Mr. Huang, a tea friend in Guangzhou, asked: Hello, there are two kinds of Liupao tea on the market, how should I choose?
At present, Liupao tea can be divided into: "traditional craft Liupao tea" and "modern craft Liupao tea" according to different processes. (There are also tea lovers who habitually call them "farmhouse tea" and "manufacturer tea")
How should we correctly view these two processes, and how should we consider them when purchasing? Today, we're going to talk about that.
1. Look at the development of the craft from history
Let's take a look back at history and see why two-process Liupao tea is on the market today.
Liupao tea has a long history, but in the past the written records of its craftsmanship are very rare, and now we can only sort out the development process of Liupao tea technology from the mouths of some old tea makers and the literature of experts and scholars.
Throughout history, I think the development of the Liupao tea process has gone through the following stages:
Stage 1: Mid-Qing Dynasty ~ 1950s
(Keywords: pile stuffy, cooking steam basket)
In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of Chinese migrated across the sea to Nanyang in order to make a living and escape the chaos of war. Because the local climate is hot and humid, Liupao tea to relieve heat and dampness has begun to prevail in Nanyang. The business opportunities were detected by the astute local and Guangdong merchants, who soon began to enter the town of Liubao to collect tea, and then transported the tea leaves along the waterway (tea boat ancient road) to Places such as Sui, Hong Kong and Macao, sieved, repackaged, and then sold to Nanyang.
In the past, the production process of Liupao tea was relatively simple, following the old method, and after being killed and dried, it was sold to tea merchants. However, with the expansion of the export demand for Liupao tea, the production process of Liupao tea began to have a new development.
Tea Boat Trail Route Map
First of all, due to the limited productivity at that time, tea farmers would have a part of the tea leaves every day that were too late to finish the day, so they could only knead them and pile them together and process them the next day. Later, everyone found that after a night of stuffiness, the bitter taste of the tea leaves was greatly reduced, the taste became mellow, and the taste was more accepted by the public, so they added the "pile stuffiness" to the production process of Liupao tea.
In addition, in order to facilitate long-distance transportation, the tea chamber will steam the tea leaves to soften and then press them into bamboo baskets. This saves space and reduces crushing losses during transport of tea leaves. Unexpectedly, this practice makes the taste of Liupao tea more mellow. Therefore, later everyone added "cooking steaming basket" to the process, which has been used to this day.
During this period, the production process of Liupao tea was roughly as follows: killing green, kneading, piling, re-kneading, drying, steaming, drying, drying. This is basically what we call "traditional craftsmanship" today.
Phase Two: The 1950s
(Keywords: baking process, cellar aging)
In the early 1950s, the state vigorously developed tea production, began to implement the policy of unified purchasing and marketing, and banned private tea merchants from purchasing raw tea.
At that time, the Guangzhou branch of china tea industry company set up an office in Wuzhou, and set up a tea refining factory (later Wuzhou Tea Factory) on Jiaozui Road in Wuzhou, responsible for the processing and production of Liupao tea. Since then, Liupao tea has begun to transform from long-term handicraft workshop production to industrial large-scale production. A large amount of Liupao Mao tea is transported to the tea factory, and after unified finishing, it is then transported to Sui, Hong Kong and Macao for transshipment and export.
At that time, on the basis of following the traditional practice, on the one hand, the tea factory improved the production tools, improved the process of tea screening and impurity removal; on the other hand, inspired by the past "pile stuffiness" and "cooking steam pressure", before the final cooking steam pressure basket, a "baked pile" fermentation process was added. The so-called "baked pile" is to pile together the tea leaves that have been steamed. Its purpose is to allow the tea blank to ferment under the action of damp heat and improve the color and taste of the soup.
At the same time, because the tea factory is located at the foot of Wuzhou Zhushan Mountain, where there are air raid shelters left in the previous wartime, there are advantages of warm winter and cool summer, which is naturally a good place to store tea. Therefore, after the tea leaves are made, they will be put into the hole to age. Over time, we have found that the suitable environment of the air raid shelter can make Liupao tea age a unique flavor, which is recognized by the market. Therefore, everyone has included "cellar aging" in the tea making process.
During this period, the process of Liupao tea gradually developed into: greening, kneading, piling, re-kneading, drying, impurities removal, screening, initial steaming, baking heap, re-steaming, pressing, drying, cellar aging.
Phase 3: 1960s to 1990s
(Keywords: cold fermentation, Wodui process)
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hong Kong tea merchants reported that the Liupao tea soup produced by the process at that time was not red and bright enough to meet the needs of the market.
Therefore, under the leadership of the Guangxi Provincial Branch of the Chinese Tea Export Company at that time, the technical force was organized to study the production process, improve the fermentation process, and try to replace the original "baked pile" hot fermentation with the way of "adding water" cold fermentation.
In 1958, the trial production of Liupao tea under the modern cold water Wodui process was successful, and partial mass production began in the same year until it was fully adopted in 1965. Since then, the cold fermentation process of "adding water" and the hot fermentation process of the original "baking pile" have become the two branches of the refining processing of Liupao tea, and the "modern process" of Liupao tea has officially taken shape.
Early photograph of workers in the Wodui workshop fermenting the sprinklers of water on the tea heap (Photo by Mai Zhaoshu)
Stage 4: Late Twentieth Century ~ Present
(Keywords: maturity and stability, standardization, innovation)
Around 2000, the rise of Pu'er tea led to the domestic black tea fever, and the domestic market for Liupao tea began to develop. In order to improve production capacity and stabilize quality, each Liupao tea enterprise has made different degrees of improvement and perfection in production equipment and production process, but the overall process is basically consistent with the above third stage, and the overall technology is becoming more and more mature.
At the same time, there are still many tea farmers in Liupao Town who still use traditional techniques to make Liupao tea, the taste of this type of tea is different from the tea that has been refined by the manufacturer, the fermentation is much lighter, but there are also many followers in the market. Therefore, so far, traditional and modern two processes coexist, so that Liupao tea shows a variety of styles, to build a rich Liupao tea flavor system.
Later, in order to standardize and unify the process, the relevant departments have formulated and issued a number of Liupao tea standards, and made a clear definition of the process of Liupao tea. This means that the production process of Liupao tea has entered a mature, stable and standardized stage.
Traditional craftsmanship:
It adopts the process of killing, initial kneading, stacking, re-kneading, drying, screening, blending or non-mixing, steaming or not steaming, pressing or not pressing, aging or not aging, and not fermenting by Wodui.
Modern craftsmanship:
2. How to correctly view the two processes?
Liupao tea process is constantly developing along with changes in market demand, and modern technology is developed on the basis of traditional craftsmanship, and the two are in the same vein. If you want to learn about Liupao tea, practicing "traditional" and "modern" Liupao tea is the only way to enter the high order.
Traditional craftsmanship keeps the root of culture, and modern craftsmanship keeps the soul of craftsmanship. There is no difference between the two advantages and disadvantages, and they can make high-quality Liupao tea to meet the needs of different tastes. The focus of tea making has never been on the craft itself, but on the people who use it.
In the future, the Liupao tea process will continue to develop, but no matter how it changes, as long as the tea maker does not forget the original intention, adheres to the way of tea making, pays attention to the quality of tea, and innovates without forgetting the inheritance, we can drink a cup of authentic Liupao tea in any era.
Today's tradition is yesterday's modern;
Today's modernity is tomorrow's tradition!
3. How to choose the two processes?
Food is divided into cold, cool, warm, hot attributes, Liupao tea due to the difference in the two processes, will show different tea properties, drinking Liupao tea must be matched with personal physical characteristics, in order to play a corresponding role:
Traditional craft Liupao tea: because it only passes through the "heap stuffiness", and does not go through the wodui fermentation, so the degree of fermentation is lighter, the tea is cool, and after drinking, it can play a role in clearing heat, diarrhea, cool blood, detoxification and other effects, so it is suitable for tea friends with hot physique. However, after a long period of aging, its tea will become warmer.
Modern process Liupao tea: the degree of fermentation is relatively sufficient, the tea is warm, after drinking, there is a role in warming, replenishing weakness, dispelling dampness and dispelling cold, suitable for tea friends with cold physique.
In addition, you can also choose liupao tea with different tea properties according to the changes of weather and seasons. After being familiar with the tea properties of Liupao tea, watching people make tea, watching tea make tea, here is a practical dry article about Liupao tea brewing:
【Statement】The article is the original article of "Liupao Tea Micro Journal", please indicate the source and author when reprinting, thank you for your support of the original!
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