Tea drinking culture of the Li people in Yunnan

The most popular is tea on the fire, which also has other names - "Tea in a jug" (罐罐茶), "Tea of a hundred shakes" (百抖茶). To prepare this tea, use large clay jugs, designed for the whole family, or small jugs for one person. Before preparing this tea, first heat an empty jug over the fire to remove moisture and excess odors. Then put only dry tea in the clay jug and begin to heat it over the fire, constantly shaking and allowing the tea to warm up. After waiting until the tea begins to exude an aroma when heated, add boiling water, and the tea foams. After waiting for the foam to subside, put the tea back on the fire and boil - and the tea is ready! This tea has a number of health benefits. Tea lifts the spirit and mood, clears the head, helps digestion, excretion of toxins, increases appetite! This helps to maintain the health of the Li people.

Other teas that Li likes also have a huge health effect - tea with salt, tea with rice (tea porridge), tea with honey, tea with nuts and honey, tea with fresh ginger and brown sugar. Tea with salt retains water in the body, tea with rice strengthens, tea with honey laxative. Tea with nuts and honey helps with coughs and cleanses the lungs. Tea with ginger and sugar warms in cold weather.

Tea drinking is used at almost any holiday, joyful and sorrowful ritual, receiving guests and other life situations.

Translation from Chinese by V.V. Skorokhodov