You may have heard of café latte, but have you ever heard of a similar art in a cup of tea?
In 2022, with the explosive popularity of the TV series “A Dream of Splendor” in China, a traditional tea art known as “Tea hundred play（茶百戏Cha Baixi）” re-entered the public’s view. This series tells the story of the protagonist Zhao Pan’er running a teahouse during the Song Dynasty. The show details the tea-making techniques and tea-tasting customs of the Song Dynasty. Among them, the most astonishing scene is when Zhao Pan’er uses a tea spoon to create a painting on the surface of the tea. This craft is a cultural treasure of China that has been passed down for hundreds of years—tea hundred play.
Tea hundred play, also known as water danqing, is a unique art form that uses tea paste as the raw material and creates patterns in the tea with clear water. It is also the only art form in Chinese history known to paint with water. Tea hundred play originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. During the Song Dynasty, it was favored by scholars and literati and was considered a symbol of elegance. After the Yuan Dynasty, tea hundred play gradually declined, and by the Qing Dynasty, it was nearly lost.
To revive this ancient technique, intangible cultural heritage inheritor Zhang Zhifeng spent more than twenty years of relentless practice to rediscover the long-lost ancient Chinese tea-making method, fully restoring tea hundred play. According to Zhang Zhifeng, a complete tea hundred play process involves over a dozen intricate steps, including roasting tea, crushing tea, grinding tea, sieving tea, preparing water, warming the cup, taking tea powder, making paste, adding water, stirring, and dividing the tea, which is extremely complex.
Song Dynasty people enjoyed creating foam in their tea, also known as “pointing tea.” The tea stirring method used for pointing tea produces a large amount of foam. Tea hundred play involves painting with clear water on the tea surface. In this process, the tea spoon acts as the brush, clear water as the ink, and the tea surface as the canvas, making it suitable for depicting the artistic conception of Chinese paintings and traditional auspicious patterns.
Let’s watch the whole process of Tea hundred play through this video!
Is Tea hundred play the same as coffee latte art?
Many people think that tea hundred play is the same as coffee latte art. In reality, coffee latte art and tea hundred play have significant differences in many aspects. They only appear similar in form, but they are fundamentally different.
Firstly, the principles behind tea hundred play and coffee latte art are different. Tea hundred play uses tea and water to create various patterns, whereas coffee latte art is formed through the blending of coffee and milk. This fundamental difference sets them apart.
Secondly, the longevity of the patterns in tea hundred play and coffee latte art varies greatly. It is well known that foam can only exist for a very short time. This means that the patterns in tea hundred play, which are formed on the surface of the tea, will naturally disappear after a while. In contrast, the patterns created by coffee latte art are fixed and do not easily disappear.
Finally, the imagery created by tea hundred play and coffee latte art differs. Scholars and literati of the Song Dynasty placed great emphasis on artistic conception. The patterns depicted in tea hundred play often consist of traditional Chinese calligraphy and paintings, with layered images of characters, mountains, and animals, highlighting the beauty of artistic conception.