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Q: Why is it common practice to strain tea with your teeth, here in China?
Do Chinese people prefer to drink it this way? What happened to the ceremony?
There seems to be no distinction between rich and poor when it comes to drinking this way.
Personally, as a tea lover, I hate picking out pieces of tea from my tongue.
I have also noticed in many Chinese people, even young ones, a discoloration of the front, upper teeth due to tea straining abuse.
I'm just going to assume that pre-straining your tea is a newer method, relatively speaking. In the past I doubt people even thought of that or had a way to do so. Also, the tea here is kept fairly full-leaved, it isn't ground or in a tea bag. Sometimes, if the tea is green tea, and it's high quality, like Dragon Well, you can also eat the leaves. If not anything else...it would be inconvenient? My answer will always be that in China, it's convenience over practicality.
GoldenBoy:
Personally I thought maybe the cost of bagging it or the time to strain was a key factor.
slaves to tradition slow to adopt new ideas that's why