Tea drinking prospered in the Tang Dynasty. As it became more and more popular, the way of the drinking varied. Before that time, people were not particular about their tea drinking. They drank tea to quench their thirsty and for medical purposes. Beginning with the Tang Dynasty, however, people tended to have more delicate tea tastes and went through a rather complicated process in tea drinking. Usually one went through several stages before drinking. The first stage was to select tea; the second was to choose excellent tea cups and cooking utensils; the third was to prepare charcoal; the fourth was to get water; the fifth was to bake the chosen tea; the sixth was to grind it; the seventh was to boil the tea; and the final stage was to drink the tea. People thought that the taste would be better by going through the above procedures. They also took great care about water. The best water was from mountain, the worst from well.

At that time, Lu Yu published The Book of Tea, the first book about tea in China. There also appeared anther book Supplement to the History of the Tang Dynasty, which talked about tea from Mt, Mengding in Sichuan Province. This book says, “the local people have a custom of entertaining their guests with good tea. High quality tea falls into several different types, ranked first by taste and scent.”

This article by Yang Tianqing and Daniel Kister.