Young people from other cities flock to the streets, looking for a drunken relaxation with cocktails on the go. When you arrive in Guangzhou, the style of painting has changed, and the simple hand-made lemon tea stall on the side of the road is the best place for everyone to spend the night blowing water for themselves.
Here, no matter what shop decoration and brand are left behind, as long as there is tea, tables and chairs, and Wi-Fi, both men and women, young and old, can find their spiritual comfort zone in the lemon tea stall.
△ A lemon tea stall outside a small area in Guangzhou. (Photo/Photo by Lin Zejun)
For outsiders who don't know much about Guangzhou's night party culture, when they see the crowd gathered in front of the lemon tea shop, most of them will mutter: "Can you fall asleep when you drink tea at night?" Or simply think they're waiting for a nearby bar to open.
As everyone knows, the lemon tea stall is the second half of the gathering place carefully selected by the young children in Guangzhou - the sugar water shop is a sweet burden, the bar KTV is too noisy, and the lemon tea stall is a quiet world in the market, accommodating every soul who is eager to relax.
Guangzhou people, how can they not do without lemon tea stalls
Lemon tea stall and lemon tea shop are one word apart, but they represent a completely different cultural atmosphere.
"Shop" is taken from "shop", which pays attention to paying money with one hand and delivering with the other, and customers take and go after ordering, and various orders on the takeaway platform are never stopped.
The "stall" is taken from the "food stall", and the name has its own casual and free temperament. There must be three or five tables in front of the lemon tea stall in the most popular market, and people gather together inside and outside the door, focusing on a sense of community full of fireworks.
When the choice of nightlife in the city has been expanded to the extreme, what Lao Guang misses the most has to be the experience of sighing for a refreshing cup of lemon tea at night.
△ A cup of fresh lemon tea can be called a "summer savior". (Photo/Visual China)
No way, this is a habit that Guangzhou people have developed since childhood - how many Guangzhou children, their favorite nightlife in childhood is to go to the streets and alleys with their friends to enjoy the shade. Everyone has a soy milk or coke, and the noise creates the most leisurely and beautiful time in childhood memories.
Now the store is gradually hidden in the streets and alleys, the non-old community is not visible, and the efficient operation model of the convenience store chain is no longer suitable for all-night gatherings. Nowadays, young people who are struggling to squeeze out leisure time from their busy lives want to find a cost-effective place to chat with their friends, which is really not so simple.
△ The store with all kinds of stores is the happy hometown of many young people in Guangzhou in their childhood. (Photo/Visual China)
For migrant workers who quietly erect a high wall of boundaries, the cost of trust in inviting friends home to chat is too high, and it is a lot of effort to clean up the mess after the dinner; After eating, I stayed in the restaurant at less than half past eight o'clock, and a waiter came to urge me to pay; If you switch to drinking places, not only will the consumption be higher, but you will also be afraid of getting up early on your working day, and you will feel that chatting is not enough fun if you leave early.
Therefore, with the blessing of the memories of Chinese New Year's Eve, the lemon tea stall has become the first choice for young people in Guangzhou to find a place to "heaxia" (to pass the time casually).
△ In hot weather, you can also choose to sit in the tea stall room. (Photo/Photo by Shepherd)
Compared with a cocktail with an average price of about 100 yuan, lemon tea with an average price of 10 yuan is obviously more in line with the practical temperament of Guangzhou people. As the most common destination on the streets of Guangzhou, no matter which neighborhood you are in, you can see more than one lemon tea shop every 5 minutes on average.
The business of chain lemon tea brands has been up and down, and there are not a few closures, but it has not affected the community tea stalls at all. It's just because Lao Guangwei loves the small shop that is close to home and produces "not sweet".
△ Everyone has their own Guangzhou limited tea stall, which is stable and cheap. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
Bringing friends a few more times is enough to mix SVIP with each other in the store, and you don't have to worry about five or seven points of sugar, more ice or less ice. Not only can guests discuss with the boss about making a cup of newly developed special tea base, but they can also take out snacks such as beef offal to the store. Sometimes, the bars and livehouses have already dispersed, and the people at the tea stalls are still holding their ground.
In addition to chatting, the lemon tea stall often serves as an e-sports venue on the streets of Guangzhou. The reason why a group of people go to a tea stall is often to find a cool and cheap place to play mobile games. As long as you buy a cup of 700cc lemon tea, the tea stall is the best "blood base" for the folk game team.
△ Gathering to play games and cards is a scene of lemon tea stalls. (Photo/Photo by Lin Zejun)
Of course, it's fun to go alone. Each regional tea stall will become a gathering place of some kind of fandom, listening to the people around you "blowing water", maybe you can even catch up with a few words and join a new community.
The sign of Lao Guang who has truly become familiar with the road is that even if his friends live in all directions, he can always choose a "treasure tea stall" that can become the center point, so that everyone can stay until the early hours of the morning and quickly leave the scene and go home.
Some people numb their nerves through alcohol, some people rely on milk tea and coffee to "continue their lives" for their part-time jobs, and as a rare "non-hot" drink unanimously recognized by the elders, lemon tea always has a relaxed temperament. Not to obtain any tool attributes, holding a cup of lemon tea in hand, rest assured to take a big gulp in the name of clearing heat, and the sweetness of freedom wafts through the evening breeze.
Lao Guang is transparent, and the lemon tea stall understands best
How many people's impression of Guangzhou only stays in the high-rise buildings of Zhujiang New Town, but they don't know that the market world with the most Guangzhou flavor has long been compressed in the lemon tea stalls in the old city.
The time that really belongs to the lemon tea stall is after 8 o'clock in the evening, and everyone is full of food and drink to start the second half. In addition, from the moment you step into the door of the tea stall, it means that even the social animals who work overtime and work out are basically "suffering".
△After getting off work, I found a delicious street tea stall. (Photo/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu)
Except for regular customers with almost fixed seats, gatherings at tea stalls are often impromptu, and people rarely seem anxious because a friend is late. After all, if you arrive on time as if you were going to a date, no matter how chill the lemon tea stall is, it will lose the mystery of going to a class taste resort.
Here, being too "exquisite" is to be despised, ordering a large cup of lemon tea, taking a sip, and then exhaling is almost a rare moment of "returning to the real world" for urban white-collar workers in a day.
When it's hot, use lemon tea to ice your face, if there are mosquitoes, ask the boss to borrow a mosquito swatter, no one cares whether the makeup of the person opposite is flowered, whether the car key is advanced enough, everyone only cares about whether the tea in the hand is enough to taste.
△ The tea stall at night was full of people. (Photo/Photo by Shepherd)
In Guangzhou, where the lemon tea industry is "epic involution", delicious tea stalls naturally gather a group of regular customers who introduce each other, and just ordinary shops must not be able to deceive the tongues of Guangzhou people, and no matter how low the price is, it will not be open for three months.
Some of the more high-end tea stalls will set up projectors to play ball games and TVB TV dramas non-stop. When the night gets darker, the tea stall owner who has chatted with the regular customers may take out his guitar out of nowhere and sing a song "The Sea and the Sky" or "I Really Love You".
△ Now the tea stalls with a good environment are using camping chairs that highlight the "sense of relaxation". (Photo/Photo by Shepherd)
From opening at 11 a.m. to closing at 12 p.m., there is always a table at the lemon tea stall in Guangzhou, which can accommodate the anxious soul of every migrant worker and provide everyone with the most simple enjoyment equally.
No matter what kind of profession you are engaged in, how much you earn, how much you earn, no matter what kind of business you are on, a 10 yuan cup of lemon tea is like a good medicine that can calm people's conversations.
Nowadays, whenever Guangzhou is mentioned, the image of kicking flip-flops out of the door, going to Shankara Farm for dinner when you have time, and "boiling winter melon" comes to mind. But only Lao Guang himself knows that the transparency of "calm and calm, there is money left" comes from the principle of contentment and happiness.
△ Order a relatively cheap lemon tea to kill the whole night. (Photo/Photo by Shepherd)
In the eyes of Guangzhou people, the person who knows how to live the most is not to be able to visit the Internet celebrity check-in points all over the city, but not to spend any unnecessary money.
The cost of experiencing living in Guangzhou is very low - to eat a meal of Cantonese food of 500 per capita, Lao Guang will only think that you are wronged, but if you can find a good quality roast goose in the neighborhood canteen downstairs for 38 yuan, you are their annual life home.
Just like the lemon tea stalls in the streets and alleys, they have silently and inclusively become the ingredients of people's nightlife, but they can stand out in every old memory, with a very low cost and high emotional value, becoming an indispensable part of urban life, and in summer, becoming a summer retreat for neighbors.
△ A cup of lemon tea can be called an artifact to cool off. (Photo/Visual China)
In the lemon tea stall that seems to be full of "replacement", the sense of life brought by the atmosphere of the market is irreplaceable.
Every night, people gather in groups of three or five, sitting or standing, to gather at the lemon tea stall. As long as the employees in the store are still beating lemons, white-collar workers and blue-collar workers, the elderly and young people, can resonate for a short time in this small corner of the big city.
Editor: Zeng Baoqi, Proofreader: Meet, Typesetting: Golden Tide
Shepherd
Do you like to drink lemon tea?