China News Agency, Hohhot, July 26th: Mongolian milk tea: South tea, north milk, full of love in the west and east
China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
In Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, the first ray of smoke rose from an old milk tea house in the early morning.
At five or six o'clock, there is an endless stream of people drinking "morning tea".
On May 28, in a milk tea shop in Hohhot, the waiter Sa Zhuola put butter, fried rice and other milk tea "mates" into a hot pot.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
"Mongolian milk tea, called 'Sutai eggplant' in Mongolian, uses green brick tea, which is made from Hubei Laoqing tea (belonging to dark tea), the soup is bright red and yellow, and the tea is mellow." Manager Hasigowa He The employees started busy at four in the morning. "First brew the green brick tea, boil it in boiling water, raise the tea juice 81 times, fully release the tea aroma, and then clarify the tea juice for use."
Brick tea is rich in vitamins and trace elements. The brewed Mongolian milk tea not only has the functions of quenching thirst and hunger, warming the stomach, and helping digestion, but also supplements nutrition for herdsmen who lack green vegetables.
In Mongolian homes, after morning tea, the hostess will warm the remaining milk tea on a small fire so that the family can drink it at any time.
"Drink when I eat, drink when I'm thirsty, and drink when I'm tired... It can provide me with the energy I need throughout the day." Balaji Nyima, a herdsman who has lived on the Hulunbuir grassland since he was a child, said that his every day It all starts with the milk tea brewed by Eji (Mongolian, mother).
Walking into Hasgaowa's milk tea shop, you will be greeted with the aroma of milk, tea and rice.
Each table has a small copper pot, milk skin, milk tofu, milk chewing mouth (the upper layer of milk curdled milk), dried meat, fried rice, butter, butter, fruit sticks (a kind of Mongolian fried pasta) and more than a dozen kinds of milk tea” Companion" for you to choose.
On May 28, in a milk tea shop in Hohhot, the waiter held the milk tea, so that the fragrance of milk and tea was perfectly blended.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
Traditional Mongolian milk tea is not based on cups or bowls, but in terms of "pots".
One pot, compatible with Ulan id (Mongolian, meat) and Chagan id (Mongolian, dairy).
Fried rice, known by many as the "soul" of Mongolian milk tea.
It is processed by steaming, frying, grinding and other processes. It is fragrant and refreshing, and can satisfy hunger and resist hunger.
Put the butter in a hot pan to dissolve, add the fried rice and stir fry, the creamy fragrance and rice fragrance instantly wake up the cells of the whole body.
I saw the waiter Sazhuola skillfully put the tea juice, fresh milk and salt into the pot in proportion. After they were perfectly blended, they stirred the cream and added the milk skin, milk chews, milk tofu, dried meat and fruit strips.
Wang Zhi, a Taiwanese tourist who came to the store to taste tea, said with emotion that among all the taste bud experiences in Inner Mongolia, Mongolian milk tea can best make people feel that "life is like the first time".
As "the mysterious tea on China's ancient Silk Road", brick tea originated in the Taihe period of the Tang Dynasty, and there is a record in "History of the Tang Dynasty" that "eat cheese, not tea to cause disease".
For hundreds of years, tea, milk and meat have not only become the daily necessities of people in northwest China, but also exported to Mongolia, Japan, Russia, Britain, Malaysia and other places through the ancient Silk Road.
On May 28, in a milk tea shop in Hohhot, each table had a small copper pot, milk skin, milk tofu, milk chewing mouth (the upper layer of milk curdled milk), dried meat, fried rice, cream, butter, fruit sticks (Mongolian A fried pasta) and more than a dozen milk tea "mates" for you to choose from.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
By the 17th century, Chinese brick tea had cultivated a stable and huge consumer group in Russia and many European countries.
Following the ancient Silk Road, a 14,000-kilometer-long international ancient commercial road, the "Wanli Tea Road", which starts from China in the east and ends in Russia via Mongolia, connects Eurasia again.
According to Deng Jiugang, vice-chairman of Wanli Tea Ceremony Association (China), hundreds of merchants gathered in Guihua City (the old city of Hohhot), which was at the center of the Qing Dynasty.
The most famous company, Dashengkui, had nearly 20,000 camels at its peak. The camel team transported tea and other commodities between the vast grasslands and deserts.
For thousands of years, the Mongolian people have never changed their way of drinking tea with a mixture of brick tea and milk.
The white and sweet milk "encounters" the green tea, which is used to digest and relieve tiredness, and achieve a Mongolian milk tea with a soft taste, fragrant lips and teeth, and a long-lasting sweetness.
"It would be better to have no meals for three days than to have no tea for one day." In ancient times, Mongolians who were addicted to tea could exchange a piece of brick tea for a sheep or a cow.
"The milk tea culture of the grassland people is to drink the fragrance of tea, milk and hearty friendship." Jiao Yongxing, a researcher at the Inner Mongolia National Food Culture Research Institute, said that Mongolian milk tea concentrates the essence of grassland humanistic etiquette from ancient times to the present.
For July 21, tourists experience making milk tea at herdsmen's homes.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
To this day, the guests who come to the hospitable Mongolian family still have to offer milk tea first. It is disrespectful to have no tea or not to brew new tea.
In the evening, after three cups of tea, the herdsmen played their beloved matouqin, and the singing lingered on the grassland.
(Finish)