Hunan Daily, New Hunan Client, April 11 (Correspondent Wang Hui Pan Jiacheng) Every year around the Qingming and Gu rains is the peak period of tea picking and stir-frying, and tea processors of all sizes in Jianghua Yao Autonomous County have grabbed the current golden period to fry all kinds of tea for the supply of the tea market throughout the year, and some have targeted Jianghua's rich wild tea and ancient tree tea resources, purchased fresh leaves from the mountains, and processed them into high-quality green tea or black tea products, which are widely popular in the market.
Tea processing has high requirements for time, and generally must be processed within 24 hours of fresh leaf picking, otherwise the quality and taste will be greatly affected. Jiang Chunlian and his wife run a tea processing factory, and now they are making black tea, the raw material is wild ancient tree tea from Daxi Township, and the fresh leaves were transported to the workshop at 11 o'clock last night and need to be processed in time.
"Because this is a small tree, its branches are relatively fat, and the taste and appearance of the black tea made are better than green tea." Tea processor Jiang Chunlian said.
To make black tea, the fresh leaves need to be kneaded for about 2 hours after about 10 hours of withering procedures, and then dried at different temperatures twice, and some broken leaves are screened out, making a wild ancient tree black tea with good appearance and quality. From late March to now, the couple is busy making tea every day, at most more than 2,000 pounds of fresh leaves a day, for some routine processes, workers will be invited to complete, and the key processes will be checked by the couple.
Do not build their own tea garden, only buy wild tea for processing and sales, which is the principle set by the couple since 2014, so that it can ensure that there are no pesticide residues, but also to achieve good taste, of course, this also benefits from the excellent quality of Jianghua local bitter tea trees, starting from this year, the couple began to buy fresh leaves from Daxi Township, processing local wild ancient trees "Jianghua bitter tea", has now acquired nearly 3,000 pounds of fresh leaves. "Jianghua bitter tea" is an ancient precious tea plant variety in our province, its total water extract is 48.5%, the amino acid content is 164mg/100g, and the tea polyphenol content is also the highest known in the province. The origin of the name "bitter tea" is according to the pronunciation of the Yao family, "bitter" is actually the meaning of "good", so "Jianghua bitter tea" refers to "Jianghua good tea". After brewing, the soup is bright red, fragrant and nutritious, and many customers who have been misled by the name feel very good after drinking it.
"I rarely drank Jianghua's local tea before, but now I feel very good after drinking it, and then, I think that in the future, I will only (want) drink Jianghua's tea." Citizen Li Zhangling said.
"This ancient tree tea is a little better than the wild tea we made before, but its brand has not started, but I am optimistic about its prospects." Tea processor Jiang Chunlian said.
Jianghua's ancient tea tree resources are rich, according to the survey, the area of about 20,000 acres, more than 300 years of ancient tea trees about 1,000 trees, mainly distributed in Daxi, Mashi and other places around, only Daxi Township into a piece of ancient tea forest about 1,000 acres. With the rise of the concept of drinking tea health in recent years, Jianghua wild ancient tea is gradually known to the world, Jianghua will also put the protection and development of ancient tree tea on the agenda, through increasing investment, guide villagers to improve their awareness of protection, and strive to revitalize these once forgotten ancient tree tea.
"The protection and utilization of ancient tea trees, through the exploration, listing and filing, reasonable maintenance, and inviting experts to develop, to achieve productization, to launch our characteristic tea brand." Lan Huazhong, director of the Tea Office of the Jianghua Agricultural and Rural Bureau, said.
[Editor-in-charge: Jiang Hui]
[Source: Hunan Daily· New Hunan Client]