In 758 AD, The Tea Saint Lu Yu wrote the book "Tea Classic", which set off a wave of tea drinking in society as soon as it was published, and the wind of tea drinking became popular in the Tang Dynasty. According to relevant records, in China, tea was first used for medicinal purposes; according to the "Huayang Guozhi", after the King of Zhou Wu cut down the silk, some small neighboring countries offered tea as a tribute, and by the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, tea had become a drink. It can be seen that China's tea drinking history is very long.
As a tea country, China has a wide variety of tea varieties, such as Dongting Lake Biluochun, West Lake Longjing, Xinyang Maojian, Bamboo Leaf Qing and so on. The reason why the Lushan Yunwu tea introduced to you today stands out from many teas is that this tea appears as a beautiful tea in the Birthday Feast of the Qing Dynasty Emperors - Wanshou Feast, and is a famous drink in the Manchu and Han Dynasty.
Lushan tea began in the Western Han Dynasty, and was once offered as a tribute to the court during the Northern Song Dynasty; according to the Lushan Chronicle, Lushan Yunwu tea "traveled to the birds and finches and spread in the rock gap stone... According to legend, when Buddhism was introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhist believers settled down in Lushan Mountain and planted tea on the mountain; the poet Bai Juyi, who once dug up medicine to plant tea at the peak of Lushan Mountain, and wrote a poem: "The head of the creek under the long pine tree, the white cloth of the spotted deer fetal scarf, the medicinal garden tea garden is the industry, and the wild elk forest stork is a social trip." In the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the mountain, was famous for fighting in the Lushan area, and Lushan tea became famous for it.
"High mountain clouds and fog produce good tea", this is the wisdom of the working people in our country, the good quality of Lushan cloud tea, the key lies in the superior geographical environment of Lushan. Lushan mountain is located in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, north of the Yangtze River, south of Poyang Lake, peaks of many cliffs, deep canyons, crisscrossing, dense forests, springs babbling, steaming fog, into clouds; and it is this swirling cloud, so that the temperature difference between day and night in the mountains is larger, conducive to the synthesis of more aromatic substances in tea; at the same time, the soil on Lushan Mountain is mostly acidic soil, which creates good soil growth conditions for the growth of this tea; the average annual temperature is low, adjacent to the water on both sides, and located in the south, the rain is abundant, Coupled with the high altitude, easy to form terrain rain, moist soil, sufficient moisture, for the growth of Lushan cloud tea provides superior external conditions.
Not only that, the output of a good tea, it is not enough to have good external conditions, this tea plant, extremely hardy, neat germination, thick cord; the combination of internal and external two superior conditions can create this royal tea.
Lushan Yunwu tea buds are fat, compact, beautiful leaves, long-lasting aroma, mellow taste, tea soup is clear, the leaves are uniformly green, this is the "six musts". The finished tea has a dark green color and is black, and the leaves are turquoise after brewing, and the aroma is strong and the tip of the tongue is fragrant. The production process is more complicated; first, it is picked in April or early May, the standard is a bud and a leaf; the second step is to kill the green, the technique is to throw the hands, shake and combine, the time is 6 to 7 minutes; the third step is to shake and scatter, the fourth step is to knead to ensure that more than 80% of the strips, the fifth step is the initial drying, the sixth step is to rub the strips, that is, to let the tea leaves further emit moisture, the seventh step is to do the millimeter, the tea strips are further tightened; the last step, and then dry, this series of production processes need to be made by hand, if not, It is impossible to make the unique taste of Lushan Cloud Mist Tea. For this reason, the tea is famous at home and abroad for its "mellow taste, color show, fragrant fragrance and clear liquid".
The production of Lushan Cloud Tea has a beautiful and fantastic legend. Legend has it that when Sun Wukong was the Monkey King in Huaguo Mountain, he very much wanted to drink the immortal tea that the Jade Emperor drank every time at the feast, and he flipped to the sky with a heel to find that kind of immortal tea; suddenly, he saw a mountain in the southern country of Kyushu a piece of turquoise, with his fiery golden eyes, it was actually a tea forest, and it was the golden autumn season, the tea tree had produced tea seeds, and Sun Wukong did not know how to pick; just at this time, a group of amorous birds flew from afar, and Sun Dasheng asked them if they could help pick tea seeds. The green bird gladly agreed to help, and after picking it, it flew towards Huaguo Mountain one by one with the tea seeds; who knew that when it flew over Lushan Mountain, it was attracted by its beauty, and the amorous birds sang one after another, and the tea seeds fell on Lushan Mountain.
Since then, tea trees have grown on Lushan Mountain surrounded by clouds and mist, which is also the famous Lushan Cloud Tea.
Cloud mist tea has a unique flavor, tea contains tannins, aromatic oils, vitamins, etc., pleasant antidiarrhea, help digestion, sterilization and disinfection, prevent gastrointestinal infections, prevent scurvy and so on. Zhu De, the founding father of our country, once wrote to praise Lushan Yunwu Tea; "Lushan Yunwu Tea, the taste is strong and spicy, if you have to drink it for a long time, you can prolong your life." "It can be seen that its efficacy is so many and strong.
At the second and third China International Tea Industry Expo, Lushan Yunwu Tea was awarded the Gold Award, and was once used as a famous drink at the Emperor's Birthday Banquet, which shows the high value of this tea at that time. Since the 1950s, Lushan Yunwu Tea has developed rapidly, and ordinary people can also have the opportunity to drink this tea that was previously only available to royal nobles.
According to the assessment, the brand value of "Lushan Cloud Mist Tea" is 1.099 billion, and the price of this tea on the market is relatively large, the general 100 yuan or so a pound, the quality of good quality about 1000 yuan a pound, we have to learn to distinguish between.
When we buy, the first step is to first look at the dry tea, the color should be between yellow and green and green; the second is to smell the aroma, the aroma should be fragrant and long-lasting; the third is to look at the shape, the shape should be tightly knotted, old and tender and uniform; the last step is to taste the taste, the taste should be very mellow and refreshing, back to the sweet and fresh. Tea that meets these four requirements is the best tea.
Just like our current examination of various musical instruments, Lushan Cloud Tea is also graded. According to the different picking time, it is divided into five grades: Mingqian tea, Qingming tea, Guyu tea, summer tea, and autumn tea, of which the more early spring the tea, the more expensive it is.
The practice of offering tea to the beautiful people in the whole table of Manhan is also very exquisite, a good brewing method can stimulate the aroma of tea, hot cups, the ratio of tea to water, water temperature, tea making techniques, re-brewing, each step can not be less, to be perfect. Imagine that when beautiful maidens lined up in a long line and entered the main hall, fluttering colored clothes, charming fragrance, holding blue and white porcelain, golden tea soup in the porcelain white cup with the steps of the girl slightly rippled, the tea fragrance was swirling, mixed with the rich aroma of the house full of delicacies, it was a strange and seductive strange aroma.
bibliography:
1. Wu Zongci and Hu Kepei, Lushan Zhi
2. (Qing) Ji Yun, The Complete Book of the Four Libraries
3. Lu Yu's "Tea Classic"