Latte art (拉花艺术) is not only for coffee. "Painting" in tea is the Chinese intangible (culture) heritage that uses ground tea as raw material and uses water to make tea soup change patterns.
Cha Baixi or painting on tea soup, can be understood as extreme tea culture that was popular in the Song dynasty. Cha Baixi was first seen in the Tang dynasty, and it was popular among the literati (文人墨客) and (writer) of the Song dynasty who had adequate food and clothing and a stable life. In the Song dynasty, tea cakes were generally made grinding (碾碎) steamed tea leaves into fine powder.
The trick of Cha Baixi is (put) the ground tea in a teacup or tea bowl and use a soup bottle (a special kettle with hot water) to inject hot water without interruption, so that the solids of the tea water form a relatively thick (cover) film on the upper layer of the teacup. After the tea soup (have) enough surface tension, add water with a teaspoon to make the tea soup appear various changing patterns.
Just like the modern people are doing the coffee latte art, the tea soup made by Cha Baixi can be viewed or enjoyed. However, the preservation time of the pattern of the tea soup is limited, is its unique charm. The inheritance of an ancient skill is not as easy as we think. Cha Baixi experienced the heyday of "everyone fighting tea for fun" in the Song dynasty, and also fell into a long period of (silent) and decline in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of tea lovers, the Chinese tea culture (be) splendid for thousands of years, and Cha Baixi has radiated new brilliance.
