Chinese Food Culture: Junshan Silver Needle Tea

Produced in The Junshan Mountain in Dongting Lake, Yueyang, Hunan, the shape is as thin as a needle, so it is called Junshan Silver Needle, which belongs to yellow tea. Its finished tea bud head is strong, the length and size are uniform, the inner surface of the tea bud is golden yellow, the outer layer of pekoe is exposed completely, and the package is solid, and the shape of the tea bud is very similar to a silver needle, which is called "gold inlaid jade". "The gold inlaid jade dust heart goes, and the Sichuan Cave Court comes for a good month." Junshan tea has a long history, and it has been produced and famous in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that when Princess Wencheng got married, she chose to bring Junshan silver needle tea into Tibet.

It is rumored that the first seed of Junshan tea was sown by Emperor E and Lady Ying more than 4,000 years ago. When The second emperor of the Later Tang Dynasty, Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan, first returned to the court, the attendants held a cup of tea for him, poured boiling water into the cup, and immediately saw a white mist rise in the air, and slowly a white crane appeared. The white crane nodded three times at Mingzong and flew towards the blue sky. Looking at the cup again, the tea leaves in the cup are all hanging in the air, like a group of spring shoots that have broken through the ground. After a while, it slowly sank again, like a snowflake falling. Emperor Mingzong felt very strange and asked the attendant what was the reason. The attendant replied, "This is because of the water of the White Crane Spring (i.e., Liu Yi Well) in Junshan, and the yellow feathers (i.e., silver needle tea) are brewed." Emperor Mingzong was very happy in his heart, and immediately ordered that the Junshan Silver Needle be designated as "tribute tea".

In the Qing Dynasty, Junshan Tribute Tea was divided into "GongJian" and "GongZhu". On the mountain, the fresh leaves are first harvested according to one bud and one leaf (one flag and one shot), and then the buds on each young shoot are plucked and made separately. The tea buds made are like arrows, white hairy, as a Nagong tea, called "Gongjian". The tea leaves left over after the buds are removed are dark in color and have little to offer, and are not made as tributes, called "tributes". Junshan Silver Needle is an evolution of Gongjian tea, and the tea name was officially determined in 1957.

Junshan Silver has strict requirements for fresh leaf picking, and each mining period is 3 days before the Qingming Dynasty, and all the fat and heavy single buds are picked. The buds are required to be 25 to 30 mm long, 3 to 4 mm wide, and the bud peduncles about 2 mm long. In order to prevent scratching the buds and fur, the tea basket is usually lined with a white cloth, which shows the fineness of its picking. In order to ensure the quality of fresh leaves, it is also stipulated that "nine non-picking", that is, rain buds, dew buds, thin buds, hollow buds, purple buds, frostbite buds, insect wound buds, open buds, and curved buds are not picked. The harvested buds and leaves must be picked out and removed before they can be paid.

Junshan silver needle belongs to the yellow tea category, the production process is fine and unique, divided into 10 processes such as killing, spreading, initial baking, spreading, first wrapping, re-drying, re-baking, re-bunting, drying, grading and so on. Among them, "first package" and "re-package" are the process of wrapping wo huang with paper, which is the key process to form the unique quality of yellow tea. The entire production process lasted three days and nights and lasted more than 70 hours.

Junshan silver needle has a fat bud head, tight and straight, densely hairy, golden and shiny in color; The aroma is high and pure, the soup color is apricot yellow and clear, the taste is mellow and refreshing, and the leaf bottom is bright. Brewed with a transparent glass, you can see the scene of tea "three ups and three downs" in the cup. At the beginning, the tea buds are hung vertically in the cup, as if the ten thousand pens will sink later, and some sink and then rise, so that they rise and sink, up to 3 times. At the end, the bud head that sinks to the bottom of the cup is still upright, like a group of shoots breaking through the soil, stacking green and green, and the bud scenery is soup-colored, which is pleasing to the eye.

In 1956, the Junshan Silver Needle was praised as a gold inlaid jade at the Leipzig International Exposition in Germany, and won the gold medal, and has been famous at home and abroad ever since.

To be continued...

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