The Dao Of Tea

You might identify with tea as a social beverage, but its lineage goes far beyond your local cafe’s brew. The Chinese concept of Cha Dao, which is steeped in history, rituals and healing, explores what really goes into your steaming infusion.

- Mascha Coetzee

When you’re feeling frazzled and run-down as a day unfolds, yearning for quiet and connection, do you ever find yourself reaching for a cup of tea? Have you ever pondered the mystery a bowl of tea holds, the calm, warmth and peace it brings into your day, miraculously gifting you exactly what you have been longing for?

Lu Yu, the Sage of Tea, who was born in 733 CE and lived during the Tang Dynasty, referred to tea as “the sweetest dew of heaven”. In his renowned Classic of Tea (Cha Jing), the first known monograph on tea, he wrote: “Tea tempers the spirits and harmonises the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the perceptive faculties.”

What is Cha Dao?

Cha

The Chinese word for tea is cha, and in Simplified Chinese the character ( ) comprises three parts. The top symbol represents a plant (or grass), the middle part indicates a person and the bottom radical depicts a tree. Among the several ways to look at the etymology of this character, both a person and a plant are involved in the formation of cha. This likely represents a connection, possibly harmony between a tree and a human, or epitomising tea as the plant provides a person with the sense of being rooted and balanced.

After water, tea is perhaps the oldest known drink to humankind and has been used as medicine for millennia. It’s the most consumed beverage in the world, with some sources saying more than 3 billion cups of tea are drunk daily.

Tea comes from the leaves of the camellia plant, which can be a tree or a shrub. There are more than 250 species, with Camellia sinensis var