There’s this Chinese saying,
“濃不如淡、多不如少、高不如低、疾不如緩”
Translate in to English, which means
“Better light than dark, less than more, cool than hot, low than high, slow than fast”.
This is a popular conclusion many tea connoisseurs come up with after years of tea exploring. It’s a combination of philosophy, lifestyle, and tea.
When you make a cup of tea, you may start with the directions from the tea merchant, and later you’ll find your own “tao of tea”. No matter in what way you like your tea, it’s important to avoid “extremes”. For example, when you brew your black tea or oolong tea, you’ll want to wait for the boiled water to cool to 95C to pour on the tea leaves. Or when you start trying some new tea, you’ll always start from the lightest way than moving to the dark, after exploring different levels, you might find yourself coming back to the light one. And you’ll always sip your tea slowly, instead of drinking it like beer. This explains why TEA in Asia plays such an import part in culture, and even developed it’s own art, which is what we call “Cha Dao” or “Tao of Tea”.