Wu Ge original
A writer friend wrote an essay about drinking tea, published in an essay public account, from green tea to black tea, from white tea to yellow tea, from Tieguanyin to Jin Junmei, from Yunnan Puer to Hunan black tea, Yangyang sprinkled with thousands of words. I looked at it with my phone at noon and caused some associations. After reading the book in the evening, I made a pot of black tea by hand, sorted out the bits and pieces of ideas, and slowly wrote them down.
Wuxi is a place to make tea. Yixing has Yang envy tea, there is black tea, Yang envy tea used to be tribute tea, in ancient times every year to the emperor to enjoy. Wuxi produces green tea, with Da Mao, Mao Jian and Taihu Cuizhu. Suzhou out of Biluochun and Liyang and Anji out of white tea are very close.
But Wuxi people used to drink tea not too particularly, usually with a cup, put some tea leaves, and then use boiling water to brew it, full of a cup of tea, drink slowly. Whether it's an office ride or a big truck, it's this drink. The cups are different, glass with lids, enamel, ceramic, purple sand, but one thing is the same: all are large cups. Only when drinking new tea in the spring, it will be a little more exquisite, with a transparent glass, first pour in most of the half a cup of hot water of more than eighty degrees, and then put in the new tea, watching the new tea rotate and sink into the bottom of the cup, the tea leaves gradually bloom, the transparent hot water little by little becomes a faint greenery, so the tea drinker lifts the cup, raises his lips, gently sips, and says a good tea.
Now there are many Wuxi people who are exquisite. Pu'er tea, old white tea, oolong tea, black tea is said to be able to lose weight and supplement trace elements, it is generally popular, tea sets are also changed from large cups and large bowls to small cups and small pots, but also with tea washing, tea filter, tea rules, tea spoons, tea tables, tea cookers, warm tea stoves and so on. Many business owners have elaborate tea sets in their offices, and even have a miniature version of the Qushui Liuyan tea table. In some tea bars, there will also be different teapots and brewing tools according to different teas, and a variety of tea refreshments will be provided for guests to drink tea while snacking. In short, the way Wuxi people drink tea is increasingly "kung fu".
I have been to the tea bar with old classmates and old colleagues several times, and the general feeling is: tea is really not cheap, and tea refreshments are really rich. I don't like it very much, because it's too noisy, drink a cup of tea, eat so many things, can you calm down? Almost everyone is drinking, eating, drinking, eating again, busy, bustling, and happy. Later, when there was an invitation to participate, I found a reason to return.
I think that the way to drink tea is to seek a temporary state of mind, life has been too complicated, the mood has been too harassed, by drinking tea, may as well settle down, settle for a moment, forget the troubles of disturbance, and throw away the flying red dust.
The way I prefer is that I am alone, or two or three friends, sit down, choose one or two good teas, or brew it with a small pot, or boil it with a tea stove, if there is a small carbon stove, it is better, but you must use a small cup, that kind of sixty or seventy milliliters, slow drinking, slow talk, words do not have to be much, the sound does not have to be loud, do not want to talk, just turn on the stereo, listen to music, Ah Bing's erhu, Shanqi's Jiangnan, Suzhou's pingtan, are very comfortable. After drinking one tea, change to another tea. On this occasion, you must prepare several kinds of tea, the variety does not have to be many, but it must not interfere with the taste of tea, can make people have some thoughts, but will not lift people's strong desire for food.
Tea is not the same as refreshments. Refreshments are more solemn, such as morning tea in Yangzhou or Guangzhou, three buns, char siu buns, quicksand buns, soup buns, fried niuhe, wonton noodles and the like, all belong to refreshments, which are clearly used to eat. Therefore, Yangzhou morning tea and Cantonese morning tea are not drinking tea in the real sense as I know it, but drinking tea with refreshments, tea is not the protagonist, refreshments are the protagonists. Drinking early tea in Yangzhou or Guangzhou, local friends who do the east will generally not ask how the pot of tea tastes, but will only ask which few dishes are almost OK? Tea is used to accompany tea, tea is always the protagonist, tea is a snack with tea, accompanied by some interest, tea is only a supporting role.
In recent years, the tea that is often drunk is Pu'er tea in Yunnan, the old white tea in Fuding, and occasionally black tea, jin junmei and black tea. Yixing's dry red early spring tea is also a kind of black tea that I prefer, because it has the characteristics of both traditional Yihong and Jin Junmei. A kind of pit tea in Huizhou, the tea taste is very unique, it is green tea, but it has a strong bitterness and tea aroma, which is very durable, and it is liked when drinking morning tea at a University student in Huizhou. I have selected several teas for these teas.
The first is dried tofu. Dried tofu is a very common local soy product, generally used to make dishes, can be mixed with dried tofu shreds, can be fried with celery dried shreds, reed fried dried shreds, can be burned with other vegetarian dishes into a ringing piece. But Kaiyang dried tofu is a fine product of dried tofu, it should be added to Kaiyang in the process of processing, that is, sun-dried shrimp, squeezed into dry to press tighter than the general tofu dry, a pound of soybeans can be made into five pounds of old tofu, five pounds of old tofu can be made into three pounds of dried tofu, but can only be made into a pound of dried tofu. In the past, kaiyang dried tofu was very biting to eat in the mouth, and now the dried Kaiyang tofu that can be bought is no longer so biting, because the same price, the greater the bite, the higher the cost, and the thinner the profit. Moreover, there are fewer and fewer stalls selling dried foreign tofu, and many tofu stalls do not sell dried foreign tofu at all. Kaiyang dried tofu has bite, chewiness, resistance, delicious taste, distinct aroma, and tea match, raw taste, especially the kind of tightly pressed Kaiyang tofu dried, is one of the excellent tea small foods. In many places, dried tofu is directly called dried tea.
There is also a kind of marinade dried tofu, which can be seen as a branch of dried tofu, which is produced in Wuxi and Suzhou, but it is better to take Suzhou's. Suzhou marinade dried tofu is one of Suzhou's food business cards, from going to Suzhou on business, often bring a lot of boxes back, the female colleagues of the unit are the most favorite to share. Marinade tofu is dried and sweet, and is a distinct Gangnam flavor. In contrast, I still like to open dried tofu. Drinking tea and slowly chewing on the dried tofu of Kaiyang, there is a taste of reading old Du poems, and changing it to marinade dried tofu is like reading Wen Tingjun words, and there is a difference between them.
The third is dried smoked small fish. There are usually two kinds of small fish, one is the trout, the trout resembles a bream, but it is not large, only one or two inches in size, and there is a golden-eyed sturgeon in Taihu Lake that has always been praised. The other is called gongyu by the farmers on the shore of Taihu Lake, the gongyu looks like a willow leaf, but the body is slightly rounded, with a long mouth, the large one is four or five inches long, but it is better to be three or four inches in size. There are two folk methods, one is fried, the other is cooked and smoked. Fried small fish is suitable for use as a wine dish, and dried smoked small fish is suitable for tea. In the past, dried smoked small fish only had a salty and fresh taste, but when making it, you only need to put in the right amount of salt, cook it slightly, smoke it dry, and use a little Ōkushi shochu to stuff it, it is fragrant and can be stored for use. Now I have added fresh spicy powder and pepper powder, which is a little spicy and has a richer taste. I always think that dry smoked small fish with tea will give people a meaningful taste.
The closest thing to dried smoked small fish is dried white shrimp. White shrimp is one of the three whites of Taihu Lake, known for its freshness, usually served in a boiled cooking style. During the season when white shrimp is on the market, fishermen in Taihu Lake often make fresh white shrimp into dried shrimp and store them. This dried white shrimp is put in the boiling cabbage, winter melon, and tofu, which immediately increases the delicious level of cabbage, winter melon, and tofu by a large margin. I have a friend who lives on the edge of Taihu Lake, and from time to time he will give me a bag of dried white shrimp, which has become my tea snack. When I went to Wenzhou, Wenzhou friends used dried prawns to make tea, invited me to drink tea, prawns dried meat, eating enjoyable, but did not eat the kind of fun of eating dried white shrimp. White shrimp is not big, the shell is thin, slowly peeled, eat one, drink tea, life will become slowly steaming, there is a leisurely emergence in the heart. White shrimp is rich in magnesium, which has an important regulatory effect on heart activity and can protect the cardiovascular system. Therefore, the middle-aged and elderly drink tea with dried white shrimp as a food, which is long and long, and should have some benefits.
The fifth is spiced beans. Of course, the spiced beans of the Shanghai City God Temple are the most, which is the charm of the brand, but in the past, the Ren of Wuxi and the spiced beans of Sanyang were good. I remember that there is a lane near the old Chong'an Temple, and the mouth often sets up a large cauldron, processing spiced beans, fried peanuts, fried chestnuts and the like, the fragrance is soaring, attracting adults and children to take a look, but also salivating. Now it seems that there are very few local spiced beans, and most of the online suppliers are from Zhejiang, with the origin of Jiaxing, or Shaoxing. Spiced beans are the green kind, which are fried with new broad beans, placed in a small dish, and slowly tasted, it seems to be able to taste the taste of spring.
Quite close to the spiced beans, there is a kind of smoked green beans, which are made of immature green edamame, it is advisable to choose a thin shell of large flat glutinous varieties, add salt to cook, dry and store, is a good leisure snack, but also a good tea snack, smoked green beans are dark blue, as if the green onions are smeared with a vicissitudes, the taste is indifferent, chewing, there is a fragrance of salty and fresh flowing on the tip of the tongue, full of Jiangnan, pastoral, green onions and fresh, as if a hometown song, fluttering, suddenly come and go. My father used to like spiced beans, smoked green beans, bamboo shoots and the like, drinking wine and tea will always be prepared, over time, I also liked.
Pastries are also indispensable tea. Some people say that mung bean cake, small square cake, shortbread cake, can be used to accompany tea, but I think that dry points are better, such as osmanthus ice cream cake, Huishan King Kong navel, are excellent tea food, horseshoe puff pastry, almond crisp, walnut crisp, bacon flakes, etc., are also good tea. The ice cream cake is made of rice, sweet, the cake is sprinkled with osmanthus flowers and red and green melon shreds; the king kong navel is made of flour, salty and sweet, called pretzel, bite open, you can see the inside sprinkled with red and green melon shreds. Together, they happen to be a fusion of Jiangnan rice culture and wheat culture. The ice cream is as white as ice, which makes people feel beautiful, and the golden yellow of the king's belly button gives people a sense of abundance. King Kong navel can be bought in Huishan Old Street, and the ice cream cake can probably only buy the Funing cake produced in Funing, Yancheng, and the taste is slightly different from the old Wuxi ice cream cake, but the wuxi people are absolutely accustomed to eating.
Many preserves are also suitable for tea, such as plum, sugar bayberry, licorice olive, knocked olive, licorice peach slices, honey kumquat. Peanut rice can be eaten slightly, and the pepper and salt are more suitable for tea than the cream, but it seems that it is not as good as making a wine dish.
These tea foods I said, in the past in Wuxi, you only need to walk a shop can easily buy, Sanyang North and South Goods Store or Renhao Tea Shop, Sanyang is definitely the first choice, only on the first floor can buy several kinds of tea. Now run a RT-Mart or Carrefour, they can also buy all, but I am afraid that it is not all produced locally in Wuxi, nor will it be produced in Suzhou.
The way to drink tea is expensive in the quiet. The meaning of drinking tea, beauty lies in the state of mind. Guarding the tea stove, sitting alone in silence, to the virtual pole, keeping the quiet, thinking about the heavens and the earth, looking at all things, the past into it, the present moment is beyond it, the void is lonely and idyllic, as if the soul and the heavens and the earth are integrated, which is a desirable realm. Since this is the case, the choice of tea is also simple, small, light, light, elegant, may be its four-word true recipe.
Speaking of Ya, I think of the spicy rabbit head of Chengdu people and the delicious duck neck of Wuhan people, which can be used to accompany wine, but it is not suitable for tea, and tea customers eat full of greasy hands and are indecent.