China News Service, Hangzhou, March 12th,

title : "The King of Fried Tea" in West Lake Longjing: Don't let premature birth destroy West Lake Longjing

  Author Strictly Wang TiTi

  Earlier, earlier, earlier.

  For West Lake Longjing tea, time means money, especially for Mingqian tea.

  Due to less pest infestation, delicate buds and leaves, green color and fragrant, mellow and beautiful taste, Mingqian tea is the best of West Lake Longjing tea.

At the same time, because the temperature before the Qingming Festival is generally low, the number of germinations is limited, the growth rate is slow, and the yield that can meet the picking standard is very small, so there is a saying that "Mingqian tea is as expensive as gold".

Ma'er Mountain, West Lake Longjing Tea Production Area.

Strictly photographed

  In order to get a good price before the Qingming Festival, or change the Longjing group to Longjing No. 43; or use a stimulant to germinate spring tea; or fry Longjing tea not according to the process; The new tea from the pot is directly packaged and sold without going through the ashtray; or the civet cat is used for the prince to fry with fresh leaves from outside the production area... These phenomena, in the eyes of Tang Xiaojun, the non-genetic inheritor of Hangzhou West Lake Longjing tea and "the king of fried tea", are all It will affect the overall flavor characteristics of West Lake Longjing tea.

  West Lake Longjing tea is known for its "green color, fragrant, sweet taste and beautiful shape". It is known as the "Queen of Green Tea" and ranks first among the top ten famous teas in China. With a history of more than a thousand years, it is the most famous tea in Hangzhou. "Golden business card" with city recognition.

  West Lake Longjing Tea is only used for spring tea season. The eve of Qingming Festival is also the busiest time for Tang Xiaojun.

  Tang Xiaojun's ancestors have been masters of tea planting and tea-frying in Manjuelong Village, the core production area of ​​Longjing in West Lake. Tea".

  He told reporters that the quality of West Lake Longjing tea is famous not only because of its unique geographical location, excellent varieties, and careful cultivation and picking, but also because of its superb production skills.

Picking the green leaves, spreading the fresh leaves, fixing the green leaves, sieving, rejuvenating, burning the pot, sifting, making a long head, returning to the heap, ashtray, etc., every process must be carefully studied in order to produce the best West Lake Longjing.

  However, the chaos of "premature babies" in the West Lake Longjing tea market has affected the brand image of West Lake Longjing tea and led to some consumers' distrust of the quality of West Lake Longjing tea. This is what confuses and distresses Tang Xiaojun the most.

West Lake Longjing tea production area.

Photo by Zhu Yufang

  At present, the main varieties in the core production area of ​​West Lake Longjing are the group species and Longjing No. 43, each of which is good at winning the field. The group species is old tea trees with rich taste. Longjing No. 43 is the preferred variety from the group species, and it can be launched earlier, but some tea farmers are chasing short-term Economic benefits, a large number of native mixed tea species, Longjing group species, have been replanted into Longjing No. 43, which has also reduced the Longjing group species resources, the regional distribution has undergone great changes, and is more vulnerable to early spring "cold spring". "Weather effects.

  Now there are even earlier varieties than Longjing No. 43. Tang Xiaojun feels that the flavor of West Lake Longjing has been completely lost.

  In terms of picking, in order to produce more tea before the Qingming Festival, there are also tea farmers who "one size fits all" regardless of whether the spring buds are mature or not.

  He also introduced that according to the older generation, if there is a process that is not completed, the tea making will not be completed, and it must not be discarded. However, frying Longjing tea is both technical and physical work. When it is cooked and thoroughly fried, Longjing tea becomes "cooked rice".

  "Some people say that green tea hurts the stomach. This is mainly because it has not been cooked thoroughly and has become 'raw rice'," Tang Xiaojun explained.

  Tang Xiaojun also found that, in order to ensure that the tea is from the core production area of ​​West Lake Longjing, some customers are participating in the whole process of tea farmers from picking to tea pot, and waiting for the tea to be packaged and taken away.

  This seems to be a clever move, but in Tang Xiaojun's opinion, it has actually affected the flavor characteristics of West Lake Longjing tea.

After the tea is out of the pot, it needs to go through the ashtray for a week.

The purpose of the ashtray is to keep the tea leaves dry while removing fire.

After going through this stage, the quality of tea will be significantly improved and improved.

  Tang Xiaojun still stubbornly puts his fried Longjing tea into the lime jar, collects the ashes, and makes it scented, even if it goes on sale a little later than others.

West Lake Longjing tea production area.

Photo by Mao Yu

  In addition, the quantity of West Lake Longjing tea circulating in the market in the past far exceeded the approved output, which also made Tang Xiaojun worried about the brand image of West Lake Longjing Tea.

  "Where did the West Lake Longjing Tea come from?" the reporter asked.

  Tang Xiaojun understands that, not to mention the local Zhejiang tea outside the core production area of ​​West Lake Longjing, even the flat-shaped tea from Guizhou and Sichuan production areas are also marketed as "West Lake Longjing".

  However, it is worth mentioning that Hangzhou, focusing on the brand protection and industrial optimization of West Lake Longjing Tea, officially implemented the "Hangzhou West Lake Longjing Tea Protection and Management Regulations" from March 1 this year, protecting well-known trademarks with local regulations.

  The regulations clearly stipulate that the market supervision and management department should strengthen the protection of the West Lake Longjing tea brand, investigate and deal with the infringement of the exclusive right to the registered trademark and the production and sale of counterfeit and shoddy West Lake Longjing tea according to law, and promote the development of online and offline integrated law enforcement, cross-regional law enforcement cooperation and cooperation. Rights protection assistance to maintain the order of the West Lake Longjing tea market.

  This also makes Tang Xiaojun very gratified, and there is a law to follow to protect Longjing tea.

(over)