sheepherder named Kaldi as he tended his sheep noticed the effect of coffee beans on behavior. He noticed that the sheep became hyperactive after eating the red "cherries" from a certain plant when they changed

3 pastures. He tried a few themselves, and was soon as overactive as his herd. The story relates that a monk happened by and scolded him for "partaking of the devil's fruit."

However the monks soon discovered that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help them stay awake for their prayers.

Another legend gives us the name for coffee or "mocha." An Arabian was banished to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant. Not only did the broth save the exiles, but the residents of the nearest town, Mocha, took their survival as a religious sign. The plant and its beverage were named Mocha to honor this event.

One early use for coffee would have little appeal today. The Galla tribe from

Ethiopia used coffee, but not as a drink. They would wrap the beans in animal fat as their only source of nutrition while on raiding parties. The Turks were the first countries to adopt it as a drink, often adding spices such as clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise to the brew.

Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia whose inhabitants believed it to be a delicacy and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. The government forbade transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations.

The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there.

Early in this century, the descendants of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region. cent III heard this

Coffee was believed by some Christians to be the devil's drink. Pope Vin and

4 decided to taste it before he banished it. He enjoyed it so much and baptized it, saying,

"coffee is so delicious it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it."

Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.

Tea and coffee are two drinks of the largest consumption in the world. Coffee is irreplaceable in the lives of westerners, whether it is in schools, companies or shopping arcade, people carry coffee and find pleasure in it. However, tea is not only a drink in Chinese people’s life, but also carries human emotions and culture. Tea and coffee, which have different connotation and history, are representative of the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Nowadys, culture has linked west and east, south and north. No matter western culture or eastern culture, they all belong to the cultural heritage of human being.

Culture is a subtle thing and nothing predictable at first glance. But it surely permeates in our daily life such as tea and coffee. The coffee made out in one vigorous effort is the life the Westerners always try to get; the perseverance of

Chinese tea is the kind of stable and peaceful life the Chinese want. Exude fragrance aroma as coffee does, Western culture is shone with deep and vivid tints though it also has a not-long history. The strong straightforward taste of coffee represents the westerners’ honest and direct way of standing in the world. As one of the representative of the Chinese culture, tea which has carried the colorful culture of several thousand years in China made its own tea culture at the same time. Chinese history is varied and need people to look closely enough. It is also on the behalf of the

5

Chinese implicit and euphemistic way of communication. From one learn all, perhaps this is just a picture to show tea and coffee’s position in Chinese and Western culture.

Conclusion: Tea and coffee cultures are the great wealths in China and America.

We need to treasure them. And through this culture communication, we can know more about each other and promote our friendship between China and America.

Coffee and tea were not in dissensions and contraditions. If we have free time, let’s enjoy these fancy and relaxing drinks. Maybe we can carry a cup of coffee on one hand and a cup of tea on another hand, just enjoy it .

Reference:

Baidu Library: tea culture and coffee culture

6