Tea Custom (Bai Three-Course Tea)

The tea custom of the Bai three-course tea is the most honoured courtesy tea of the Dali Bai, its progression of "bitter, sweet, reflective" growing from the Bai philosophy of "bitterness before sweetness." It entered the fourth national ICH list in 2014 as an extension under "tea custom," and in 2022 was inscribed on the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage as part of "traditional tea processing and its social practices."

Served by Bai girls and boys to the accompaniment of song, the three courses run: the first, leaves roasted in an earthenware pot and dashed with water, bitter with a sweet aftertaste; the second, enriched with brown sugar, rushan, walnut and sesame, deeply sweet and fragrant; the third, blended with honey, Sichuan peppercorn, ginger and cinnamon, sweet yet tingling with an endless finish, all bound by the etiquette of "tea for the honoured guest."

Weaving tea, life philosophy, hospitality and folk song into one, the Bai three-course tea is among the most recognisable symbols of Bai culture and an important part of China's traditional tea customs, inscribed with Chinese tea craft on the UNESCO list in 2022.

The three-course tea ceremony can be experienced on Erhai lake cruises, in the Yan family mansion of Xizhou, and in many Bai courtyards across Dali old town.