After reading "Dream of the Red Chamber", I realized that coffee latte art is a leftover from the ancient Chinese...

Expert of this article: Pa Lize, Chief Physician of Nutrition, Science Popularization Committee Member of Chinese Nutrition Society

Believe me, my little cuties

Have you watched the popular drama "Dream of Hualu" these two days?

In addition to coveting the beauty of "Sister Fairy"

Is there anyone like me?

For the drama

A variety of "fruits"

Douerguo, pear strips, peach rings, Bijian Douergao...

I cry every time I appear on camera, don't you?

The drama recreates the "Tea Opera" of the Song Dynasty

It is also highly praised

Many netizens said:

It’s simply “ancient version of coffee latte art”

Weibo screenshot

Some netizens also expressed their opinions

Questions are raised about whether the fruit in the play is authentic

So today we'll take a look

What is the real Song Dynasty fruit?

What kind of “play” is performed in the tea art?

Let’s watch together

What fruits were there in the Song Dynasty?

Which modern cuisine is closest to it?

Human beings' love for sweets may stem from ancient memories of asking nature for food, but sweets became accessible to the public only after human ancestors had basically escaped the threat of hunger and food scarcity.

Fruit, as an item that is not meant to fill the stomach, is a food that is consumed when society develops to a certain level.

During the feudal period of Song Dynasty in my country, with the prosperity of economy and culture, cooking methods and sugar-making technology have made great progress. The vast majority of people in the Song Dynasty were no longer satisfied with just filling their hunger for food, but began to desire refinement and rich variety.

Therefore, a kind of sweet food collectively called "fruit" began to be a delicacy for people to enjoy after meals, when drinking with friends, as a snack with tea, or alone.

However, the fruits of the Song Dynasty were by no means the "after-meal fruits" as modern people understand them, but rather a rich and diverse variety of sweet cakes and honey-based foods.

There are rich and varied fruits, such as Deer Ming Cake, Dou'er Fruit, Bijian Dou'er Cake, Fresh Flower Dumplings and other snacks made with glutinous rice, bean powder, mixed with refined animal fat and added with maltose (maltose) or tea; or tea snacks such as peach blossom fruit, fried cherry, Yuemei candied fruit, pear strips and peach rings, candied fruit carved spiral, fried ginkgo, Zhaobai lotus root, dried banana and other candied or dried fruits made by pickling in sugar, boiling in honey and drying.

The donkey rolls, date cakes, mung bean and yam cakes, plum cakes, hawthorn cakes and other fruits that are loved by modern people are basically similar in production techniques and ingredients to those of the Song Dynasty.

What is “Tea Art”?

Tea Opera can be understood as an extreme tea culture that has been popular since the Song Dynasty. It was also called "Tea Fencha", "Water Danqing", "Tang Opera", "Tea Opera" and so on.

Tea-playing began in the Tang Dynasty and became popular among the literati and scholars of the Song Dynasty, who had a stable life and a stable food and clothing system. In the Song Dynasty, tea cakes were generally made by grinding steamed tea leaves into fine powder, which was called ground tea cakes.

"Tea Hundred Arts" is a unique skill in which ground tea paste is placed in a teacup or tea bowl, and hot water is continuously poured into it from a soup bottle (a special kettle filled with hot water). This allows the tea solids to form a relatively thick covering film on the upper layer of the teacup, which is when the tea soup creates enough surface tension. Then, clean water is added with a teaspoon to make the tea soup appear in various changing patterns.

Just like modern people pouring milk foam on coffee and shaking it to make latte art.

Can we eat more fruit?

Guozi is a very unique dessert in China and a unique wonder of Chinese cuisine.

Chinese desserts such as flower dumplings, bean cakes, and Bijian bean cakes are so mouth-watering because of their naturally beautiful colors, moist and attractive appearance, and especially their soft texture and rich flavor that it is easy to want to eat another after finishing one.

Many people have questions: Is it bad to eat more?

Although these Chinese pastries are not baked or fried at high temperatures, thus avoiding contamination by harmful substances such as acrylamide and trans fatty acids, their main ingredients are basically starch, sugar and fat. Like moon cakes, they are high-energy, low-nutrient density foods. Eating too much can quickly increase blood sugar, which is also very unfavorable for weight control.

You should know that fruit is not food to fill your stomach, and there is no need to regard it as a necessity to satisfy your taste buds. Just taste it and don't be greedy and eat too much.

The watermarked images and cover images in this article are from the copyright gallery and are not authorized for reproduction