In 1959, China's top ten famous teas were evaluated, and The Yuhua tea in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, was included in it. Since then, Yuhua Tea, which has just been created for one year, has become one of the top ten famous teas in China. Two days ago, there were tea friends in the background message, let me talk about Nanjing Yuhua tea. As a newly famous tea created after the founding of the People's Republic of China, why can it become one of the top ten famous teas in the country? In 2020, the production technology of Yuhua tea was included in the recommended list of representative items of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China, which further enhanced the popularity of Yuhua tea. Today, let's take a look at the past and present lives of Yuhua Tea together.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >, the origin of Nanjing Yuhua tea</h1>
Nanjing is an important central city in the eastern region of China, known as the "Capital of Ten Dynasties", with a long history and splendid culture. According to historical records, tea trees began to be planted in the Nanjing area as early as before the Sui and Tang dynasties. These tea trees are spread from the land of Bashu, along the Yangtze River all the way to the middle and lower reaches of the river. Lu Yu, the tea saint of the Tang Dynasty, recorded a magical story in his famous work "Tea Classic". According to legend, when the Jin Yuan Emperor was in power, an old woman in Nanjing sold "Yuhua Tea" soup along the street every day, and from morning to night, the tea soup in the teapot did not decrease, which was very magical. Of course, this story is more like a myth and legend, not enough to believe. According to the Tea Classic, Lu Yu did pick tea leaves at the Qixia Temple in Nanjing. This shows that during the Tang Dynasty, Nanjing had begun to grow tea.
After thousands of years of development, by the Ming and Qing dynasties, the tea planting area in Nanjing has expanded to the north and south of the Yangtze River and has become an important tea-producing area in Jiangsu. The yuhua tea, which is now well known to everyone, will not appear in front of the world until 10 years after the founding of New China.
In 1958, in order to present the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China, Jiangsu Province planned to set up a special committee on the basis of the former Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Tea Factory, headed by the vice governor, and invited tea experts from all over the world to gather in Nanjing to start the research and development of new varieties of green tea. At that time, the raw materials selected were mainly tea trees planted in the Sun Yat-sen Cemetery, and after dozens of repeated processing and improvement, they were finally successfully produced.
Judging from the current stereotyped stir-frying technology, the production process of Yuhua tea includes brilliant tea leaves, mild withering, moderate kneading, plastic drying and other links, and the overall process is extremely strong. Compared with the flat Longjing and the curly Biluochun, the frying process of Yuhua tea is more complicated, and the technical requirements for the roasting tea master are also higher.
This is because the finished Yuhua tea strips are neatly and uniformly orderly. If the stir-frying technology is not in place, or the standard of fresh leaves is not up to standard, the final tea will be of different sizes and low quality. Use eight words to describe the appearance characteristics of Yuhua tea, that is, "shaped like pine needles, emerald green and straight".
In the spring tea market season of 1959, Nanjing Yuhua Tea was officially created. The reason for the name Yuhua Tea is mainly to express the reverence for the revolutionary martyrs. As we all know, Nanjing Yuhuatai is a national patriotic education demonstration base and a holy place for commemorating the new democratic revolution. A tea to commemorate the indomitable spirit of the revolutionary martyrs was the first of its kind at the time. More importantly, the Nanjing Yuhua tea strips are tight and straight, the peaks and seedlings are beautiful, with white, like pine needles, which is very suitable for the heroic image of the revolutionary martyrs, just as the so-called indomitable, eternal green, such as the moon shining forest, has far-reaching meaning.
Yuhua tea originates in the hilly slopes of Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Yuhuatai Scenic Area, the soil is mainly loose yellow-brown soil, the soil layer is deep, the soil is fertile, slightly acidic, and the water content is sufficient, which is very suitable for the growth of tea plants. In addition, the average annual temperature in Nanjing reaches 15.5 degrees, the rainfall is about 900 to 1000 mm, and the frost-free period exceeds 200 days, which can also provide high-quality environmental protection for the growth of tea plants.
Yuhua tea varieties, both local group species, but also foreign imported varieties, especially in the early stage of creation, vigorously promote the construction of Yuhua tea garden, has been from Fujian Guangdong and other places to transport tea seedlings, tea seeds and cuttings of cuttings for many times.
In 1959, the planting area of Yuhua tea in Nanjing was only 421 mu, and it reached 2704 mu a year later. By the end of the 1970s, the area of Nanjing tea gardens had reached more than 4,000 mu. As of 2020, Nanjing Yuhua tea production area has been extended to Qixia, Pukou, Jiangning and other surrounding places, and the planting area has expanded to more than 120,000 mu, with an annual output of nearly 600 tons of Yuhua tea and an annual comprehensive output value of nearly 750 million yuan in the tea industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >2, why can Nanjing Yuhua tea become one of the top ten famous teas in China? </h1>
The top ten famous tea competitions have been experienced a total of 5 times in history. The first was the Panama International Exposition in 1915, and the second was the 1959 Chinese Famous Tea Competition. Nanjing Yuhua Tea was rated as one of the top ten famous teas in the country at this appraisal. This famous tea competition is the first time after the founding of New China, and it also has the important significance of presenting gifts for the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Yuhua tea has distinct characteristics, and in the tea industry at that time, compared with the curled biluochun and the flat and smooth West Lake Longjing, the process was more difficult. The frying process of Yuhua tea is similar to that of Biluochun and West Lake Longjing, but it has two advantages of its own, or technical difficulties.
One is that the moisture should be less than or equal to 7%, and the other is to resemble pine needles.
To do these two points, it is not so simple to talk about, the technical difficulty is relatively high, which greatly limits the output and pushes up the price. Of course, it is precisely this strict requirement that allows the newly created Yuhua tea to rank among the top ten famous teas in the country.
One more point must be clarified. Yuhua tea is the only tea in the country that has a relationship with heroes. The creation of Nanjing Yuhua Tea originally had the purpose of presenting gifts for New China. As mentioned earlier, yuhua tea began to be developed in 1958, and it was not officially completed until the new tea was listed in 1959. Why it is made into the shape of pine needles is to express the indomitable spirit of revolutionary martyrs, like pine needles that are eternal and evergreen.
Therefore, Yuhua tea has become one of the top ten famous teas in the country, which is not only related to its own excellent quality, but also closely related to the historical environment at that time, and the two are indispensable. As the saying goes, the times create heroes, and the birth of rain flower tea is just in time.
Nanjing Yuhua tea in the entire tea industry, the overall output is low, the price is high. Authentic special grade rain flower tea, the unit price exceeds 10,000, is not a rare thing. Two or three hundred pieces of one pound of yuhua tea on the market are either imitations of foreign teas or rough old teas in the later stage. At present, the dilemma in front of Yuhua tea is that "people who buy do not drink, and people who drink do not buy", and the other is that local sales are produced locally, and the foreign market can hardly see it.
How to get out of the predicament is worth pondering. What do you think about that? Have you ever drunk Nanjing Yuhua tea? Feel free to leave a message below and share your tea drinking experience.