Text | Xu Shaoping
Read all the tastes of the world, the most nostalgic barley tea. In this special heat, I missed the barley tea that accompanied me through the summer of my youth.
The summer is hot, the sun is like fire, and the heat in the crop fields is even more difficult. We sat in the shade of the trees on the edge of the field, a large bowl of burnt yellow and cool barley tea under the belly, although it was still sweating and dripping the soil, but the feeling of dryness and smoke in the throat was gone, like a withered seedling regaining its vitality.
Old Beijingers eat three meals a day, nest heads, pickles, on the mouth of the big bowl of tea, in our countryside is paste cake, dried radish, on barley tea. Paste cakes, dried radish, and barley tea should be the "golden partners" of farmers at that time.
Barley tea is in the countryside, and almost every household can't do without it. Only because of its extremely low cost, it has a caramelized aroma of coffee, and it is good for health, and it is the most popular civilian drink in the summer.
The preparation of barley tea is extremely simple. Wash the barley, cover it with a layer of gauze to prevent dust, expose it to the sun, dry it and fry it in a large iron pot until it is crispy and browned. Just soak it in boiling water, but it's more fragrant if it's cooked in a large iron pot.
Bowl after bowl of sea drinks, and the water boilers keep adding tea with wooden spoons.
At that time, each production team had a special person responsible for roasting barley tea, no matter who came, locals, outsiders, thirsty, can drink for free.
When we were young, we were often hungry and full, and we would stay and eat when we had to eat. When we had eaten, my mother told us to go down to the field and drink a few bowls of barley tea in the field. We walked to the head of the field, drank a few bowls of barley tea, and our stomachs immediately loosened.
In addition to curing accumulation of food, barley tea has many functions and does not have any side effects. I just heard that the nursing mother can't drink it, and it will "return the milk" when it is drunk.
In addition to barley tea in the field, there is also a barley tea in the village. At the top of the big brick alley, there lived my aunt's family. In the heat of the summer, there is often a stick at the door of the aunt, on which there is a large porcelain jar with cool barley tea, and a clean small tea bowl next to it for passers-by to drink casually. This is her old man's tea, and sometimes my uncle also put some jasmine flowers, which adds to the fragrance.
Every time school was out, I always drank a few bowls at my aunt's house first. Other classmates, neighbors, and passers-by often patronize. This is the charity heart of the older generation in the village, but now there is no one to give tea, nor do you need it, drinks are everywhere.
I remember one summer day ten years ago, I came back from Shanghai and passed by a village in Huangqiao with an unknown name. Thirsty, I came down to buy water, but there were no shops around. When I was in a hurry, I suddenly smelled a scorched aroma, which was the long-lost aroma of barley tea.
Following the scent, I saw a grass hut on the edge of the field, and an old grandmother in the grass hut was selling barley tea. It is also too late to ask the price, pick up the bowl and drink it all, ask how much is a bowl? He said a dime. So cheap, I said: I'll give two cents and drink another bowl. Grandma laughed: "Only charge a dime, as many bowls as you drink." "Ah, and this kind of business, I drank three bowls in a row, dropped a dollar coin and left." Grandma chased after me, don't you go, still looking for you for ninety cents! I waved at her and slipped into the car with a cigarette.
Last summer, a friend gave me a box of barley tea leaves, which was said to be expensive. Too want to drink, guests leave, can't wait to open a bubble, a taste, hurriedly spit out, it turned out that it is not the original rural rustic barley tea, but mixed with unknown chinese medicine, the name of the beautiful, health and beauty wheat fragrant tea.
I went back to the village a few times and couldn't see barley tea. Ask an old man, the old man said: Who still drinks that soil tea, not to mention it is not before, before the water of the Haloting River was sweet, you can drink it with a scoop, and the roasted barley tea is sweet and fragrant. Now the river water is no longer drinkable, and the roasted barley tea does not have the same taste as before.
What does it taste like? Perhaps, it is the taste of nostalgia.
The most nostalgic thing is that on a summer night, sitting on the dock at the mouth of the Zhongjia River Bridge, the adults and children on the village get together. On the side, I don't know who has put a large bucket of barley tea. While listening to the elders tell stories, we drink cool and caramelized barley tea, often drinking "come and boo" (bedwetting) at night.
Now, everyone is used to being in the air-conditioned room, all kinds of tea, coffee, drinks are available, but there is less barley tea.
In the summer, I want to hold a book, while listening to Banderay's "Country Evening Wind", while tasting the cool and sweet barley tea of my hometown, indulging in nostalgia...
About author:Mr. Xu Shaoping, senior teacher, vice principal of wubao primary school in Xiaoji Town, Jiangdu District, member of Taizhou Writers Association, member of Yangzhou Poetry Association, winner of the first "Most Beautiful Charity Star" in Jiangdu District, Yangzhou City. Many prose poems have been published in provincial and municipal newspapers and periodicals. Now retired from the second line, living in Hailing District, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province.