A hand whisks snow-white froth with a bamboo whisk in a large black-glazed bowl streaked with fine brown hare's-fur lines, and a dish of powdered tea, a wooden tea spoon and a long-spouted ewer stand beside it.
Boil and whisk
Introduction
Tang decocted tea, Song whisked tea and the other ways of making tea through the ages.
Decocting and whisking tea covers the ways of making tea from the Tang and Song on. In Lu Yu's Cha Jing of the Tang, the tea cake is roasted and ground to powder once it has cooled, and the boiling goes through three stages, the first when the water shows small bubbles like fish eyes and sounds faintly. In the Song, whisking became the way: powdered tea is put in a bowl, boiling water poured over it, and the tea whisked to a froth. Emperor Huizong's Da Guan Cha Lun has sections on the whisk, the bowl and the whisking, while Cai Xiang's Cha Lu uses a tea spoon and recommends a black bowl. Service and customs in teahouses belong to Teahouses and Tea Customs, and the tea itself belongs to the classes by kind.