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What is Leicha Etiquette

Lei Cha is a kind of food for daily use. It has the functions of dispelling cold, health care, beauty, and prolonging life. It is also a must-have product for entertaining guests. Or offering sacrifices to ancestors, or commercial trade, etc., none of them can do without tea.

For example, “tea party” refers to a social gathering where refreshments are used to connect feelings and entertain guests, and such gatherings have continued. For example, “tea ceremony” refers to a term in “rituals”. In the old days, the gift for bribing officials was called “tea ceremony”.

For example, “tea ceremony” refers to the dowry gift, also known as “shoucha”, which is synonymous with women’s engagement in old times. Chen Yaowen’s “Tianzhongji” Volume 44 “Tea Planting” says: “Every tea tree planted will bear fruit, but it will not regenerate when transplanted. Therefore, tea is a gift for women who are hired by the common people. It is righteous to take something.”

For example, “tea food” refers to entertaining guests with pastries and snacks during weddings. “Golden Kingdom Chronicles. “Marriage” says: “The son-in-law accepts money, and all of them pay homage to the door first, and the relatives accompany them, and go with wine and food…the next time they enter honey cakes, each of them has a plate, and it is called tea and food.”

For example, “tea party” refers to a gathering of old Chinese merchants conducting transactions in teahouses. All trades and gangs generally have their agreed teahouses as meeting places, and merchants discuss the market and conduct transactions while drinking tea. and so on. If Lei Cha is a simple and unpretentious “mother”, then later tea is a “daughter” who has been dressed up, and the blood relationship between “mother and daughter” cannot be severed no matter what. This cultural background is an important prerequisite for Lei Cha to be passed down in the Hakka area.

The practice of Lei Cha

When making Lei Cha, first put the raw materials in the bowl and beat them with wooden sticks to make a pulp, which is called “Lei Cha Jiaozi”. Most of the sticks are wild pepper wood. Because the pounding stick made of wild pepper wood can leave a light and long-lasting fragrance in the Leicha when it is pounded, and it can also keep the “leicha feet” from rot for a long time. With the passage of time, the variety of Lei Cha has increased day by day, which can be summarized into two main categories, namely “clear water Lei Cha” and “fuzzy Lei Cha”.

How to drink Lei Cha

When brewing Lei Cha, first put an appropriate amount of “foot” in a bowl, then dissolve it with a little cold water, and then pour it into boiling water. If you wash it directly with boiling water, the dregs will be dregs and the soup will be soup, which is not like Lei Cha. When drinking Lei Cha, there are often some farmhouse-made non-staple foods on the table, which is called “pressing the table”. These “press tables” are sweet, sour, salty, spicy, full of five flavors, and have a unique flavor. There are some kinds of lei cha with sugar, some with salt, or neither sugar nor salt, so that the original flavor of lei cha is stronger.

Lei Cha must be drunk while it is hot. It tastes spicy, fragrant, salty, or sweet. Its taste is endless and better than fine wine. The time to drink lei cha varies from place to place. Some have it for lunch, some have it as a drink between breakfast and lunch, and some have it as a midnight snack during festive festivals. People drank Lei Cha and ate “pressing the table”, chatting and laughing happily and full of interest.

The courtesy of drinking Lei Cha

Drinking Lei Cha has developed to this day, and it has become a Lei Cha party where relatives and friends get together and neighbors communicate with each other. The elders are invited to sit up, and everyone is close to each other. The guests are invited by the host’s house, and some guests invite each other, and even self-recommendation And those who sit at will, the participants are from beginning to end, some enter halfway, and some leave halfway.

During the banquet, everyone can choose their favorite food, and add more after eating. The guests drink quickly, and the host pours them frequently. If the guests like it, the host also gives it away. During the dinner, guests even asked the host for money. The more participants, the more lively the scene. The host family likes it the most, which not only shows that the host family has high craftsmanship, the taste of “pressing the table” is good, but also shows that the host family is popular.