Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Posted by 醉茶生 at 09:18 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Flavoured

There are four women of ancient China who were reknowned for their beauty. No true likenesses have been preserved and their beauty is recorded only in metaphor. Xī Shī 西施 was so beautiful that fish would forget to swim; Wáng Zhāojūn 王昭君 caused birds to fall out of the sky; the moon would cover her face in cloud when Diāochán 貂蟬 walked by; and flowers would close at the sight of Yáng Guìfēi 楊貴妃. This is recorded in the phrase, 「沉魚落雁，閉月羞花」, which is today used to describe extreme beauty.

Yang Guifei (719 to 756 A.D.) was an imperial concubine in the Tang Dynasty, and through her influence, many of her family and favourites obtained preferment to high positions in government. One of her favourites, An Lushan, was promoted to the position of governor of three major frontier provinces in the northeast of China, which allowed him to build a sizeable army and to move outside of Yang Guifei’s sphere of influence. In 755 A.D., An Lushan led a revolt that almost brought an end to the fall of the Tang Dynasty. The Chief Minister of that time was Yáng Guózhōng 楊國忠, a cousin of Yang Guifei, and his gross incompetence resulted in the fall of the capital, Chángān 長安. Yang Guifei was blamed for the rebellion and the imperial bodyguard demanded her execution in exchange for their continued loyalty to the Emperor.

Yang Guifei adored lychees 荔枝, which only grow in the south of China. Come the autumn of each year, the Emperor despatched teams of horses and boats to rapidly relay the precious fruit to the capital at enormous expense. This display of extravagance was recorded by the poet Dù Mù 杜牧:「長安回望繡成堆，山頂千門次第開。一騎紅塵妃子笑，無人知是荔枝來。」*

It is said (unverifiably) that tribute tea was included as part of this precious cargo and that among this was lychee tea 荔枝紅茶, which was highly favoured by Yang Guifei and the imperial court. The tea is made from a black tea base and flavoured with lychees by mixing the tea leaves and dried fruit together on warmed trays for many days. The fruit are then removed before the dried leaves are packed for sale. The tea is today made in Guangdong 廣東 and Fujian 福建 provinces. Miss Neddy adds: Commonly too, fruit peels of the lychee fruit are dried together with the leaves, rather than the dried fruit. I have seen some descriptions of Lychee Tea which claim they use the juice of the fruit to flavour the tea, but I quite doubt that. The fruit is very juicy, and the juice is extremely sticky due to a high sugar content. Suffusing the tea leaves with the juice would likely leave a congealed mess.

*Miss Neddy attempts a rough translation: “Looking back at Chang’an, it seems pile upon pile of embroidery; the palace gates at the mountaintop [of Hua Qing Palace] open in succession. As the lone horserider raises red dust, the concubine smiles; no one knows if the lychees have arrived.” The poem’s title is 过华清宫绝句 Epithet While passing Hua Qing Palace.

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