Tea tradition on the wane

From Beijing to Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Taipei, fast-paced modern life means that tea has little appeal for Asian youth who don't have the patience to wait the 10 minutes it takes to brew tea in the traditional way.

"I don't have any time or relevant tea culture," said Becca Liu, a 25-year-old college graduate in Taipei.

"I'm more curious to know how to make coffee," she added.

Determined to restore tea to its exalted status in Asia, tea lovers are trying to repackage tea as a funky new-age brew to a young generation more inclined to slurp down a can of artificially-flavoured tea than to sip the real thing.

Marketing strategy

Taiwan tea expert Yang Hai-chuan sells sachets of mixed oolong and green tea leaves at teahouses across Taipei, marketing them as hip flavoured beverages rather than the traditional teas that have been drunk for centuries.

"Consumption of traditional tea is declining because it's not being passed down," said Yang, who teaches tea brewing classes to a handful of students such as Liu, who sign up mostly because of the coffee-making section in the course.

"Basically there's no one promoting it."

Yang's concoction is just one around North Asia that's sustaining tea, despite pressure from coffee and other beverages, by catering to younger people's fixations on their health and a thirst for novelty.

In Japan, a new tea line is winning fans among young Japanese with its claims to reduce body fat, while a South Korean brand called "17 Tea" is popular for its claims to blend teas that cure a host of ills.

According to a Chinese myth, tea was discovered about 5,000 years ago by Shennong, a legendary emperor of China who was sipping a bowl of hot water when a sudden gust of wind blew some tea tree twigs into the water.

The rest as they say is history. Tea became a pillar of cultural and culinary life in Asia ever since, spreading to Europe in the 17th century.

The elaborate tea-making ceremonies of past centuries are largely defunct across North Asia, although traditional drinkers avoid Western tea bags and devoutly adhere to tea-making customs by pouring hot water from clay pots over tea leaves.

Teahouses across the region, from airport waiting halls in China to parks and temples in Taiwan, continue the tradition but mostly cater to senior citizens who are willing to pay up to $1 (Dh3.60) per gram for prime tea leaves.

Younger drinkers prefer canned tea, powdered tea, soft drinks and coffee. They increasingly refer to traditional tea as "old people's drink". "Our children don't want to carry on the traditions, so in the future it will be forgotten," complained Wang Cheng-long, a life-long bulk leaf seller in Taiwan's historic tea-growing region of Pinglin.

Brewing a pot of traditional Chinese tea takes more than a teabag. One tightly sealed sack of loose leaf tea, a seven-piece utensil set, good quality water and at least 10 minutes of patience are needed to make Chinese-style tea:

- Choose oolong or related varieties of tea from a vacuum-packed bag no more than a month or two old. Ideally use spring water, but if you have to rely on tap water then use tap water that's already been boiled.

--Fill about one-third of a small tea pot with tea leaves.

--Pour near boiling water, at about 90 degrees Celsius (194 Fahrenheit), over the leaves. Strain the water and throw it out. This first infusion, which is always immediately thrown away, washes the leaves.

--Pour more hot water over the tea leaves. Wait a couple of minutes and then pour the liquid through a tea strainer into a small vessel (part of a standard tea set) so it doesn't steep too long and become bitter. It should be a greenish yellow colour.

--Pour the liquid from the vessel into a tiny cylindrical sniffer cup. Sniff it the way you sniff good wine and then pour into a small drinking cup. Both cups come with tea sets. Drink contents of cup in three to four sips.

--Repeat from step No 4 until the leaves become too weak to yield any flavour.

--The third through fifth infusion are generally considered the best infusions of tea, although different teas react differently and may require additional infusions of boiling water to bring them to life.

--The temperature of the water depends on the tea. Ripe teas such as oolong should be made from 90 degree water. Use water at 70 to 80 degrees for younger teas. If the water is too hot then the tea will be bitter.

--Remember that tea making is more an art than a science.