Teacups And Tea Drinking

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Although teacups and tea drinking is very commonplace all over Britain, they both share a point of origin in the country of China. Both the teacups and tea drinking revolve around the beverage produced by the tea plant which is native in the Eastern and Southern parts of Asia and were mostly found in countries such as India, Burma, China and Tibet. The earliest historical recording of tea being used as a form of beverage dates back to the 10th century B.C. in China. This beverage quickly become popularized and by the Qin Dynasty (The first imperial dynasty of China), it was one of the most popular beverages.

In fact, the popular cultures found in Japan and Korea were both derived from similar cultures found in China. Additionally, this beverage was not traded in Europe until the 16th century during the Portuguese expansion. Like the tea itself, the cups originated from China and were shaped as small cups without any handles where the drinker had to grip the handle around the rim. Drinking cultures however, have more specific methods when it came to drinking the beverage.

These cups were made originally with clay and then later during the Han Dynasty (200B.C.), porcelain was the main material used for them. It wasn't until the export of the tea leaves to the west that their European counterparts appeared. The European teacup consists of a similarly small cup but with a small handle for holding with a thumb and a finger and is usually accompanied by a saucer. As a matter of fact, Europeans have not only invented their own version of the teacup but also their own methods of drinking the beverage. In fact, if you compared the preparations found in both China as well as Europe, one could easily confuse the other for a different beverage.

Because it originated in China, drinking tea is somewhat a matter of connoisseurship. Tea-tasting events were even held in the Song Dynasty similar to that of modern wine tasting parties. China experienced two phases in their tea drinking culture which are the tea brick phase (Uses bricks of ground tea leaves) and the loose-leaf tea phase (direct use of prepared tea leaves). The tea brick phase involves the whisking of the tea powder and is still practiced in the Japanese tea drinking culture of drinking Green tea. In Japan, tea drinking is a much celebrated cultural tradition where the green tea is used for serving guests and also for celebrating special occasions and enjoyed with snacks.

One of the most well-known of these special occasions is the Japanese Tea Ceremony where tea is prepared and presented ceremoniously following traditional methods. As for the British, tea drinking is such a common habit that the British are the second largest tea consumers in the world. Tea here usually means black tea with milk added occasionally with some sugar added. However, despite existing cultural traditions, tea drinking in Britain has become such a habit that some people drink it all day long.

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