0_Wizard
I use teapots all the time to pour herbal mixtures and tea.
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea.
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Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the "Camellia sinensis", an evergreen shrub (bush) native to Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some, like Darjeeling and Chinese greens, have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have vastly different profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral or grassy notes. Tea originated in Southwest China, where it was used as a medicinal drink. It was popularized as a recreational drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty, and tea drinking spread to other East Asian countries.
Teapot
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. Dry tea is available either in tea bags or as loose tea, in which case a tea infuser or tea strainer may be of some assistance, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured. Teapots usually have an opening with a lid at their top, where the dry tea and hot water are added, a handle for holding by hand and a spout through which the tea is served. Some teapots have a strainer built-in on the inner edge of the spout.
Chinese herb tea
Chinese herb(al) tea or medicinal herbal tea ("Leung Cha" in Cantonese) is a kind of infusion made from purely Chinese medicinal herbs in Guangdong, China. It usually tastes bitter or lightly sweet and its colour is typically black or dark brown, depending on what kinds of herbs are used. Although it is referred to as "tea", it seldom contains any part of the tea plant ("Camellia sinensis") and is thus a herbal tea. Cantonese people boil what are referred to as "cooling" herbs in Traditional Chinese medicine to make herbal tea, which is consumed in order to relieve the "heat" and "humidity" in the body.
Tea culture
Tea culture is defined by the way tea is made and consumed, by the way the people interact with tea, and by the aesthetics surrounding tea drinking. It includes aspects of tea production, tea brewing, tea arts and ceremony, society, history, health, ethics, education, and communication and media issues. Tea plays an important role in some countries. It is commonly consumed at social events, and many cultures have created intricate formal ceremonies for these events. Afternoon tea is a British custom with widespread appeal. Tea ceremonies, with their roots in the Chinese tea culture, differ among Asian countries, such as the Japanese or Korean versions.
Korean tea ceremony
The Korean tea ceremony or darye (茶禮) is a traditional form of tea ceremony practiced in Korea. Darye literally refers to ""etiquette for tea"" or ""day tea rite"" and has been kept among Korean people for an over a thousand years. The chief element of the Korean tea ceremony is the ease and naturalness of enjoying tea within an easy formal setting. Tea ceremonies are now being revived in Korea as a way to find relaxation and harmony in the fast-paced new Korean culture, and continuing in the long tradition of intangible Korean art. The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in the year 661 in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro, the founder of the Geumgwan Gaya Kingdom (42-562).
Yixing clay teapot
Yixing clay teapots () (also called "Purple Sand" () are made from Yixing clay. This traditional style commonly used to brew tea originated in China, dating back to the 15th century, and are made from clay produced near Yixing in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. Archaeological excavations reveal that as early as the Song dynasty (10th century) potters near Yixing were using local "zisha" (紫砂 or 紫泥 ; literally, "purple sand/clay") to make utensils that may have functioned as teapots. According to the Ming dynasty author Zhou Gaoqi, during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor, a monk from Jinsha Temple (Golden Sand Temple) in Yixing handcrafted a fine quality teapot from local clay.
Herbal tea shops
Herbal tea shops () specialise in selling Chinese herbal tea. They are mostly found in southern Chinese cities. Back in the 1930s, herbal tea shops were not popular. There were only a limited number of street vendors that sold herbal tea on the street. In the 1940s, the popularity of herbal tea grew as the public realised the efficacy of herbal tea brought was higher. From then onwards, shops that only sold herbal tea opened in residential areas with a small floor area and gained in popularity in the whole of Hong Kong. Their primary source of customers was residents who lived nearby, and the owners or staff usually had an intimate relationship with their customers.
1_Apprentice
That's good, I have been meaning to ask when tea was first discovered
0_Wizard
Teapots have been around in China since the Yuan Dynasty.
The teapot was invented in China during the Yuan Dynasty.
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Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; ), was the empire or ruling dynasty of Mongolia established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. Although the Mongols had ruled territories including today's North China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Chinese style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279. His realm was, by this point, isolated from the other khanates and controlled most of present-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern Mongolia. It was the first foreign dynasty to rule all of China and lasted until 1368, after which the rebuked Genghisid rulers retreated to their Mongolian homeland and continued to rule the Northern Yuan dynasty.
Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming dynasty
The exact nature of relations between Tibet and the Ming dynasty of China (1368–1644) is unclear. Analysis of the relationship is further complicated by modern political conflicts and the application of Westphalian sovereignty to a time when the concept did not exist. Some Mainland Chinese scholars, such as Wang Jiawei and Nyima Gyaincain, assert that the Ming dynasty had unquestioned sovereignty over Tibet, pointing to the Ming court's issuing of various titles to Tibetan leaders, Tibetans' full acceptance of these titles, and a renewal process for successors of these titles that involved traveling to the Ming capital.
History of Mongolia
The area of present-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei state, the Rouran Khaganate, the Turkic Khaganate and others. The Khitan people, who used a para-Mongolic language, founded a state known as the Liao dynasty (907-1125) in Central Asia and ruled Mongolia and portions of the Russian Far East, northern Korea, and North China. In 1206, Genghis Khan was able to unite and conquer the Mongols, forging them into a fighting force which went on to create the largest contiguous empire in world history, the Mongol Empire. Buddhism in Mongolia began with the Yuan emperors conversion to Tibetan Buddhism.
Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia
The Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia was the domination of the Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia in the 13th and the 14th centuries. The Genghisid rulers of the Yuan came from the Mongolian steppe, and the Mongols under Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) based in Khanbaliq (modern Beijing), a Chinese-style dynasty that incorporated many aspects of Mongolian and Inner Asian political and military institutions. Actual Yuan rule extended to Manchuria (modern Northeast China and Outer Manchuria), Mongolia (both Inner and Outer Mongolia as well as part of southern Siberia), the Tibetan Plateau and parts of Xinjiang.
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire (Mongolian: "Mongolyn Ezent Güren" ; Mongolian Cyrillic: Монголын эзэнт гүрэн; ; also ("Horde") in Russian chronicles) existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in the steppes of Central Asia, the Mongol Empire eventually stretched from Eastern Europe and parts of Central Europe all the way to the Sea of Japan, extending northwards into Siberia, eastwards and southwards into the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, and the Iranian plateau, and westwards as far as the Levant and the Carpathians. The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of nomadic tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan, whom a council proclaimed ruler of all the Mongols in 1206.
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the – for 276 years (1368–1644) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by Edwin O. Reischauer, John K. Fairbank and Albert M. Craig as "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last imperial dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the Shun dynasty, soon replaced by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty), regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683.
History of the Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China and Mongolia established by Kublai Khan and a khanate of the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and became Great Khan in 1206. He and his successors expanded the Mongol Empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis' third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234 and conquered most of northern China. Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese, but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani.
1_Apprentice
Thats good. Which country makes the best teas in the world?