Chapter 29 Tea and Story
With the full support of Qian Xue and comprehensive cooperation in terms of manpower and resources, Ling Yun's new tea production went more smoothly than expected. However, the first batch of tea was only for trial purposes, so the quantity was very small. The first batch of tea leaves roasted by Ling Yun were all freshly picked from a nearby tea farm in Gaojiazhuang, completely according to Ling Yun's picking requirements, and only used the highest quality single bud and single leaf. These teas were produced in Liuheshan Lion Peak Tea Garden, but they were not any famous teas of the time. In recent days, Ling Yun also did some research on tea varieties at this time and asked several tea shop owners for information. He knew that the most famous teas now are produced in Mingshan Mountain, Yashan, Jianyang, with Mingshi Shihua being the most well-known, followed by Guzhu Purple Bamboo Tea from Huzhou, Zhejiang. The palace and aristocratic families almost all use these famous teas.
At this time, the Yangzhou Huainan area, which belongs to Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in later times, although Huainan is one of the three major tea-producing areas along with Sichuan and Lingnan, it lacks top-grade famous teas. The teas from the Jianghuai region are known for Shouzhou's Hosan Huangya, Liu'an tea, Tianzhu tea, and Xuanzhou's Yashan tea. Although the tea produced in Liuhe Mountain has a good reputation locally, it is only ordinary among all teas. However, in later times, Nanjing's Yuhuatai Hill, which is just across the river from Liuhe Mountain, produces one of China's top ten famous teas, Yuhua Tea. In Lingyun's view, Liuhe tea still has a good foundation, with Shouzhou's Hosan Huangya, Liu'an tea, and Tianzhu tea being excellent high-grade teas to the north, and Yuhua tea being a famous tea to the south, so Liuhe Mountain's tea only lacks an opportunity for packaging.
Will people of the Sui Dynasty like to drink brewed tea? Lingyun thinks this is certain, they are now drinking boiled tea, but it's just that they haven't had roasted and brewed tea yet.
The fresh tea leaves picked from Lion Peak were sent to the manor by horse-drawn carriage at the fastest speed, and for drying these tea leaves, Lingyun also prepared several large bamboo mats.
Of course, the most important thing for new tea is still frying. In order to fry tea, Gaojiazhuang hired several blacksmiths in these days, and they worked day and night to make three large pots. These pots were made by Lingyun according to the style he used to work with at his aunt's tea factory. The pots are iron pots, arranged in a row of three, divided into raw pot, second pot and ripe pot, operated in sequence. The diameter of these pot mouths is about three feet, the raw pot is slightly tilted, the front of the pot base is more than one foot high, convenient for operation, the back wall is more than three feet high, and it fits with the wall.
Kill green, wait for the wood fire to burn until nearly two hundred degrees, then you can start stir-frying. The maximum amount of tea leaves that can be added at one time is one catty. Use a tea stirrer to continuously rotate and stir-fry in the pot, until the green leaves are soft and fluffy. Then use the tip of the tea scoop to gather the green leaves, and perform a light rolling motion in the pot, gradually increasing the force and speed, occasionally shaking and scattering. Repeat this process for about two minutes, until the leaves are soft and dark green in color, then sweep them into the second killing green pot. The second killing green pot continues to kill green and initially roll the tea, with a slightly lower temperature than the first pot, requiring more force during operation.
After Lingyun demonstrated the operation in front of Mulan and Qinglian, the two little maidservants had already learned it. Lingyun immediately handed over the task of stir-frying the raw pot to Qinglian and assigned the task of stir-frying the second green pot, which required more strength, to Mulan, who was obviously stronger.
It turns out that this job is really suitable for Mulan. Qinglian stir-fries the raw pot, and Mulan works hard to stir-fry the second green pot, while Lingyun only needs to wait for Mulan to rotate the tea leaves in the pot, rub them into strips, and when the leaves shrink into strips and have a sticky feeling, they can be swept into his operating third mouth. The ripe pot is mainly used to further refine the tea strips, and the pot temperature is slightly lower than that of the second green pot. At this time, the leaves are relatively soft, and after stirring with a tea scoop for a few times, the leaves will drill into the bamboo branch inside the handle, which is beneficial for making strips. After shaking slightly, the leaves will fall back into the pot. Repeating this operation makes the leaves move in and out of the bamboo scoop, cleverly combining the killing of greenness, losing water, and rubbing into strips. This is obviously different from the tea-making technology of stir-frying green tea first and then twisting, which can take advantage of the opportunity for leaves to be soft and pliable under humid heat conditions, promote old leaves to become strips, and overcome the drawbacks of cold twisting, such as broken stems, fragments, and exposed veins. When the tea strips are tight and fine, emitting a tea fragrance, and about 30-40% dry, they can be taken out of the pot.
The first batch of new tea sent over was almost a hundred catties, and only one catty could be stir-fried at a time. A hundred catties of tea needed to be stir-fried a hundred times. Originally, Lingyun had planned to just stir-fry one or two catties and call it a day, but unexpectedly, Mulan and Qinglian, the two maidservants, tasted the first cup of tea made with the new stir-frying method and immediately fell in love with this kind of tea. They cherished this magical and advanced stir-frying technique even more than Lingyun himself did. Like a miser, they whispered to Lingyun that this technique absolutely could not be leaked out, so they insisted on doing it themselves. Even if they would eventually have to hand it over to someone else to do, they had to wait until they found a reliable person first. Seeing their adorable expressions, Lingyun thought it was quite amusing and decided to join them in persisting with the stir-frying.
For several days, Lingyun's east wing became a secret place. The master and servants were busy brewing tea day and night, and no one else was allowed to enter. At this time, the master and servants were also very busy, brewing tea on one side and chatting and joking on the other. Most of the time, it was Lingyun telling stories to the two maids. The stories he told were not unusual, just some small stories from later generations, even some fairy tales that had been slightly modified. The two maids had never heard these stories before, and they listened with great interest, so much so that every morning when they got up, the two maids would pull Lingyun to the tea-brewing room, and the three of them would stand together at the stove brewing tea, asking Lingyun to tell them various stories. They listened with relish to stories like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and the Prince, Sleeping Beauty, and even stories like Calabaza.
However, Lingyun did not know that every night, the two maids would retell the various stories they had heard from him during the day to Gao Qianshu in vivid detail. At first, it was just Mulan who casually mentioned it to Gao Qianshu, and she found these stories very interesting, all of which were unheard of before. So she let Qinglian remember the story of the day and retell it to her when she came back, then Gao Mingyue happened to come over on the second night and heard it, adding another listener. Later on, the number of listeners increased with the addition of Gao Qianshu's two sisters' maidservants, until eventually, as soon as night fell, Gao Qianshu's northern courtyard was bustling with excitement, a crowd of women eagerly waiting to hear the new stories they had heard that day.
The story will always have an end, a Grimm's fairy tale ends, and even Andersen's fairy tales end. Later on, it naturally goes beyond just telling children's stories. Lingyun also tells other things, such as Journey to the West, Investiture of the Gods, and even Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dream of the Red Chamber. Although Lingyun doesn't completely remember these books, and makes some changes when telling them, but what does Two Braids know about this? She is completely enchanted. Occasionally, Lingyun also tells stories like The West Wing, anyway, she has gained countless admiring glances. This makes Lingyun feel slightly proud in her heart, the prosperous era of Kaihuang may be good, but how can the insight of the Sui people compare to that of later generations?
