Mixing Milk with Tea

Part 1: The Origin of Tea Culture: Shennong and the Discovery of Tea

The discovery of tea by Shennong, the legendary emperor and cultural hero in China, could be dated back to around 2737 BCE (Teasenz). The name Shennong literally means “Divine Farmer” in Chinese, though he was actually a hobbyist in collecting and tasting wild herbs with medical benefits rather than a farmer (Teasenz). Being deemed as one of the three deified emperors of prehistoric China, he was dignified by his contributions in the discovery of herbs and fungi for medical use.

According to Records of the Historian, the ancient Chinese text in Han Dynasty written by Maqian Si, Shennong eventually became weak while he was diligently searching for safe food and remedies for those who suffered from hunger and diseases. At the moment he felt so sick and stumbled, he slipped and fell while holding some green leaves in his hands (Records). While he thought he would taste the leaves and pass away without regret, he was magically cured because of the healing power of the leaves that swam around in his stomach (Records). He was so happily surprised that he named the leaves after the name “茶”, or “cha”, literally meaning “checking” or “monitoring” (Teasenz). That was the only version of the folklore circulated in China about the discovery of the tea. Since then, tea had been used as an antidote for all kinds of poisoning in China (Teasenz).

Part 2: The Historical Fact about Mixing Milk with Tea in 12th and 13th Century China: Mongolian Salted Milk Tea (Suutei Tsai) and Tibetan Butter Tea

The consumption of tea mixing with milk first appeared in China around late twelfth century to early thirteenth century under the influence of the Mongols, which was precisely recorded in Yin Shan Zheng Yao饮膳正要 (YSZY), a dietary manual written by Sihui Hu in 1330. The name of the manual is translated as “Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and Drink” in A Soup for the Qan, a 2010 book authored by Paul Buell and Eugene Anderson that includes English commentary, translation, and introduction of the original manual. Beginning with the background of the author and the text YSZY, Buell and Anderson in the introduction neatly lay out the historical and cultural context of the rise of the Mongolian Empire and its successor states, specifically the Yuan Dynasty in China, as well as how food in traditional Mongolian society influenced the haute cuisine in the court.

Qubilai-Qan (Khan), the grandson of Cinggis-Qan (Khan), had first invaded China in early thirteenth century, and by 1276 he had conquered all China and established Yuan Dynasty (Buell et al, 3). Sihui Hu had been an “imperial dietary physician under several short-lived descendants of Qubilai in the early 1300s”, and thus he made a lasting contribution to the world thanks to his amazingly detailed record of the haute cuisine of this court (Beull et al, 4). In general, Yuan court cuisine as reflected in YSZY rests upon the meat-based diet in Central Asian pastoralism and the eastern idea of dietary medicine—they attached great importance to the nutritional value in food, which was recognized as a way of keeping balance in the body.

Hu, writing as a “court nutritionist”, aimed not only to just list out the significant recipes, but also to “improve the health of the whole court” (Buell et al, 9). Thus, the book also had a major influence in its medical use, though it was all based upon food and the eastern concept of balance. For example, the idea of maintaining and regulating qi气, translated literally as “air” and referring figuratively to “material energy” or “energy flow” within the body, is frequently brought up in the introduction of a specific nutritional function, or the medical value of a food recipe (YSZY). On the whole, Hu counseled a “balanced diet providing protein, minerals and vitamins” (Buell et al, 9).

Yin Shan Zheng Yao is divided into three Juan 卷 (chapters). The first Juan, the shortest chapter of the cookbook, contains the introductory materials and some general dietary rules and recipes inherited from the early sages in Ancient China such as Huangdi, Fuxi, and Shennong. Juan two is the main body part of the cookbook, constituted by recipes of beverage and liquid food, a detailed description of “What is Advantageous for Four Seasons”, a listing results of the negative consequences from over-indulgence, a list of food that cure the various illnesses, and a list of food containing poisons (Buell et al, 14). Juan 3 is an illustrated catalog of the dietary medicines of the entire work. 

• Evidence of milk tea, Juan One

The evidence of mixing dairy product with tea in Asia first appeared in the introduction of barley soup in Juan One, which was derived from the staple food in Tibet. In Buell’s analysis of the recipe, it is stated that barley was parched and finely ground as tsamba as the Tibetan staple food, and it was consumed with tea and cured butter in paste. The butter was usually directly made from the cow’s milk due to the abundance of the agricultural resources such as cows and sheep in central Asian pastoralism. Here we can infer that the Tibetan started mixing dairy product with tea in twelfth century even prior to the Mongols. Although it was only recorded as the barley soup in YSZY, it is reasonable to conjecture that the elites in Yuan Dynasty, a heterogeneous culture affected by multiple civilizations in central and west Asia, were probably supplied barley soup with the mixture of dairy product and tea as how people consumed tsamba in Tibetan society. 

• Evidence of milk tea, Juan Two

In Juan Two, there is a list of tea recipes, where the evidence of the combination of milk or dairy product with tea could be found under the roasted tea and Tibetan tea recipe. To make the roasted tea, one should use an iron cauldron to roast maska oil, cow’s milk, and tea buds together (YSZY). Here it is clearly stated that the combination of milk and tea is achieved in liquid form rather than in the paste form as the Tibetan tsamba, and thus the roasted tea has even more resemblance to the bubble tea in modern society. Similarly, the Tibetan tea, according to the recipe in YZSY, is decocted using liquid butter made from cow’s milk. It was originated in Tibet and was later introduced to the Mongols and became part of the tea culture in Yuan court cuisine in the thirteenth century.

• The Function of Mongolian Milk Tea as "dietary medicine"

Nowadays, the consumption of salted milk tea in Inner Mongolia still has its medical value, partly because it is derived from the eastern concept of dietary medicine reflected in Yin Shan Zheng Yao early in Yuan Dynasty. When my mother and I traveled to Inner Mongolia, we were impressed by how local people highly appreciated the nutritional value of Suutei Tsai (Mongolian Salted Milk Tea) and treated it even as a replacement for water. A resident told us that the mixture of brick tea with milk helped lower the high cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease that are largely associated with their meat-based diet. Thus it shows how milk tea is deeply rooted in the eastern concept of dietary medicine—a balanced diet is thought to contain the best healing power for the body.

Part 4: The Mainstream Perception of the Taiwanese Bubble Tea: A Western Beverage?

• The history of bubble tea

The bubble tea, originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, has gained its popularity in Western Society recently: it has been accepted widely and quickly, with the USD 1.89 billion annual sales across the globe in 2018 (CNN). Bubble tea is reportedly to be first created at Chun Shui Tang, a Taiwanese teahouse founded by Liu Han-Chieh, whose product manager Lin Hsiu Hui poured the traditional Taiwanese dessert fen yuan, a sweetened tapioca pudding, into her Assam iced milk tea just for fun (CNN). Since then, bubble tea gradually became a popular beverage that is unprecedented in scale and scope. 

• The Mainstream Perception of Bubble Tea

The mainstream perception of the Taiwanese bubble tea in Western Society is shaped by the assumption about the long dominance of British tea, sugar, and dairy product in Europe. It is deemed as a type of newly invented beverage in Taiwan that is based upon Western milkshake, and thus it develops quickly into the West thanks to its familiar taste with a mixing of dairy, tea, and sweetness. According to Miranda Brown, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Michigan, there is also a persistent belief that East Asian populations “don’t consume dairy due to widespread lactose intolerance” (Eater, N.P). On some websites with the introduction of as the Spruce Eats, bubble tea is even described as “a sort of milkshake in that it can take on any flavor you like” (Spruce Eats, N.P). As a result, Europeans are given the credit for the consumption of milk mixing with tea and sweeteners.

Part 5: Narrative Debunked—From Eastern Dietary Medicine to A Popular Beverage: Bubble Tea as a Recreation of Mongolian Salted Milk Tea and Tibetan Butter Tea

Miranda Brown also points out that when the Europeans first started showing up in China in seventeenth century, they “took home the idea that tea had to be drunk with milk and salt or sugar, as the practice of adding dairy to tea eventually fell out of favor in China” (Eater, N.P). However, as what’s stated in Part 1 and 2, tea is originated in China, and the combination of tea and milk, or any form of dairy products, could be dated back to early thirteenth century China, recorded by the nutritionist Sihui Hu in his masterpiece of the eastern food recipes and culinary beliefs affected by Mongolian and Tibetan cuisine, Yin Shan Zheng Yao. As a result, the bubble tea is intrinsically eastern, a recreation of the roasted tea, Tibetan tea and Mongolian salted milk tea that had already begun to appear during Yuan Dynasty. Though bubble tea gained the opportunity to be popularized thanks to its “western” taste as Taiwan tried to blend in the Western culture, it has been transformed from the early type of eastern dietary medicine for heart disease, which is deeply rooted in the culinary culture in Asia.

Part 6: Bibliography

“Shennong: The Legend of the Divine Farmer Who Discovered Tea First.” Teasenz, 7 Apr.

www.teasenz.com/chinese-tea/shennong-the-legend-of-the-divine-farmer.html.

Buell, Paul D. A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Sihui's Yinshan Zhengyao: Introduction, Translation, Commentary, and Chinese Text. Brill, 2010.

Lu, Houyuan, et al. “Earliest Tea as Evidence for One Branch of the Silk Road across the

Tibetan Plateau.” Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 7 Jan. 2016,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704058/.

Hui, Husi. Yin Shan Zheng Yao: San Juan. Guo Jia Tu Shu Guan Chu Ban She, 2011.

Zhang, Jenny G. “How Bubble Tea Became a Complicated Symbol of Asian-American Identity.” Eater, Eater, 5 Nov. 2019, www.eater.com/2019/11/5/20942192/bubble-tea-boba-asian-american-diaspora.

• Websites for Images:

 https://www.teasenz.com/chinese-tea/shennong-the-legend-of-the-divine-farmer.html 

 https://www.teasenz.com/chinese-tea/shennong-the-legend-of- the -divine-farmer.html 

https://new.qq.com/omn/20181102/20181102A1TFYM.html

https://www.pinterest.ch/pin/417497827933963284/

https://www.amazon.com/History-Chinese-Medicine-representative-Sihui/dp/7513231141

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chinese-eggplant-drawing-From-Hu-Sihui-Yinshan-Zhengyao-1330-Buell-and-Anderson_fig6_237536956

http://thewanderingeater.com/2016/12/02/best-bubble-tea-at-chun-shui-tang-%E6%98%A5%E6%B0%B4%E5%A0%82/

https://www.goldthread2.com/videos/who-invented-bubble-tea/article/3001018

https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/bubble-tea-market-101564