When a customer orders the dish, hot water is poured into a bowl containing the flour(s) to create a paste-like mush, which is served with white and/or brown sugar and sweet osmanthus jam (桂花酱; guìhuā jiàng).

Other criteria for the servers' skills included the ability not to splash any hot water outside the bowl and spill out any flour, because traditionally, all ingredients are placed in a bowl into which is poured boiling water from a special copper kettle with a long, dragon-shaped spout called lóngzuǐ dàtónghú (龙嘴大铜壶; 'dragon-mouth large copper kettle'), and special skills were needed to handle this equipment.

Rather than sweet osmanthus sauce and sugar, it is seasoned with sesame paste, ground Sichuan peppercorns, and salt.

In Fujian and Taiwan, the mush (Chinese: 麵茶; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: mī-tê) is a sweet snack made with wheat flour and seasoned with sugar and sesame seeds.

Traditionally, the styles of serving were clearly different when the hot water is poured from the kettle: The way hot water was poured in Beijing cuisine consisted of the server standing straight up, with legs spread apart greater than shoulder-width, while the upper body leaned toward the bowl.

In contrast, the way hot water was poured in Tianjin cuisine involved the server being in a semi-squatting down position with body straight.