Chinese New Year’s tea traditions

What do you know about Chinese New Year’s tea traditions? There are thousands of different tea-drinking customs throughout the country during the Spring Festival

Respect for tea, hospitality with tea, making friends with tea, and appreciation of tea are traditional for Chinese Lunar Festival. Various forms of folk tea parties are even more dazzling! These tea parties have been held during the Lunar Festival for many years.

"Tea delivery" from Hakka in western Fujian and eastern Guangdong

In the Hakka areas of western Fujian and eastern Guangdong, there is a custom of "sending tea ingredients" when the New Year's Eve comes or goes out in the first month. These "tea materials" are mainly made of sugar ginger slices, orange cakes, winter melon strips, tangerine peels, orchid roots and other refreshments, wrapped in raw paper, and then pasted with a small piece of red paper to show the New Year joy. Elder relatives prepare "tea materials" to give to their descendants, while the elders in the village should prepare "tea materials" to send. Besides that friends give each other "tea materials" as a gift, meanwhile hosts prepare "tea materials" for their guests as well.

"Chinese New Year Tea" in Yibin, Sichuan

Sichuan Yibin has a custom of "putting tea first during Chinese New Year". Regardless of economic conditions, every family entertains guests for dinner during the New Year, and they have to serve tea before dinner. Poor people usually serve tea in thick earthen bowls and make tea candies out of sweet potato. The rich people’s tea is served in porcelain bowls, and the tea candies are made of malt sugar. After the tea, wine is served, and then the main course. There are usually nine bowls of different dishes. After the meal, guests should wash their faces and hands, and then drink a cup of tea.

Drink spring tea during the Spring Festival in Jiangnan

In the Jiangnan area, there is a custom of drinking spring tea during the Spring Festival. Spring tea means the welcoming of the new year. Old friends, who are close to each other, on weekdays start to take turns inviting everyone to drink tea at their home. In the morning of the day when it is a host’s turn to invite, they would send people door to door inviting tea friends, calling it "call for tea". Most of the spring teas are good green teas, and the refreshments are also very rich. Put a few petals of oranges in each pot of tea, and name it "Yuanbao Tea" according to the shape of the orange petals, which means "get rich in the new year". During the spring tea, the tea friends gather every day, changing the house each time, until every one of the tea friends has its turn, then the "spring tea" is over.

Jiangxi Guixi New Year's Eve "Teaching Tea to Friends"

In Guixi, Jiangxi, there is a custom of "passing tea to meet friends" during the first month. Every year after the tenth day of the first lunar month, when men are away as guests, women are initiated by the family, and they invite their close sisters and female guests from neighbors to have tea at home. After eating in one's family house, they change it to another the next day. Women gather together, eating and chatting, talking about everything from major events in the village to family privacies. It usually starts around one in the afternoon and ends at night.

Jiangxi New Year's Day "Eat Green Fruit Tea"

In many places in Jiangxi, it is important to eat green fruit tea on the first day of the new year. It is a bit astringent when it is first eaten, and it is full of body fluid afterwards, and the aftertaste is endless. It implies calm and peace throughout the year, with a sweet aftertaste.

New Year's tea customs in Wuyuan, Jiangxi

In the tea town of Wuyuan, the first tea merchants and members of the tea farmer's family must buy tea at the beginning of the new year. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the family gets up early. Parents lead the family to pay a New Year greeting to the "Zu Rong" (祖容), and then the younger generation pay greetings to elders. After the New Year's greetings, the whole family sits together. The housewife makes clear tea, serves a cup of clear tea for each person and everybody eats it with pastries in the fruit box, and then eats tea eggs and longevity noodles.

"Yuanbao Tea" during the Spring Festival in Western Anhui

In western Anhui, the custom of giving rituals with tea is extremely common. During the Spring Festival, "Yuanbao Tea" is often used to treat customers. The so-called "Yuanbao tea" actually means putting two olives or kumquats in a teacup to wish good luck in the New Year. In the old days, there was also a ritual for children who went to private schools. They used to ask the headmaster to have the "enlightenment tea". Nowadays, students should invite their masters to drink "teacher tea" and drink wine.

Jiangnan Spring Festival "Yuanbao Tea"

In the south of the Yangtze River, when guests come to the door during the Spring Festival, they must be treated with tea. Two green fruits or kumquats are placed in the tea, which is called "Yuanbao Tea", which means the New Year is auspicious and prosperous. In Rudong on the coast of the Yellow Sea, hosts who serve "Yuanbao Tea" should add a little of boiled water to guest’s cups while they are drinking. That means wishing "wealth increase".

Make "Yuanxiao Tea" during New Year's Eve

People in the eastern part of Hubei make "Yuanxiao Tea" to serve for their guests during the New Year’s greetings in the first lunar month. The preparation method of Yuanxiao Tea is quite peculiar: sesame seeds, add salt, marinate for a few days, and then pour into boiling water when drinking, this tea appears to be delicious and chewy.

Drinking New Year Tea in Deqing, Zhejiang

People in Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, have the custom of drinking Chinese New Year tea when the New Year comes. From the first day of the first lunar month to the third day of the lunar month, when guests arrive, the host respects them with a bowl of Chinese New Year tea. This tea is also called Si Lian Tang. It is made by putting a few red dates and lotus seeds in a porcelain bowl and pour it into sugar water. It tastes sweet and delicious. New Year tea is actually a kind of tea-free tea, in order to wish guests that their year passed smoothly and sweetly.

Tea drinking in Fu'an, Fujian

Fujian Fu'an has a long history of growing tea, so their tea customs during the New Year are quite interesting. People drink three cups of tea in the first day to have everything settled this year, and prevent themselves from lawsuits and diseases. It can be seen that people regard tea drinking as a kind of blessing activity, and tea has the symbolic meaning of keeping safe. In Fu'an, people are accustomed to treat each other with "bing tang tea" or "rock sugar tea" during Chinese New Year or festive days.

Guangdong Jiexi Hakka Lantern Festival "Vegetable Tea"

On the 15th day of Lantern Festival in Jiexi, Guangdong, every household makes 15 kinds of Lei Cha, which is called "cai cha", which is made by young women and little girls. They go to the vegetable garden early in the morning to pick 15 kinds of green vegetables. Among them, there must be green onions (it means that they will be smart in the future) and garlic (it means that they will count better). In the evening, they walk around the alley together, play for a few hours, and then go home to make tea and share it together, which foretells a happy and smooth New Year.

Jiangxi Fu Spring Festival "Cousin Tea" Drinking

Women in Fu County, Jiangxi, have a custom of drinking "cousin tea". Every year from the 16th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, women take their tea cups and after breakfast go to the first house to drink tea. Each day they change the house, until the last house has been visited. Because the participants were all married women, locals used to call older women "cousins", so the tea party was called "cousin tea". The bowl is filled with self-produced high-quality tea and brewed with "refreshments" such as ginger, sesame, and orange peel. The tea appears to be fragrant, sweet, salty, spicy, and has a unique flavor, which is endless after drinking.

"Camellia Party" during the Spring Festival of the Dong Nationality

There are also lively and extraordinary tea party customs in ethnic minority areas in China. Compatriots of the Dong nationality like to drink camellia oleifera, and tea oleifera parties of different scales are held in Dongxiang. On the morning of the New Year's Day, several families take turns to eat camellia, talking and laughing, celebrating the new year. This is a small camellia party with 10 or 20 people participating and it is composed of relatives and friends. In the event of weddings, childbirth, moving to a new home and other happy events, the host treats guests with tea. Master carpenters, master Lusheng, singers, and theater masters who return from work, bring back gifts they got and invited relatives and friends in the same village to eat camellia. These are medium-sized camellia parties attended by 30 or 40 people.

Also there is a "Yue Ye" cultural and entertainment group visits and guest activities that are held between the villages. After the game, the whole team returns to the village to hold the Quanzhai Camellia Ceremony. This kind of party has more than 100 people, and it is a large-scale camellia party. It is very lively, and the whole village sings and dances all night long.

Choose tea for your Chinese New Year celebration in TeaLao shop or message us so we can help you to choose the best one for you! TeaLao wishes you a happy and auspicious Chinese New Year!

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Infographic: Wlada Morgun

Text: Wlada Morgun