Local beverage customs originate from ancient traditions, with herbal tea being a common drink. Guests are always first offered hot water steeped with tea leaves as a sign of respect. During festivals and celebrations such as weddings and funerals, tea is invariably served to visiting guests.
Hot Tea: Whenever a guest arrives, regardless of their relationship, locals always serve a cup of hot tea first as a gesture of politeness and courtesy. Many people steep tea leaves in boiling water, adding ginger, salt, sesame seeds, and beans, hence this drink is known as ginger-salt tea, sesame tea, or bean tea. In the past, residents often used clay pots to boil water; since the 1950s, aluminum kettles have been mainly used to boil rainwater, with thermos bottles used to store the boiled water.
Leicha (Ground Tea): In Taojiang and Anhua counties, drinking leicha has long been a custom, with almost every household equipped with a ceramic grinding bowl, a grinding stand, and a grinding stick (a camellia wood stick about 1.5 meters long). To make leicha, tea leaves are first ground into a paste, followed by sesame seeds, ginger, and peanuts. This is then mixed with sugar water and boiled water, resulting in a drink resembling soy milk or milky broth. It tastes refreshingly cool and delightfully smooth, with a rich, sweet flavor. It can be enjoyed in all seasons but is especially popular in summer. When guests visit, it is served in large bowls, with hosts continuously refilling as guests drink; the more a guest drinks, the happier the host becomes. This is how regular guests are entertained. For rare or honored guests, while sipping leicha, an array of homemade snacks is also served, such as fried sweet potato chips, fried soybeans, crispy fried pastries, popcorn, pickled cowpeas, and chili-pickled radish. Since the 1980s, the summer custom of drinking leicha has gradually spread among residents of other towns in Yiyang, with some individual vendors even specializing in selling it.
Sweet Rice Wine Tea: It is commonly known as "boiled tea." During seasonal festivals, weddings, or celebrations like "Sanzhao Feast" and birthday banquets, locals habitually entertain guests with sweet rice wine drink mixed with egg drop soup. Some also add boiled red dates, lychees, and longans, along with whole boiled eggs, to the sweet rice wine, a variation reserved mainly for honored guests. In Taojiang County and the areas around Changyao and Wushenggong in western Nanxian County, serving poached eggs to guests is also a custom. All these practices continue to this day.
Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn