【正文】 great therapeutic effects. One recorded examples shows that, among 20 patients suffering from high cholesterol(膽固醇 ), those who drank three cups of this tea every day for one month experienced a 22% drop in their cholesterol levels, but those who drank ordinary tea three times a day showed no change. (Zhou 160) Yunnan pressed tea is a suitable beverage for all ages. It is also known as a diet tea(減肥茶 ) and beauty tea as well. 4 C. Customs and rites of tea Teadrinking is a nationwide custom in China. Having three meals and tea a day. is a daily necessity for the Chinese. A mon Chinese saying runs, “when we get up in the morning, the first things we should get ready are firewood, rice, edible oil, salt, soy, vinegar, and tea.” Whenever we sit round a table, or have a gettogether with good friends, a cup of fragrant tea will give a rich flavor to the occasion. Most people are willing to enjoy their afternoon tea. When it es to summer or warm climate, tea seems to calm down the heat and bring on instant cool together with a feeling of relaxation. Based on this, teahouses abound in towns and market villages in South China and provide elderly retirees with the locates to meet and chat . Tea houses are everywhere in every town and city. Many elderly people often rise early in the morning and hurry to the tea house to enjoy a cup of tea. As shown by Lao she’s famous play The Tea house that a tea house is a society. 1. The great therapeutic effects of tea According to the Holy Farmer’s Herbal Classic, 2,700years ago, shennong often got poisoned after tasting various herbs he picked,. Later, he found a plant, tea, which could detoxify him. Since then, the Chinese people have treated tea as a precious medicine bestowed on human beings by the cosmos. (Wang 95) This story shows that the Chinese people first used tea as medicine. Some tea have great effects in helping to reduce high blood pressure, aid digestion, prevent coronary heart disease and lower the cholesterol. And some tea even be known as a diet tea and beauty tea as well. 2. Funeral and sacrificial customs and tea rites Tea has been used as one of the sacrificial offerings to gods and ancestors from ancient times in China. In Liu Jingshu’s Fantastic Garden, of the Southern Dynasty (420479), there is an interesting story(Zhou 157): a young widow lived with two sons. They were all fond of drinking tea. But before drinking, the young mother would offer a cup of tea to an ancient tomb in their courtyard. Her two sons became disgusted with this practice and decided to dig up the tomb. But they were stopped by the mother. That night a spirit appeared in that woman’s dream saying that “I am a spirit 5 living in the ancient tomb for three hundred years. I am grateful to you for your protection and offering of the fragrant tea. Though I am a heap of rotten bones, I’ll surely repay you.” the next morning they found in their courtyard one thousand strings of ancient coins with a new thread binding them together. From this story we know that offering tea to god or ancestors at the memorial ceremony had bee a practice. Archaeological discoveries have proved the custom of using tea as a funerary object. In an ancient tomb of Western Han Dynasty (.)unearthed at MaWangDui in the suburbs of Changcha, Hunan province, tea was listed in the brochure of burial articles. Although these customs were fatuous and superstitious, they also contained Chinese philosophies of life. The Chinese advocated that people should look squarely at life when they were alive, instead of leading a befuddled life as if drunk or in a dream。s tea. But afternoon tea is likely to be just a biscuit or small cake and a mug of tea usually produced using a teabag in the average suburban home. Having some hot or cold, sweet or plain every day is a very pleasant enjoyment. B. American iced tea culture America is known as the Kingdom of coffee, but amazingly half country people like to drink tea and create their own tea culture. The consumption of tea is over one billion US dollars in America annually. IN America most people like to drink iced tea. The United States is a country which pursuing a fastpaced. And the main tea consumption market is possessed by instant tea and iced tea. Instant tea produced in England in 1940, but popular in the United States. Currently, instant tea is very popular in the international market. Americans are interested in drinking cold, this 10 drives them to create a tea iced tea. From iced tea taste, variety, way to take, to drink, to package, to price, etc. , are fully consistent with the times. The convenient, fast, and diverse of American iced tea is not different with the modern drinks that popular in the present market, so the American iced tea culture is also widely spread around the world. Now, walk into any supermarket in China, you will find on the shelf displays a variety of different brands, different types, different packaging iced tea beverages. Of course American people have the tea rites that belong to them, some tea rites are as follows: Today in the western world black tea is the most monly consumed tea, ranking only second to coffee in its popularity. Americans may be unified as to a mon drink, but how they drink it is often unique to local or regional cultural. Where you live in the United States may decide how you drink it even though 80% of all served in the United States is served iced or cold,. In the South, most tea is iced and sweet and is drank around the year. Most Southern restaurants serve it sugar sweetened and with a slice of lemon perched on the edge of the glass. If you prefer it with no sugar in yours, order it plain or unsweet. When having dinner at someone