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Tea customs in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou

These three places are main living places for minority of China. For the reason of geographical position, there's almost nothing exotic in tea customs here. Many customs of our ancients can still be found in these 3 places.

Grilled tea is populous in minorities such as Lahu, Bai, Wa, and Ni. The grilling utensils are usually iron pots, gallipots and bamboo pipe. They put pots on furnaces, then put in tealeaves, stir and grill. When tealeaves turn umber, pour water in the pot immediately. This kind of tea has great fragrance and strong taste.

Bamboo tea is worth mentioning while talking about tea customs in Yunnan. When you climb on bamboo house, Ni people will treat you with bamboo tea. The Ni girl in straight skirt and silver waistband will put tealeaves in bamboo pipe, which is newly chopped down. The old Botao (old Ni father) will use furnace to bake the bamboo pipe. The difference between bamboo tea and grilled tea is that bamboo tea is not only to make tealeaves dry, but also to intenerate and mix the fragrances of tea and bamboo. After 6 or 7 minutes, he will put more tealeaves into the pipe and press with a stick. When tealeaves are completely dry, he will cut the pipe open and put some tealeaves in a bowl and pour in to boiling water. A cup of bamboo tea is now ready to serve.

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