A tea ceremony is a ritualized form of making tea (茶 cha) practiced in East Asia by the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese.[1] The tea ceremony (Chinese: 茶道 or 茶禮 or 茶艺), literally translated as “way of tea” in Japanese,[2] “etiquette for tea” or “tea rite” in Korean,[3] and “art of tea” in Chinese,[4] is a cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of tea. The Japanese tea ceremony was influenced by the Chinese tea culture during ancient and medieval times, starting in the 9th century when tea was first introduced to Japan from China. One can also refer to the whole set of rituals, tools, gestures, etc. used in such ceremonies as tea culture. All of these tea ceremonies and rituals contain “an adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday life”, as well as refinement, an inner spiritual content, humility, restraint and simplicity “as all arts that partake the extraordinary, an artistic artificiality, abstractness, symbolism and formalism” to one degree or another.[5]

A hostess serves tea at a traditional Chinese tea house.
At a very basic level, tea ceremonies are a formalized way of making tea, in a process which has been refined to yield the best taste. Historical documents on the subject include the 8th-century Chinese monograph The Classic of Tea (茶经 Chájīng) and the 12th-century Chinese book Treatise on Tea (大观茶论 Dàguān Chálùn).

Source: Tea ceremony – Wikipedia