A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 296 New Tea Arrives
Because he read the beginning of the two legendary novels and couldn't read the follow-up, Dou Luhuai made the whole person listless and listless.

Even the Liangzhou lyrics performed by the kabukis couldn't lift their spirits.

"You planted all those Zhuangzi?"

"It's still in the process of planting. It's all dry land. It's widely planted and the harvest is low. It is estimated that there will not be too much harvest this year."

Huaiyu poured him a cup of tea, "Try my tea, it's a new tea specially made this year, Jiannan's Mengding tea."

Dou Lu Huairang still had the story in his mind, "Jiannan Mengding Stone Flower Tea isn't very novel, isn't it? My house makes a lot of new tea cakes every year. If you like it, I'll send you two boxes later."

Not two slices, not two boxes, but two boxes, one box at least dozens of cakes.

Doulu Prince Consort is always so unrestrained.

"This is different from the Mongolian stone flower tea you usually drink,"

"What's the difference? The dragon and phoenix cakes served in the palace are the best."

He is a son-in-law, and he also gets a lot of Mengding stone flower dragon and phoenix cakes that are drunk in the palace every year.

"This is loose tea, and the tea making process is different."

Cheng Yaojin went to Luzhou, Sichuan this year to be the governor, and Wu Huaiyu also sent some housekeepers to accompany him, not only to meet the five hundred slaves who ordered, but also to buy tea.

In fact, although there are many classifications of tea, the main reason is the difference in tea-making techniques. According to some characteristics of tea from different places, different teas are processed.

The tea in the Tang Dynasty was mainly formed tea, which was made into tea cakes. The tea cake technology in the Tang Dynasty was mainly steamed green tea, and the fresh leaves were crushed and pressed into cakes. The specific process was to steam the picked fresh leaves to soften, Steamed, then pounded, put into a cake-shaped model to shape, then baked, and finally threaded into skewers, wrapped and stored.

After the Song Dynasty, tea pressing and tea grinding processes were added after steaming tea, which was relatively complicated.

Although there are tea cakes in modern times, the process is completely different. Basically, some kind of loose tea is used to press the cakes, instead of using fresh tea leaves directly as tea cakes. For example, white tea cakes are made Good loose tea is made by steaming soft pressed cakes.

Another difference is that Tang people often have a process of squeezing the juice after steaming the tea leaves. To remove the juice, the higher the quality of the tea, the more indispensable it is, such as the tribute dragon and phoenix cake.

Different tea-making techniques lead to different teas, plus different ways of drinking tea, such as ordering tea and sencha is different from making tea.

People who like to drink tea often only love a certain kind of tea.

Modern teas include green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, etc., and they are all mainly due to the difference in tea making process. Black tea is fermented, green tea is not fermented, and white tea is slightly fermented.

Green tea pays attention to freshness, and the main process is killing, rolling, and drying. It is commonly known as fried tea. The main method of drinking tea is to brew it. It can be drunk after pouring water and waiting for a while.

Black tea has to go through the fermentation process and is brewed for drinking, but it is more resistant to brewing than green tea.

As for black tea, it belongs to post-fermentation tea, mainly from Southwest tea trees. The basic process of dark tea is killing, first kneading, fermenting, re-kneading, and baking.Dark tea generally has thicker raw materials, and the accumulation and fermentation time in the manufacturing process is often longer, so the leaves are oily black or dark brown, so it is called dark tea. Very popular with nomads.

Wu Huaiyu prefers to drink green tea when drinking tea.

There are many varieties of green tea, but most of them are stir-fried loose tea. The green tea itself uses bud slices, so it is relatively fresh and refreshing, and it has a unique taste without adding anything.

Tang Dynasty made tea with tea cakes with various seasonings. He was really not used to it all the time, and it was okay to drink it as milk tea or camellia oleifera.

This time, I specially arranged for someone to go to Jiannan with Cheng Yaojin, directly purchase fresh tea leaves from the local tea gardens, and make a batch of new teas according to his processing method.

Among them, Mengding yellow-bud green tea is hired by local girls during the Ching Ming Festival. Only single buds and one bud and one leaf are picked. There are at least [-] tea buds per catty of tea. [-] processes, including cooling, head kneading, frying, and second greening, are finally baked and fragrant, packed in quantitative boxes, and then transported back to Chang'an.

The one with a single bud is the super grade, and the one with one bud and one leaf is the top grade.

In addition, a batch of Jiannan black tea, Jiannan black tea, and a batch of jasmine tea were processed in Jiannan, and even oolong tea processed from Mengding tea. These teas are loose tea.

Compared with the very small amount of loose tea in the Tang Dynasty at this time, these teas have their own characteristics, and they are still very good when paired with the unique method of making tea and drinking tea.

Anyway, Wu Huaiyu was very satisfied after receiving the tea. Although the quality was still a bit different from the good teas he had tasted before, the main reason was that the craftsmanship was not skilled enough.

It will definitely get better and better after more frying.

For this reason, he wrote a special letter asking the steward to directly buy some tea gardens there, build a tea house by himself, prepare to expand production, and even sign more tea collection contracts with the local people.

Although this kind of tea is very different from the traditional cake tea of ​​Tang tea, Wu Huaiyu thinks that there will still be a market for this kind of tea, and the Wu family is not the first to eat crabs. It is still very promising to occupy the top position in the market.

Dou Lu Huairang became a little interested when he saw Huaiyu speak clearly and logically.

Huaiyu deliberately took out a beautiful box, which was still sealed with wax, opened it, and there were fine porcelain inside, and then opened the lid, a strong tea fragrance rushed over.

This may be the great difference between green tea and tuancha at this time.

That umami taste is too much.

Take some green tea from the tea pot.

Dou Lu Huairang stretched out his hand to pick up the small sprouts one by one and looked at them carefully.

"Isn't this a leaf?"

"Tea leaves are the leaves of a tree, but don't underestimate this small bud leaf. Do you know that this is before Qingming, and local girls are specially hired to pick it. They are all virgins. Those young Jiannan girls, mention it Walking through the tea gardens on the mountain with a tea basket,
Tea is not harvested from rain and dew, and buds from diseases and insects are not picked. Each bud is broken off from the tea tree by the girls with their thumbs and forefingers, and they must not be pinched with their nails.
The best ones are all young and single buds, and the second ones are only picked with one bud and one leaf. "

A good product must have a good story.

Although Wu Huaiyu has never been to the Jiannan tea garden, he still tells the story in the right way. Fortunately, he is also a person who wants some face, and he didn't say that it was about Longjing tea.

Anyway, there used to be such a thing as Ruqian Longjing, who said that to make this kind of tea, you must first select the young virgins, pick the tea leaves before the rain, put the picked tea leaves on your chest and moisten them with body temperature, so that the tea leaves can absorb the young girls. Only body fragrance can make this precious Ruqian Longjing tea, and the tea leaves are of the highest quality.

Huaiyu couldn't make up such words.

A catty of tea needs [-] buds, and each piece is placed on the chest to moisturize. This day can moisten a few pieces of tea leaves, and a flower-picking girl with a drying machine is not enough.

Even what he said about girls picking tea is not all true.

After all, tea picking is a race to the top. As soon as the buds and leaves come out, you have to pick them quickly. What about unmarried virgins picking, from eighty to three or five years old, no matter who is male, female, old or young, whoever is able to go to battle should pick them quickly .

You can't pinch your fingers if you break your fingers, that's all storytelling.

It's even impossible to say that even a little rain and dew can't be collected.

It can only be said that there will be a re-screening process for the picked tea leaves. The higher the grade and the more expensive the tea, the better the screening. However, after the tea leaves are roasted, there will still be many broken leaves, etc. These are cheap broken teas. , the larger ones can be made into high crushed ones, and the finer ones can be made into tea bags or pressed cakes.

Never go to waste.

The jar that Wu Huaiyu opened is indeed top quality, each single bud, which is specially provided for him, and it is produced by the family, so it is not bad for the owner.

In order to match this tea, Huaiyu even specially made two crystal cups. Originally drinking green tea with a glass ring is not bad, and it looks good, but Wu Huaiyu has not had the energy and skills to make the glass out. At this time, the glass is very ordinary, but The crystal cup is not bad, there is nothing wrong with it except that it is expensive.

Boil the water, let it sit for a while, and then brew.

Pour one-third of the water into the glass, pick up the glass and shake it.

Hold it in front of you and smell it, the fresh fragrance of the tea leaves rushes straight to you.

Doulu Huairang has followed suit, and it smells really good.

Then pour water down seven full.

Let it stand for 2 minutes, then pour the tea into the sea of ​​tea and divide into cups.

Pick up the tea cup and take a few sips, it's cool.

Dou Lu Huairang imitated Huai Yu's example, and also picked up the small crystal cup to sip. The tea is very hot but not hot, and the mouth can feel the very direct feeling.

This taste, compared with the boiled tea he used to drink, the biggest difference is that the taste is very light at first taste, very simple, without all kinds of complicated flavors.

Take a closer look and return to sweetness.

"It's a little bit bitter at the beginning, and it's a little bit weak, but it gradually returns to sweetness, which is pretty good."

"Continued Cup."

Another cup of fine tea, Dou Lu Huairang has accepted this different kind of tea.

"Crystal tea makes green tea, which is quite elegant."

Huaiyu chuckled, "Elegance never goes out of style."

Although Doulu Huairang used to drink tea every day, after all, drinking tea in the early Tang Dynasty was still a kind of stylish way of life among nobles and scholars, and it was beyond the reach of ordinary people.

But he really didn't know that there are so many ways to make tea.

When Huaiyu brewed another pot of black tea for him, he was even more stunned when he saw the red tea soup poured out.

After tasting it, I was amazed.

"Unexpectedly, Brother Wu, who is a master of calligraphy, painting and poetry in medicine, has the unique ability to make tea."

"It's all inherited from the master's school. Tea is also medicine, which can prolong life and even cure diseases."

Drinking tea, chatting about the Zhuangzi of each family.

Doulu's family is also busy replanting. His family mainly grows buckwheat, millet, millet, oats, naked oats, and sorghum, mainly drought-tolerant miscellaneous grains.

"I'll send you some corn and potato seeds,"

Two corns can plant an acre of land thinly. Huaiyu gave Doulu Huairang ten corns, two bags of potatoes as seed lumps, and some sweet potatoes.

Seeing these auspicious signs, Dou Lu Huairang liked it very much. This thing is only miscellaneous grains, but now it still has the name of auspicious signs.

When he left, he not only happily brought twenty corns and two bags of sweet potatoes, but also accepted the cans of tea that Huaiyu gave him with a smile.

However, Doulu Huairang is a nobleman who is very particular about courtesy and reciprocity. When he got home, he picked twenty maidservants, twenty slaves, and two fine horses to Huaiyu, and gave Huaiyu a box of dragons and phoenixes. cake.

"Twenty corn back to my twenty maids, two bags of potatoes directly back to twenty dinus, a little sweet potato back to two horses, Dou Lu Ma is always so polite."

No matter how auspicious it is, it is nothing more than miscellaneous grains, and one corn cob can only yield a few taels of dry corn kernels, and three corn cobs may not be able to yield a catty. Now a stone of grain in Shuofang is only worth a thousand dollars, so really counting, one corn If the stick is only counted as miscellaneous grains, it is worth a few pennies at most.

And a maid is worth seven or eight thousand dollars.

What surprised him even more was that among the twenty maidservants, he actually found the daughter of General Long Xiang who was the first to be auctioned at the auction in Kouma City that day.

The steward of Doulu's house who came to return the gift said that the maidservant was still perfect, and it was specially given by Doulu Huairang. She had been receiving etiquette training at Doulu's house during this time, and she was supposed to bring it back to Chang'an, but now she is giving it to Huaiyu.

That girl was bought by Doulu's family for 23 yuan.

Two or three pennies of corn for a daughter of General Longxiang worth 23 yuan?
This Doulu Huairang, let people say what is good about him, remembering that when they were in Longyou, he was still at the ninth rank, and the son-in-law of Doulu took good care of him.

Huaiyu smiled, and didn't say the polite words that the gift is too heavy to be accepted. Between Doulu Huairang, there is no need to be too polite, as long as everyone knows it well.

Huaiyu went back to the house and made another pot of Mongolian bud tea for himself. Maybe this loose tea business can be done with Doulu Huairang. He is the son-in-law, and Doulu is a famous Guanlong family. His grandmother is the princess of the Sui Dynasty, and his wife is the princess of the Tang Dynasty. , He is quite prestigious in the Chang'an aristocratic circle, let him stand up and endorse this new tea, lead a new trend, and then this new tea will probably become popular.

(End of this chapter)