Tea Tip from In Pursuit of Tea:

It is surely not surprising that the sense which does not appear in the rules of tea tasting is the one which all the Chinese poetry and all the literature attached to the Japanese tea ceremony make the inevitably underlined aspect of the tea: its sound. The rubbing of tea being broken, but also the ritualization of certain sounds of chanoyu: the “snap” of the cleaning towel as it is offered, the “click” of the bamboo spoon on the bowl, the forced breath at the end of drinking the Macha-but above all the hissing or rumbling of the kettle. The shape of the samovar is even “designed so that the water, as it boils, will rumble in the space between the level of water and the top of the lid”(S.Yi), marking the three stages of boiling: firstly, it “sings”, then it “sounds”, and finally it “roars like a tempest”. In fact, a metaphor, taken from Chinese literature, was settled on by the Japanese as the catachresis of the drink: the kettle hisses “like the wind in the pine trees”.

In French, gargote designates a place where poor food is served and comes from gargoter, which described the sound of boiling. Levi-Strauss pointed out the incompatibility between cooking and noise-“noise”, from nausea shows the traces of this: ”The meditating action of the cooking fire between the sun (sky, heaven) and earth demands silence”. When tea is taken in Sikkim and Tibet, the churning instrument is operated in the kitchen so that its violence and its noise are logically confined there, while women and junior monks will take a large pourer to serve the tea. On the contrary, among the Tuaregs, in Taiwan and Japan, the tea is prepared in front of the guests and the sounds of the tea play a part: purring of the kettle, extended pouring from a height, little clinks on the table or the cups to express thanks. However, all these sounds are as it were specified, staged and “cut out”. They are surrounded by a halo of silence; or, rather, these sounds are there to highlight the silence. Much as the words of tea point to the suspension of meaning and the taste of tea to the taste of water. “One drinks tea to forget the noise of the world.” (Tien Yiheng)

Past Tea Tips:
Ceylon
Tieguanyin Oolong Tea
Why Pair Tea with Food?
Tea Classification
White Teas
Display Teas
For more information on drinks and beverages, read Charmaine Solomon's article on well-known drinks you may encounter in Asian travels or upon inspection of the refrigerator section of your local Asian grocer.