In the early morning of April 6, Ran Jincheng, the head of the Youxinya Professional Cooperative in Jiantian Village, Yiju Township, took his parents, wife and children and some villagers to the tea base on the mountain, and today, their task is to pick all the tea leaves of an ancient tea tree with a history of more than 200 years and make them all by hand.
This ancient tea tree is 200 years old, with a height of 476 cm and a diameter at breast height of 49.3 cm, on October 15, 2017, it was listed by Chongqing Ancient Tea Research Institute and marked as Youyang Ancient Tea Tree No. 1. Because the tree was tall and it had just rained lightly, Ran Jincheng and the others carried a basket and three ladders to pick the tea leaves on the tree.
Everyone worked together, escalators, picking, pinching and mentioning, and the shoots were quickly picked and put into the bamboo basket.
"After all the tea of this ancient tree is picked, it can make more than 1 pound of dry tea, and it is sold at 2999 yuan for 100 grams, and the tea of this ancient tree tea can be sold for more than 14,000 yuan, which is much stronger than planting red corn in the past. Ran Jincheng happily told reporters while picking tea seriously.
It is understood that Yiju Township has a long history of "adding tribute to the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and livable tea in the Yunwu Mountains". The township has developed more than 23,000 acres of tea gardens, with an annual output of about 130 tons of tea and an output value of 260 million yuan. The township leans on the Longtou Mountain system in the north, with an average altitude of more than 800 meters, clouds and mist in all seasons, and the unique geographical location makes the livable tea tender green and fragrant, creating the reputation of the "tea town" of the livable township.
Ran Jincheng is the intangible inheritor of county-level tea-making skills, he operates more than 50 acres of tea base in Jiantian Village, "Livable tea is of good quality, and it is necessary to let Livable tea go out of Youyang." Ran Jincheng introduced that in recent years, he has taken Yiju tea to Zhejiang, Guangxi, Shandong, Hong Kong, Chongqing and other places to participate in exhibitions and sales, hoping that Yiju tea will be known to more people.
"I bought fresh leaves at a price of 100 yuan a catty, and I have fried more than 1,000 catties of green tea, in addition, this year I am ready to make 2,000 catties of green tea and 1,500 catties of black tea, calculated at an average price of 800 yuan per catty, with an output value of 2.8 million. Ran Jincheng introduced that because some villagers did not have mature tea roasting technology or poor sales, they sold fresh tea to him.
"I have to pick more than 4 catties of tea a day, I am old, there is no market, so I will sell the tea to Jin Cheng at a price of 100 yuan a catty, the tea payment is cash, and now it has been sold for more than 10,000 yuan. Villager Ran Yaoguang has more than 4 acres of tea plantations, during this time, he went to the tea garden every morning to pick tea, and then sold the tea to Ran Jincheng in the afternoon.
Villager Chen Yan planted a few acres of tea at home, and after the tea was picked, she went to other tea bases to help pick tea, including food, and could earn 100 yuan a day.
"In recent years, Yiju Township has taken the tea industry as a pillar industry development, and at present, more than 10,000 acres of tea gardens in Yiju Township have been selected as the first batch of direct supply bases for the 'Youyang 800' regional public brand, and in the next step, we will use the brand to comprehensively enhance the influence and reputation of Yiju Tea, help the high-quality development of the tea industry, and promote the comprehensive revitalization of the countryside. Bai Jianlong, Secretary of the Party Committee of Yiju Township, said.
Upstream News Tan Ke Intern Deng Menglian Correspondent Bai Fengying