【Taste of China|Food】Xinyang Maojian: Gwangju top grade, cup of tea

Xinyang, Henan, 4 April (ZXS) -- Topic: Xinyang Maojian: Gwangju top-grade, cup of tea in thousands of miles

Written by Kan Li

Open the "Tea Sutra" written by the tea saint Lu Yu, "Huainan to Gwangju" jumped on the paper, meaning tea in Huainan area, with Gwangju as the best. Gwangju was in the area of present-day Xinyang, Henan Province, including Yinchuan and Gwangsan counties.

The misty clouds at the northern foot of Dabie Mountain gave birth to the famous green tea - Xinyang Maojian. Xinyang, known as the "Tea Country of China", began to grow tea during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and has a history of more than 2300,<> years.

The picture shows the emerald green tea mountain under the blue sky and white clouds. (Official photo provided by Xinyang City's Yunhe District)

In 1915, the tea fried by Cheyunshan Hongji Tea House in Xinyang Xunhe District won the gold medal of the Panama Universal Exposition. Subsequently, Hongji Tea House was renamed Cheyun Tea House, and sent people to famous tea producing areas such as Longjing in West Lake, Zhejiang, to buy tea seeds and learn tea making technology. There is a saying among tea farmers in Cheyunshan that because of the use of green tea making methods such as Longjing, the tea fried in Cheyunshan was once named "Cheyun Longjing".

In 1926, the tea workers of Cheyun Tea Society tried to replace small tea handles with small tea handles to fry "raw pots", creating "grip stir-frying" and "straightening" processes. At this point, the stir-frying process of Xinyang Maojian was basically formed, and then gradually improved and passed down to this day.

Nowadays, Xinyang Maojian has formed a unique style of "fine, round, light, straight, white, fragrant, strong taste, and green soup" through screening, spreading, kneading, stripping, straightening, initial baking, spreading cooling, and re-drying through technological processes such as screening, spreading, spreading, and re-baking.

These crafts are treasured by the family of Zhou Zuhong, the national non-genetic inheritor of Xinyang Maojian green tea making skills. Every year from the end of March, three generations of his family are busy.

Son-in-law Xiao Xingliang is a master of Chinese tea making, holding tea handles and tea roasters to make day and night; Xiao Junjing, the granddaughter of the self-proclaimed "tea country girl", is a new Internet celebrity who focuses on sales.

The picture shows the scene of Xinyang Maojian tea stir-frying by ancient methods. (Official photo provided by Xinyang City's Yunhe District)

"When the spring breeze blows the tip of the tea leaves, a cup of good tea is in the world." Zhou Zuhong said and began to demonstrate each process of hand-roasting tea, and the proficiency of the movements is the accumulation of his decades of tea inseparability.

I saw his hand on top of the wok, measuring the temperature like a roasting fire. Subsequently, the feet differentially fix the center of gravity of the body, and the tea handle in the hand is turned in the wok.

"Stir-frying tea seems simple, but it's actually quite hard, you definitely can't do it!" Zhou Zuhong looked the reporter up and down and said: "After finishing the raw pot, you must quickly sweep the tea leaves to the cooked pot next to it and continue to knead." ”

In Zhou Zuhong's view, the more than ten processes of roasting tea should not be careless, and a little inattention will ruin a pot of tea. Saying that, he held a handful of tea leaves and threw them out of the tiger's mouth, "The strip is to shape the tea leaves, using wrist force, and the tea leaves in his hand can be thrown out two-thirds to prevent hot hands when repeating movements."

Now, although Zhou Zuhong, who is over 70 years old, rarely stir-fry tea, when supervising the production of stir-fried tea, he will always pinch a pinch and put it in the palm of his hand to tease and observe. "The final process of tea making is roasting, and repeated roasting is the key to improving the aroma and taste."

In the interview, no matter where he moved, Zhou Zuhong always held a teacup in his hand and smacked it from time to time. Xinyang Maojian is divided into spring, summer and autumn, and the highest grade is the "Mingqian tea" (tea leaves picked before the Qingming Festival) in his hand.

"Now the hair tip has a bud head, a bud and a leaf, a bud and two leaves, etc." Zhou Zuhong introduced that the tea leaves before and after the Qingming Festival are all young buds, and the tea soup after brewing is bright, and there is sweetness in the throat, and the taste is very good, but it is slightly light.

On April 4, Xinyang held a spring tea mining ceremony. Looking at the mountains full of tea pickers, Xiao Junjing sighed, "It's really not easy, today's weather is dry and water is short, and tea production has been greatly affected."

The picture shows the mining of Xinyang Maojian Chun tea. (Official photo provided by Xinyang City's Yunhe District)

The positivity, humility and pragmatism of the tea people in the old district, as well as their love for tea, are vividly reflected in Xiao Junjing. They said a word, full of the fragrance of tea. After graduating from university in 2019, Xiao Junjing returned to his hometown to take over the non-genetic inheritance of the family tea industry, and at the same time promoted the customs and culture of tea on social platforms.

As a new generation of tea people, she hopes to let the world know about the tea country deep in the mountains through the Internet, and understand the tea farmers who have been working hard for generations in the tea village.

In the tea country, there are more and more "tea second generation" and "tea third generation" like Xiao Junjing, making the tea industry an important source of income for people in the old area. At present, the tea garden area of Xinyang City has reached 216.8 million mu, with a tea output of 150,120 tons, a total output value of <> billion yuan, and more than <>.<> million employees in the tea industry.

In ancient times, tea was the main commodity circulating on the Silk Road and was the carrier of exchanges and blending between Eastern and Western civilizations. Today, the fragrance of Xinyang Maojian has floated to many places in the world such as Central Asia, Africa and Europe along the "Belt and Road" along the "Belt and Road". (End)