Cong Fine Arts is glad to announce that our Tea Ceremonies are finally open! Start from 19.00h to 21.00h Friday 6th of May, every Friday night we are here to share with you the mysterious eastern rituals of our minds, bodies and souls.
In our ceremonies of May, there will be two extraordinary tea introduced each week: Tie Guanyin-one of the best oolong tea and Lapsang Souchong-the first red tea in the world. So today, let’s talk about this “first red tea in the world” a little bit, I am sure that you will find it really interesting after reading!
An unexpected accident
It was in the year of 1568, a tea farmer who called Jiang was extremely busy with picking the fresh spring tea in his farm, in Fujian, China. He was really excited because this year his tea trees are growing very well, his family can finally have some savings for his son’s wedding. All his families were helping in his tea farm and his small tea factory in his home, the profit of tea selling was the only income of the whole family.
However, good times are always short, a war started. It was an afternoon, Jiang heard about that there will be an army passing by his village soon, he knew that these soldiers will do no good for his families and his tea. But Jiang didn’t have time to prepare, he took some food and water, then called all his family members to leave their home and go hide in the mountains.
The next morning, an army occupied the village and the tea factory for a temporary rest. The soldiers put all the equipments they brought with them on the tea leaves, and some soldiers simply slept on the tea leaves.
After the army left, the tea farmer returned in a hurry and seeing that the fresh tea leaves at home had undergone extensive red due to excessive fermentation, Jiang was really anxious. His family need money, especially now in a war time.
Jiang had no choice but to recover some losses, he immediately organized his family to rub the tea leaves that had been fermented. In order to save time and prevent the green tea from continuing to ferment and turn red, after rubbed the tea leaves, he took some firewood that he usually use for cooking to heat and dry the tea leaves directly. He was running against time.
What Jiang never dreamed of was that this unintentional act in order to recover some losses resulted in the emergence of a great tea-making process in the history of tea. Pine branches and pine needles were used for baking the tea leaves, which greatly changes the style and taste of tea, and forms a new variety of tea with both the aroma of mellow pine smoke and the aroma of dried longan.
Keep calm and drink Lapsang Souchong
Because the different procedures of making Lapsang Souchong, it brought more benefits to our health.
1. Feel really hot in the summer? Drink hot Lapsang Souchong!
This is not a joke! Actually, rinking Lapsang Souchong in summer can quench thirst and relieve heat, because the polyphenols, sugars, amino acids, pectin in the tea have a chemical reaction with the saliva, and stimulate the secretion of saliva, causing the mouth to feel moist and cool; at the same time, Alkaline controls the body temperature center of the hypothalamus, regulates body temperature, it also stimulates the kidneys to promote the excretion of heat and dirt, and maintain the physiological balance in the body.
2. Anti-inflammatory and bactericidal effect
The polyphenolic compounds in Lapsang Souchong have anti-inflammatory effects, and through experiments, it was found that catechins can combine with single-cell bacteria to coagulate and precipitate proteins, thereby inhibiting and eliminating pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, it is very beneficial for patients with bacterial rheumatism and food poisoning. The Chinese also often use strong tea to smear wounds, bedsores and athlete's foot.
3. Not feeling good with the water you drink?
Experiments have shown that the polyalkaloids in Lapsang Souchong can absorb heavy metals and biological alkaloids, and precipitate and decompose, which is a boon for modern people whose drinking water and food are polluted by industry.
4. Have some problem in the bathroom?
Under the combined effect of caffeine and aromatic substances in Lapsang Souchong, the blood flow of the kidneys is increased, the glomerular filtration rate is increased, the renal microvessels are expanded, and the reabsorption of water by the renal tubules is inhibited, thus contributing to the increase of urine output. This is beneficial to eliminate lactic acid, uric acid (related to gout), excessive salt (related to high blood pressure), harmful substances, etc. in the body, as well as to relieve edema caused by heart disease or nephritis.
In addition, Lapsang Souchong also has the functions of preventing caries, strengthening the stomach, improving digestion, delaying aging, lowering blood sugar, lowering blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, anti-cancer, and anti-radiation. Black tea is also an excellent sports drink. If you drink it before sports that require physical strength and stamina (such as marathon running), because the caffeine in tea has a refreshing effect, it can also promote the body to burn fat first to supply heat and retain liver vinegar during exercise. more staying power.
The magic of Lapsang Souchong
Lapsang Souchong as a type of red tea have a lot of different producers, what we choose in Cong Fine Arts is the organic Lapsang Souchong tea from the deep mountains in Fujian, China. Without any industrial processing, using human hands in picking, rubbing and baking just like the tea farmer Jiang 400 years ago. The “handmade Lapsang Souchong” have a special flower taste, it has more fragrance of nature which can make a direct connection from our mind to the nature.
So, this is our first tea blog, we have more blogs are coming, each time we will talk about one type of tea, next time we will have a deep conversation about Tie Guanyin, please stay tuned!
