Chabaixi, also known as tea painting, water ink painting, soup performance, or tea play, is an ancient tea ceremony technique that enables patterns and images to form in the tea soup. Its distinctive feature is that it uses only tea and water, without any other ingredients, to make characters and pictures appear in the tea liquid.
Commercial Value: The unique expressiveness of Chabaixi offers audiences a delightful experience, and its transformative function in the tea soup creates a strong visual impact. At the same time, the processing technique of its tea product—compressed tea cakes—differs from that of loose tea, resulting in unique quality characteristics, making it a new generation of tea product. The raw material tea (compressed cake) for Chabaixi can be used to demonstrate tea whisking and painting through the traditional method, displaying patterns in the tea soup for appreciation while the whisked tea can also be consumed. Additionally, the compressed tea can be brewed using modern methods and tools, making it a cross-era innovative tea product.
Cultural and Historical Value: Chabaixi is a precious cultural heritage of China. It serves as an indispensable physical representation of the ancient Chinese tea whisking and tea competition culture, and is an irreplaceable cultural resource with significant historical value for researching Song Dynasty tea culture.
Artistic Value: Chabaixi is a unique art form that uses liquid to display calligraphy and painting, suitable for presenting Chinese-style artworks. Ancient people also called it "water ink painting." It expands the expression of Chinese calligraphy and painting from solid materials to liquid materials, representing a leap from solid to liquid, and holds irreplaceable artistic value.
Health Benefits: Chabaixi offers unique health benefits. Using the tea whisking method, the tea soup is consumed together with the tea powder. Compared to modern brewing methods, this allows the human body to absorb more water-insoluble nutrients such as protein, polysaccharides, minerals, and dietary fiber, providing irreplaceable health benefits.