Bai three teas

The Bai people of Dali, Yunnan, who live in the foothills of the Cangshan Mountains and the shores of the Erhai Sea, have a unique ethnic tea art - three teas. As early as more than a thousand years ago, the Bai people had their own tea drinking habits, and the Ming Dynasty had already formed "Chuqing Tea, Medium Salt Tea, and Submicha Tea" - the early three teas. Later, it developed into the Bai three-course tea known today.

The first tea is called bitter tea: first put the small sand pot used for roasting tea on the charcoal fire to preheat, put in the appropriate amount of Yunnan famous tea, such as Jianshan Cloud Mist, Tuo Tea or Mao Qing Tea, etc., shake the sand pot with your hands, and when the tea color is roasted yellow and the scorched aroma comes out, immediately flush into boiling water, and then divide into small tea cups for guests. The tea leaves are pure, fragrant, and have the fresh and bitter taste of green tea, so it is called bitter tea, which reflects the simple, innocent and natural spiritual outlook of the Bai people.

The second course of tea is called sweet tea; in a delicate small tea bowl, add ginger slices, brown sugar, white sugar, honey, sautéed white sesame seeds, and sliced cooked walnut kernels as thin as butterfly wings. Add to this beautifully made sliced cow cheese and infused with boiling water to make a sweet tea. Sweet tea is sweet and delicious, nutritious, in order to entertain guests, express the deep friendship of the Bai people.

The third tea is called aftertaste tea, first put the spicy cinnamon, peppercorns, ginger slices into the water to boil, the boiled juice into the cup, add bitter tea, honey. When drinking, it is fragrant, sweet, bitter and spicy, and it is endlessly evocative.

The three teas of first bitterness, then sweetness and then aftertaste not only penetrate the hospitality of the Bai people, but also contain infinitely profound philosophy of life, which is thought-provoking and beneficial.