drink tea
Text: Liang Shiqiu
I am not good at tasting tea, I don't know the tea scriptures, I don't know what the tea ceremony is, and I have never had the experience of learning the style under my armpits. However, over the past few decades, I have drunk a lot of tea, such as Shuangyao in Beiping, Daye in Tianjin, Longjing in West Lake, melon slices in Lu'an, Tuo tea in Sichuan, Pu'er in Yunnan, Junshan tea in Dongting Lake, rock tea in Wuyi Mountain, and even tea stalks that do not reach the elegant hall and Gao Mo'er who is full of stars with the pot. Tea is the drink of our Chinese, dry mouth quenches thirst, only tea is Shang. The word tea, the shape is close to the tree, the sound is close to the 槚, the origin is very ancient, spread overseas, wherever there are Chinese, there is tea. No one is noble or cheap, everyone has a share, the upper one sipps the famous seeds, the lower one drinks tea soup, and even there are people serving tea on the roadside. The northerners got up early, met on the road, and asked: "Have you drunk tea?" "Tea is one of the seven things to do to open the door, and it is a necessity in life.
When I was a child, there was a large teapot in the house, and I sat in a rattan box with cotton lining, which was quite insulated, and I had to drink tea and pour it myself. We use a mung bean bowl, this kind of bowl is a large rice bowl, a small bowl is a tea bowl, made mung bean color, rough and durable, of course, and Song porcelain can not be compared, and Jiangxi porcelain can not be compared, and foreign porcelain can not be compared, but there is a simple and heavy style, now this kind of bowl has long been extinct, I miss it. This kind of bowl is not worth a few pennies when broken, and it will not be slapped on the head. The silver tray white porcelain small bowl is for our grandparents, and we don't envy it. Look at the small one, drink it all in two sips, and you have to change the tea after brewing it two or three times, which is troublesome. Nowadays, gaiwan is rare, unless you go to the National Palace Museum in Taipei to visit President Jiang, and his large living room will always bring gaiwan tea to guests. Even in TV dramas, it is common to see gaiwan tea, but the actor holding the lid in one hand and the bowl in the other hand and sipping tea with his neck in his neck is embarrassed, because he doesn't know how to drink gaiwan tea. He usually drinks tea by himself, probably always using glasses, thermos cups and the like. Nowadays, most of the gaiwan we see here is the style of "longevity without borders" made locally in recent years, and the porcelain is thicker; The style of the Japanese-made bowls is slightly different, and I always feel a little weird. Recently, someone went back to the mainland, by the way to visit my old home, brought me more than 30 years ago every day to use a porcelain bowl, the original 12 sets, only this set left, the edge of the bowl is still a little damaged, see this old thing, evoke the mood of the past, can not help but gloomy. Gaiwan is the best tea set.
There are many varieties of tea, each with its own expertise. Youyou is from Huizhou, a classmate from Tsinghua University. Huizhou tea resort, but he saw me use a pinch of tea leaves in the pot to make tea, expressed surprise, because he only knew that the tea was dried, packed and bundled on the boat along the river to Shanghai and Hangzhou for sale, and the remaining tea stalks were for the family to drink. Just like the so-called "sleeping kang that sells seats" in the north. I drink tea plainly, either fragrant pieces or Longjing, many times to Dashilar Donghong Ji or Xi Hung Ji to buy tea, in front of the counter a station, the apprentice moved a stool to give up the seat, see the guy weigh the tea, divided into a number of small bags, the bag can see the edges, that craft can only be compared with the pharmacy guys. The jasmine tea leaves are sold, and then grab a handful of fresh jasmine flowers and put them on the surface when they are about to sell, so they are called double jasmines. So the tea shop is often fragrant with tea and flowers, and it is lush and fragrant. The father holds a famous jade nobleman, a banner person, who is good at drinking food, Ju Heng mixes it with half of the incense piece and half of the dragon well, and there is the strong fragrance of the incense piece, and the bitterness of the dragon well. My family does what it does, and all of them are good. Tea in the name of the person, Nai Jing called this tea "jade", private secrets, outsiders have no way to know.
In fact, clear tea is the most elegant. Before the Anti-Japanese War, when I visited the old man of Zhitang in the Kucha Nunnery, the host and guest always had a cup of tea, which was light, astringent, and green. I have repeatedly served the ancestors to visit the West Lake, never forget to taste the local Longjing, do not need to climb the South Peak Fenghuangling, there is a good Longjing tea in the autumn moon of Pinghu Lake, boiling water is freshly brewed, the flavor is excellent. After tea, enter a bowl of lotus root powder, and the four beauties are complete. It is "coming through the door, the summer breeze and the winter day; Rolling shutters meet, the front mountain and the bright moon and the back mountain mountain" (Luo Chengxiang). There are friends from Lu'an, I have a little melon slices, the leaves are big and green, and the smell of the wilderness is fragrant. Among them, there is a kind of watermelon tea, which really has a watermelon flavor. I once went to Dongting, stayed downstairs in Yueyang, and bought a box of Junshan tea. Boiling water, each tea leaf is like a needle floating upright, stretching and sinking for a long time, and the taste is fragrant.
When I first came to Taiwan, I wanted to pour all the money into the tea and occasionally make a luxurious enjoyment at the end of the tea drink. One day through a tea shop, ask for a good dragon well, the shopkeeper will look me up and down, take eight yuan a pound of tea to respond, Yu shows dissatisfaction, but more to twelve yuan offered, Yu is still dissatisfied, the shopkeeper is full of color, and said sharply: "Buy things, look at the color of the goods, can not be set up and down by the price." Raise the price and deceive yourself! Why don't you notice it, sir? "I love it. Now this tea shop is in the market and has become a leader in the industry. After that, I drank tea, but in terms of taste, I didn't ask the price.
The winner of tea is gongfu tea. "Chaojia Fengyue Ji" said that Gongfu tea should be poured with a pot and bowl at the beginning of boiling charcoal, poured and sipped, the smell is fragrant, and it is more clear than chewing plum blossoms. I haven't chewed plum blossoms, but when I lived in Qingdao, I had a friend from Chenghai, Chaozhou, who visited a Chaozhou giant merchant in his shop every time he got drunk. There is a secret room at the back, smoking utensils and tea sets are very elegant, and small pots and cups are like toys. There are also more graceful children who serve to make tea and burn cigarettes, so they often eat gongfu tea, such as Tieguanyin and Da Hong Pao, and carry a few boxes home after eating. I don't know if it's a trick, but it is said that the distance between the stove and the tea set is seven steps, and the temperature of the boiling water is in line with the standard. Raise a small cup and drink it, if the drink is returned to the plate, the owner is displeased, and must raise the cup to the nose and sniff twice. This tea has the most hangover effect, such as chewing olives, the root of the tongue is slightly astringent, after several rounds, it seems that the more you drink, the more thirsty you are, and you can't stop. To drink gongfu tea, you have to have time, you have to taste carefully, you have to have equipment, you have to be served, who has so much work in today's chaotic society? Where to find a small red clay stove? The people who serve the tea soup don't care. Pu'er tea, pitch black, it is said that there are also green ones, brewed out of black and not slippery autumn, Cantonese people like it. In Beiping, I only watched people eat barbecue in Zhengyang Building, and I couldn't move until my mouth was slippery, and I couldn't move, so I shouted to make Pu'er tea. Sichuan's Tuo tea is not evil, but the general teahouse should not be of the highest quality. Taiwan's oolong, famous in China and abroad, mass production, the best is not easy to get. Advertise frozen tops everywhere, in fact, where are there so many frozen tops?
Drink tea, drink good tea, the past is like smoke. When it comes to the art of drinking tea, it seems that I can't talk about it now, so I don't want to mention it.