Making a cup of tea!

In standard Chinese we say pao4 cha2 泡茶. Pao cha means to steep or soak tea leaves – obviously in hot water. However, in Chaoshan hua we say cong1 dê5 衝茶 the cong which means within a dash. In gongfu cha, that is actually what we do – the boiling water is poured unto the tea leaves and the tea is decanted within a ‘dash’! In English slang, a dash is a very short while. Another meaning of cong dê [a Chaoshan hua word] is to pour boiling water over the tea leaves. Cong dê in standard Chinese is zhong1 cha2.

In Chaoshan tradition, we pour hot water over the tea leaves and within a minute we decant the tea completely and not allow the tea leaves to be soaking in the hot water and be over brewed.

For other Chinese, they brew tea or pao cha and allow the tea leaves to sit in hot water for sometime before decanting the tea.