Monogatari:
This cup of jasmine tea is what I look forward to this autumn.
It is not universal, nor expensive, has no grand pattern, and does not exist for the purpose of immortality.
Its fragrance resembles youth, seemingly impractical, sweet back, but let you from the spring flowers blooming, waiting for the summer aroma, and so on every season, better tolerant of the world, bear life.
"Poetry, hops, tea, chess, calligraphy and painting" are the eight elegant things in the hearts of the ancients. Since ancient times, flowers and tea have been people's favorites. There is tea to nourish the heart, there are flowers and elegant. People not only drink tea on flowers, but also use flowers into tea to keep the incense.
Gu Yuanqing, a Ming Dynasty man, said in the "Tea Recipe": "Jasmine, roses, roses, orchids, oranges, gardenias, wood fragrances, plum blossoms, can all be made into tea." Moreover, those who want to take flowers "half contain and half put", they want tea and flowers to be appropriate, more flowers are less tea rhyme, and few flowers are not beautiful.
With tea as the bone and flowers as the soul, this autumn, my expectation is to drink a cup of jasmine tea.
Before drinking my first glass of jasmine, I didn't really have much of a concept, but I vaguely knew some of its past.
Zhang Ailing said that it was bitter, and Bing thought it was astringent, but both Lao She and Liang Shiqiu had recalled "Xiaoye Jasmine Double Kaoru". Mr. Liang Shiqiu mentioned that his father's friend, who was good at drinking and eating, often mixed half of the jasmine incense tablets with half of the dragon well, both the bitterness of tea and the richness of jasmine, and everyone praised it.
Until that day, in Fuzhou, I drank "rock sugar sweet" jasmine tea.
When the boiling water rolls over the tea buds, the pale yellow buds and leaves stretch out instantly, like kingfishers in the bamboo forest. A layer of white velvet floated on the bright yellow tea soup, and within a few seconds, the fragrance overflowed, and the jasmine fragrance split the air in front of the nose like a sword, which was an excellent performance of autumn flower tea. In one bite, the floral fragrance spreads from the throat to the nasal cavity, the taste is soft, and the tip of the tongue is left with a fresh sweetness.
"Fresh spirit is the supreme state of jasmine tea, the floral fragrance is fresh and delicate, and it is alive rather than stiff in the mouth."
Figure 1.2.3 | Tea Road Documentary ©
The world loves tea, but its heart is quiet and idyllic. Jasmine, on the other hand, because of its fresh fragrance, often gives people a feeling of liveliness and modesty.
But this cup of jasmine tea, seemingly simple, combines tranquility and liveliness very well. It does not actually have a grand pattern, nor does it have the purpose of eternal immortality. But its vividness, just like our youth, the more vivid it is, the more it can open up and relieve depression.
And this may be the uniqueness of jasmine tea, it is not universal, nor expensive, but its freshness, can make you better tolerant of the world, its seemingly impractical, can make you better bear life.
In the "Catalogue of Chinese Famous Teas", Fuzhou Jasmine Tea is listed as the only Chinese historical tea in the category of Jasmine Tea, and it is also an intangible cultural heritage.
It originated from the Han Dynasty and prospered in the Northern Song Dynasty, and its unique kiln craftsmanship gave jasmine tea a more vivid taste, which has been passed down for more than a thousand years.
Chen Chengzhong, the tea maker of the Chen family in Fuzhou, as the inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage fuzhou jasmine kiln, follows the ancient precepts, and in the past 50 years, with tea as the bone and the flower as the soul, there is hardly a day that is not soaked in jasmine tea - spring picking autumn kiln (xun).
He told me: "Fuzhou jasmine tea is famous because every family grows jasmine, and the best flower tea cannot be drunk until autumn." ”
Uncle Chen said: "The number of flowers and the details of 'watching tea to make tea' determine the final performance of tea taste. ”
"窨" refers to the jasmine flowers and green tea blanks after fully mixing, through the continuous inhalation of hot water, the floral fragrance begins to penetrate into the tea blanks little by little, and then reduces, as well as the bitter taste in the tea blanks. In short, the unique smell of jasmine tea hides an unamed code, and for thousands of years, only with the locals.
The flowers usually start at ten o'clock at night.
Uncle Chen said that after mixing the tea with the flowers, quietly shelve on the bamboo plaque, stay until two o'clock in the morning with the air, and use your hands to dissipate the heat to cool the flowers.
Careful care, with the gentle morning light, the fragrance of flowers is gradually dissipated, the wilted flowers are removed, and then dried by low-temperature charcoal fire: the first "worship" of flowers and tea is completed at this moment.
For Lao Chen, who has the ultimate pursuit of flower tea fragrance, less than six flies are only counted as general ration tea, and the real jasmine tea must get seven, eight and even nine and ten.
Only when the tea blanks and flowers are reborn again and again, after nine and ten, can we continuously improve the aroma and taste of tea, glow with a full and thick jasmine fragrance, and have a clear "rock sugar sweetness".
The charm of jasmine tea is to borrow the bones of tea and condense the ultimate pure floral fragrance, if there is no medium of tea, soaking water with fresh jasmine flowers is still the difference between cloud mud.
At night, soak in a pot, the elegant and slightly sweet tea soup will smell the taste of early spring, just like the sweet fragrance of childhood dreams.
Fortunately, there is a tea person like Uncle Chen, on the way he constantly chases the aroma of tea, people have a certain connection with tea, mood and craftsmanship, and all things in this world can only coexist in a certain way of simultaneous progress, so that we will not be pushed into a dull life.
Fortunately, there is jasmine tea in the world, it is vivid like the fragrance of youth, let us find the sweetness of the past years in the life of the covenant, but also make every moment of gathering or being alone, understand that the jasmine blossoms, youth is still there.
Figure | Tea Road Maling ©
Some of the text refers to "The Tea Road", some of the pictures are provided by the authorization of "Huang Wanwen", and the copyright of the pictures belongs to the original author.