Reply To: Anecdotes about tea from old China

I have not read Good Earth, but I remember seeing some footage of a movie of the same name played by some Americans as Chinese. That was many years ago, I think the movie was made before 1949. It felt not real. I am not sure if ordinary tea was so precious in the old days, because there has always been the expression “粗茶淡飯” (meaning poor tea plain rice) to describe the humble life of lower class people. My grandfather used to say that.