Chinese civilization up and down five thousand years, food culture is more extensive and profound, take the "drink" alone, "tea" and "wine" for China's food culture has written a brilliant page. Tea drinking and drinking in our country have thousands of years of history, China is the hometown of tea, as the saying goes: "oil and salt chai rice, sauce vinegar tea", which shows that tea for Chinese, although not a golden and expensive thing, but equal to rice salt, can not be a day without a common product of life, but also shows the importance of tea, less tea in life, less taste!
Tea in our country belongs to a special drink, Chinese drinking tea is like Westerners drinking coffee, the world's hundred herbs tea for the spirit, a wisp of fragrance in the world smells. People who understand and love tea often sigh: "How many people know the true meaning of tea?" If you don't know it, won't you be able to taste everything; if you have the skill of drinking, and the way of tasting, I don't know how many laws you know? ”。
China's tea is mainly divided into 7 series: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, black tea and flower tea. Today, I mainly want to talk with you about the best of oolong tea - the rise and fall of Tieguanyin.
Once upon a time, Tie Guanyin, can be said to be the king of China's tea industry, as long as you hear the three words "Tie Guanyin", up to the eighty-year-old woman, down to the seven-year-old child, they all understand that it refers to "tea", people are proud to be able to drink TieGuanyin. The well-known Tieguanyin was a veritable "national sacred tea" in China at that time. Next, let's do a simple science popularization of Tieguanyin for everyone.
Tieguanyin
Tieguanyin, also known as Red Heart Guanyin and Red Guanyin, is the best of oolong tea, of which Anxi Tieguanyin is the most famous. Anxi Tieguanyin has spring tea, summer tea, summer tea and autumn tea, of which spring and autumn Tieguanyin tea has the highest quality. Tieguanyin belongs to semi-fermented tea, the taste is mellow and sweet, the soup color is golden and bright, there is an orchid fragrance and a unique "Guanyin rhyme"; the shape is tight and round, the cord is curly and fat, the color is oily and sandy, the green leaves are red trim, and it enjoys the reputation of "seven bubbles with afterscent".
To put it bluntly, Tieguanyin has conquered people's taste buds with its incomparable orchid fragrance and unique Guanyin rhyme and won the market!
The processing technology of traditional Tieguanyin is simple to analyze
The traditional processing technology of Tieguanyin is mainly divided into: drying green, drying green, shaking green, killing green, kneading (kneading) and baking and other processes.
Sunshine: The main role of sunburn is to remove the "green odor" of fresh tea.
Cool green: drying green is a link in controlling the moisture of vegetable leaves, a "drying" word is very important, not drying and drying, but relying on the natural wind to let the tea leaves in the shade and ventilation to dissipate the heat.
Shaking green: shaking green is divided into artificial and mechanical two ways, this step is very important, related to the appearance of Tieguanyin color and fragrance, the purpose is to make the tea leaves friction and collision between each other through the action of mechanical external forces, promote the oxidation of the substance "tea polyphenols" in the tea, so that Tieguanyin forms a unique color of "green leaves with red edges", while increasing the natural aroma of tea.
Killing green: The main purpose of killing green is to further increase the aroma of tea leaves, while preventing tea leaves from continuing to turn red after further fermentation, which is achieved by preventing the activity of enzymes at high temperatures. Therefore, Tieguanyin became a "green leaf trim" semi-fermented tea, which is how it came.
Kneading and baking: The main role and purpose of this step is the finalization of Tieguanyin, and at the same time, the brewing of tea leaves is quickly juiced. That's how the beautiful spiral we see comes from. Bake out a spiral and knead the tea juice.
It can be seen from this that the fame of Tieguanyin is not a false name. The complex, rigorous and elaborate processing technology is breathtaking and convincing.
So, how did such a national god tea with "seven bubbles and afterscent" and an unparalleled orchid aroma gradually decline? The reason for this, I think, is the following three points.
The aroma of the cheng also, the aroma of the defeat also
The glory of Tieguanyin can be said to be achieved by its unique "fragrance", almost all tea drinking enthusiasts are impressed by the mellow and lasting orchid fragrance of Tieguanyin, which has also made Tieguanyin once popular all over China. I always say that people's desires are always unsatisfied, and they want to be good again, and they want to be more fiery when they are on fire, but once they have excessive desires, they will attract right and wrong.
Sure enough, because Taiwan and Fujian were originally neighbors, information exchanges were more convenient and fast, and a new type of tea process in Taiwan quickly spread to Fujian, which quickly affected Tieguanyin. Because of the fame of Tieguanyin and the complexity of traditional production processes, the production capacity of Tieguanyin cannot meet the needs of the market, and the phenomenon of short supply is in short supply. The new tea making process is not only simple and better, reducing the roasting process, while saving a lot of manpower and material resources, the new Tieguanyin made, the floral fragrance is more obvious, the appearance is no longer green leaves with red edges, but natural emerald green; the soup color has also changed from the past "golden and bright", and has become a "clear mirror"; the taste is still mellow and uncomplicated.
The new tieguanyin made through the new process in Taiwan came out in this way, which was later known as the "fragrant tieguanyin". Not to mention, due to the difference in tea culture between the north and the south of China, the most favorite drinking in the north is green tea and flower tea, such as Beijing people like to drink "jasmine tea", jasmine tea has a beautiful appearance, elegant and unique aroma, mainly because the price is cheap. Therefore, the elegant floral fragrance and clear soup color of the fragrance of Tieguanyin quickly gained a foothold in the northern market, was accepted by most consumers, and then sold well.
However, tea is also a drink, the mouth is difficult to adjust, the fragrance of Tieguanyin caters to the tastes of northerners, but lost the market at home. After all, the south is the birthplace of tea, tea and tea drinking, the aroma is strong, the soup color is rich in flavor type Tieguanyin is the Tieguanyin in the minds of southerners. Over time, the status of Tieguanyin National Divine Tea gradually began to waver in competition with their own brothers such as Wuyi Dahongpao, Wuyi Daffodil, and Phoenix Shan Fir, and began to decline.
It seems that the original incense is really "incense", and if it is maintained, it is "prosperous"; if it is changed, it is "decaying"!
In the "pesticide residue" incident, the quality of Tieguanyin was questioned
Since Tieguanyin was detected by the relevant units to exceed the pesticide content, Tieguanyin has been complained about and questioned by almost all consumers, making Tieguanyin's reputation and image plummet.
Tea has always been a green, natural and pollution-free plant in people's minds, and is a green product that grows in a natural environment with high mountains and flowing water, clouds and mist, and beautiful mountains and rivers. However, in order to benefit and meet the needs of market capacity, tea farmers have tried to make tea grow fast and produce high yields, so that tea leaves are free from insect pests and grow leafy, so they apply a large number of fertilizers and spray pesticides to tea plants. In this way, the yield is greatly improved, but it changes the original taste of tea, loses the green and natural nature, and excessive pesticide residues bring great health risks to consumers.
In the face of such a Tieguanyin, can it still be crowned with the reputation of "seven bubbles with afterscent" and "natural orchid aroma mellow and lasting"?
Disorderly expansion, vague product positioning
Tieguanyin is famous, naturally will face the phenomenon of insufficient production capacity, short supply, so in order to increase production capacity, began to expand the planting area of Tieguanyin, although it is not suitable for planting Tieguanyin places also began to plant Tieguanyin. Because the requirements of tea for natural conditions such as land, water source, and climate are quite harsh, not all places are suitable for planting Tieguanyin. Therefore, in this way, the output of Tieguanyin has increased, but the quality has decreased, is this Tieguanyin still that "taste"? Consumers aren't stupid either!
In addition, Tieguanyin is on fire, bringing "unlimited business opportunities" to many bad merchants, resulting in the chaos of Tieguanyin on the market, uneven, so many varieties that you will have "choice phobia", the price is also from tens of yuan to thousands of yuan, tens of thousands of yuan, the outer packaging of the luxurious atmosphere, you said that in the face of the Tieguanyin in front of you, if you are not a tea expert, do you dare to start? Dozens of dollars and tens of thousands of dollars of products, do you have full confidence to distinguish them?
Therefore, the blind expansion of the region and the blurring of the high and low positioning of the product have once again seriously damaged the brand image of Tieguanyin.
In summary: there are very few "evergreen trees" in the world, Tieguanyin from glory to decline, although there are its own reasons, but then again, in today's market economy model, no matter which industry, it is really difficult to achieve the eternal "evergreen tree"! It is more accurate to explain it with the phrase "prosperity must decline"!
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