A hand pours water from a long-spouted copper kettle into a lidded tea bowl from a height, the lid set by its saucer, beside them sit a dish of tea leaves and a platter of pastries, and a stone bridge and waterside houses lie behind.
Tea in the teahouse
Introduction
Tea in teahouses, and everyday tea customs such as the lidded bowl and the pouring of tea.
Teahouses and tea customs cover the tea-drinking habits of teahouses and everyday tea customs, including brewing in a lidded bowl and topping up the water. The lidded bowl has three parts, bowl, lid and saucer, the teahouse waiter tops up the water from a long-spouted kettle, and Chengdu's teahouses are said to be the finest under heaven. In the Song capital Dongjing the tea shops lit their lamps at the fifth watch and people drank tea there, and in Lin'an of the Southern Song there were teahouses such as the Qingle and the Baxian tea shops. The methods of making tea belong to Tang-Song Tea Methods, and the teas themselves belong to the tea classes.