With the decline of other grades of Longjing tea, the appearance color changed from light green to turquoise and dark green, the tea body changed from small to large, and the tea strips changed from smooth to rough. The fragrance changed from tender to thick, and the fourth-grade tea began to thicken; The bottom of the leaves changed from tender buds to sandwich leaves, and the color changed from light yellow-turquoise-yellow brown. Longjing tea in summer and autumn is dark green or dark green in color, with large body and no fuzz on the body surface. The color of the soup is Huang Liang, fragrant and thick, thick and slightly astringent, with bright yellow leaves. The overall quality is much worse than that of spring tea of the same level.
At present, machine-made Longjing tea is fried by multi-functional machine, and also by combination of machine and manual assistance. Machine-made Longjing tea is mostly rod-shaped, incomplete, dark green in color, and the overall quality is worse than that of manual frying under the same conditions. West Lake Longjing, produced in West Lake District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, has flat tea leaves, tender leaves, neat strings, uniform width, yellow-green, smooth feel, one bud, one leaf or two leaves; Buds are longer than leaves, generally less than 3 cm. Buds and leaves bloom evenly, without clips and fragments, and are small and exquisite. Longjing tea tastes fragrant, while the fake Longjing tea is mostly grass-clear, with too many clips, which makes it feel unsmooth and slippery.
Four strokes: make up "colorful green": At first glance, ponds and sand turtles are all green, but it must be sand turtles that attract attention. Our district 168 square kilometers of super-grade, high-grade new tea, especially the best "Lion Peak Longjing" in "West Lake Longjing", is exactly what Longjing tea farmers call green and brown rice color, and green and yellow are naturally mixed, just like ink in ink painting. As for the sand turtle, the counterfeiting technique is quite high, and it is also yellow in the green, but it is difficult to "suffocate" when the hot pot is heated, and the yellow face is covered with a layer of yellow swelling, and even vaguely burned; Smell "Xiang": The book says that the West Lake Longjing tea smells fragrant-this metaphor is only half right. Compared with the fragrance of Orchid, the aroma of West Lake Longjing tea is stronger, and tea farmers in West Lake Township intuitively call it "(fried) broad bean petal fragrance", that is, "blue bean" fragrance. A pond like "Longjing", especially "Lion Peak Longjing", should be covered for several minutes instead of refilling the cup. When the lid is lifted, the unique aroma of orchid beans rises, mixed with the sweetness of honey. When water is poured in, the "fragrance" is particularly strong. Turtle is also fragrant, but much lighter. Moreover, the goods in Xinchang are "chestnut fragrance", the goods in Xiaoshan have a faint "earthy smell", and the goods in Shaoxing and other places are mixed fragrance-none of them are orchid bean fragrance, which is most likely to be exposed when brewing and after continuous water for two or three times. Taste "alcohol": for the first time, you can drink one-third calmly and half with water-at this time, laymen can also judge whether it is true or not. The taste of this pond is "fragrant" but "mellow". The scent of orchid beans shows some My Sweetie feeling of honey, and the taste buds have a unique texture that Longjing tea farmers call "slippery", similar to Tsingtao beer. Next, swallow a few mouthfuls of saliva "aftertaste", and the elegant and sweet taste obviously moistens the throat. After seven or eight minutes, the smell is still lingering, and the book calls it "three mouths cannot bear to wash." As for the soft-shelled turtle, the first taste reveals itself. First of all, the smell is obviously light. This feeling is similar to Zhang Shengji old duck pot with little salt. Because it lacks the unique sweet aftertaste and mellow texture of the "mellow" pond, it also shows a variety of miscellaneous flavors: some mixed with the taste of well water, some fishy, and so on. Even Xinchang and Zhuji, which are very mixed with this pond, have several alpine teas, which are light. Look at the "formal beauty": the sand turtle carefully imitated, and the tea before the Ming Dynasty was also lotus seed-shaped, and so was the brewing. What can I do if I feed the sparrow's tongue, the bowl nail is vertical and the eagle's claw is upside down? And point out the dead point of the sand turtle: its elaborate imitation is often the same length, and the fried core, slices and tail are often very refreshing. In this pond, the emperor's daughter has no worries about marrying or selling. The last process is often "extensive" and the length is often uneven. Tea core, camellia oleifera. And tea powder are often not used up. In addition, generally speaking, this kind of pond tends to be "wide" in appearance, and its body is strong and plump, while sand turtles are mostly "thin", slim and well-balanced. To sum up, color discrimination is the "foundation", smell is the "premise" and taste is the "key". As for looks, you can ignore them unless you are a master. The evaluation content of Longjing tea is similar to other famous green teas, mainly including dry evaluation of appearance, soup color, aroma, taste, wet evaluation of leaf bottom, and the distinction of Longjing tea producing areas. 1. Appearance evaluation Take about 100g of representative tea leaves and put them into a tea sample for appearance evaluation, mainly evaluating factors such as shape, color and fluff. Through the shape evaluation, it can be judged whether it belongs to West Lake Longjing or Zhejiang Longjing. Because the shapes of these two teas are very similar, there are even some flat teas fried with fresh leaves of Longjing (such as Longjing 43. Longjing tea in other tea areas is indistinguishable from Longjing tea in West Lake, which brings great difficulties to the identification of the origin of Longjing tea, which is also the reason for the confusion of Longjing tea labels in the market. However, experienced tea tasters can distinguish the origin of most tea according to the basic characteristics of Longjing tea.
2. Evaluation of tea soup color. High-grade tea is mostly light green and yellow, while middle and low-grade tea and tide tea are yellowish brown. The origin of Longjing tea is not easy to distinguish from the color of the soup, and there is no need to make a hard distinction.
3. Evaluation of Aroma and Taste The early spring tea produced in meijiawu and Shifeng areas of Xihu District, if the tea-making technology is normal, there is a certain difference in aroma and taste between the super West Lake Longjing, which has no green smell of old fire, and the super Zhejiang Longjing produced in Zhejiang Province. West Lake Longjing is tender and fragrant, with a fresh and soft taste. Zhejiang Longjing has a tender chestnut fragrance and a mellow taste. If the West Lake Longjing and Zhejiang Longjing are fried by a multifunctional machine, there is no obvious difference in aroma between them due to the change of the traditional production technology of Longjing tea. Most other fan teas have the taste of tender fried green tea. However, even West Lake Longjing, once fried into old fire tea, is fried with soybean fragrance, which is not easy to distinguish its origin from aroma. Longjing tea stored at room temperature in Jiangnan tea area turns yellow and its aroma becomes weak after the rainy season.
4. Evaluation of leaf bottom The evaluation of leaf bottom is mainly to evaluate color, tenderness and completeness. Sometimes the tea residue in the cup is poured into a rectangular enamel plate, and then cold water is added to see the tenderness of the bottom of the leaf, which can be used as a reference for grading.
5. Grade evaluation of Longjing tea The grade of Longjing tea should be determined according to the standard tea sample. If the appearance is different from the standard sample (such as organic tea), it can only be judged according to the tenderness grade equivalent to the standard sample. In many markets, bulk Longjing tea is mostly listed after soaking, and some are not graded, only the price. If it is a small package of Longjing, the product name and grade must be marked, and these teas should be evaluated against standard samples. There is a certain relationship between the grade and color of Longjing tea. High-grade spring tea is light green, medium yellow and dark brown in color. Longjing tea produced in summer and autumn is dark or grayish brown, which is one of the characteristics of low quality. The color of machine-made Longjing tea is dark green. Longjing tea has a long history, which can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty in China. At that time, Lu Yu, a famous Cha Sheng, wrote the world's first monograph on tea, Tea Classic, which recorded the tea production in Tianzhu and Lingyin Temple. The name of Longjing tea began in the Song Dynasty, which was heard in the Yuan Dynasty, and was popularized in the Ming Dynasty, which was very popular in the Qing Dynasty. In the historical evolution of 1000 years, Longjing tea began a glorious period from obscurity to fame in the world, from ordinary people's home-cooked tea to the tribute of emperors and generals, from famous tea of Han nationality to famous products to the world.
As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, Longjing tea area was initially formed. At that time, Xianglin tea in Xianglin Cave in Lingyin, Baiyun tea in Bai Yunfeng, and Baoyun tea in Baoyun Mountain in Geling were listed as tributes. A monk of the Northern Song Dynasty, a master of eloquence, lived in seclusion in his hometown, where he and other writers drank tea and recited poems in Shousheng Temple at the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Longjing. Su Dongpo praised Longjing tea with the poem "Baiyun Peak has two new flags, the green is long, the fresh valley is rainy and the spring is rainy", and wrote "Old Longjing" and other plaques in calligraphy. Up to now, there are still hanging rocks at the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Shousheng Temple Gong Hu Temple and Shibagong Tea Garden. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou became the national capital, and tea production further developed. In the Yuan Dynasty, tea produced near Longjing began to appear. A tea lover, Yu Bosheng, wrote a poem about drinking tea in Youlong Well, which said, "Wandering around Longjing, the clouds will clear up and paint. Be a man and love guests, and fill the sinus with water. Sitting in my room, the fragrance won't give off. But when you see the gourd ladle in the clear water, the shadow of jade falls in the blue cave. I cooked golden buds, but I didn't take Grain Rain, but I brought two or three sons, and I couldn't bear to wash them three times. " It can be seen that at that time, the Zen master took a fancy to the quiet scenery around Longjing, and there were good springs and good tea, so he came to drink tea together to enjoy the scenery.
In the Ming dynasty, Longjing tea began to appear, and its reputation gradually spread far and wide, and it began to go out of the temple and be drunk by ordinary people. During the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang Bianzhi recorded: "The tea in Hangjun County is always inferior to that produced by Longjing, and the fine buds before the rain are especially precious and not productive, so it should be treasured." In the Annals of Hangzhou in the Wanli Period of Ming Dynasty, there is a saying that "Old Longjing, the famous tea in its place, is the crown of the two mountains". Wanli's "Qiantang County Records" also records that "tea Longjing, as bean curd, is sweet and different from other mountains." Longjing Tea has been listed as a famous tea in China at this time. Longjing Tea is included in the Records of Famous Tea written by Huang Yizheng in Ming Dynasty and National Famous Tea compiled by Xu Wenchang, a talented scholar in the south of the Yangtze River. If Longjing tea was a famous tea in Ming Dynasty, it was one of the best in Qing Dynasty. Yi Hao, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, made a wanton experiment: "The tea name is Zhejiang Longjing, Jiangnan mustard and Fujian Wuyiyun." Emperor Qianlong visited Jiangnan six times and came to Longjing Tea District four times to watch tea picking, tea tasting and poetry writing. The eighteen tea trees in front of Gong Hu Temple are also called "Imperial Tea". Since then, Longjing tea has been well-known at home and abroad, and tea seekers are in an endless stream. Xu Ke, a close friend, said: "The green tea produced in various provinces is rarely dark blue, but Longjing in Hangzhou is dark blue. The rest of the tea leaves are curly and round, but Hangzhi Longjing is straight. " During the Republic of China, the famous Longjing tea became the first famous tea in China.
After the founding of New China, the state actively supported the development of Longjing tea. Under the care of the government, people in tea areas changed the old wooden pots into electric pots, cultivated new fine varieties of Longjing tea, popularized advanced cultivation and harvesting techniques, and formulated grading quality standards for Longjing tea, which made Longjing tea production embark on a scientific and standardized development path.
Judging from the historical evolution of Longjing tea, the reason why Longjing tea can be famous and developed is that its quality is good and its historical and cultural origin is inseparable. Therefore, Longjing tea is not only the value of tea, but also a kind of cultural and artistic value, which contains profound cultural connotation and historical origin.
Brewing method of Longjing tea: When making tea, first pour boiling water at 85℃-90℃ into the washed teacup, and then put the tea into it. After a while, you can watch the tea slowly stretch and swim in the water.
The Legend of Longjing Tea
Longjing tea, which is famous for its green color, rich aroma, sweet taste and beautiful appearance, has left many magical legends in history, among which the legends about Longjing tea and Eighteen Imperial teas can reflect the historical origin of Longjing tea.
Legend has it that a long time ago, the Queen Mother held a grand flat peach party in the sky and invited immortals from all over the world to participate. Prodigies played and sang, offered tea and fruit, and went back and forth endlessly. Just as Xian Di was delivering tea with a tea tray, he suddenly heard the good-natured boy shout, "Sister-in-law Xian Di is very ill, rolling and screaming in bed, go quickly!" Inadvertently, the tea tray tilted and a teacup fell to the ground. The fairy was delirious and blanched, and went into the palace in three steps.
At this time, Lv Dongbin figured it out. He took the fairy's tea tray, handed the only seven cups of tea to the seven-hole fairy, and put them in front of him empty. He took out a magic pill and said to the fairy, "take it to save your wife and go to the world to find a cup." I will keep it for you for the time being. " The fairy was very grateful, thanked him and left.
"One day in the sky, a few years on the ground." The fairy fell to earth, landed in Hangzhou, became a monk, and went to Xishan to find a teacup. On this day, he saw a mountain crouching like a lion, revealing the valley of Shi Bi. There is a thatched house beside the bamboo forest in the mountain, and an 80-year-old woman sits at the door. The fairy stepped forward and asked, "Old benefactor, what is this place?" The old lady replied, "Call Hui. According to the ancestors, one night, 10,000 golden lights suddenly fell from the sky, and it was called Huiluowu from then on. " The fairy was surprised and happy. She looked around and suddenly her eyes lit up. Isn't that my teacup? It turns out that there is an old stone mortar full of garbage next to my aunt's house, which is covered with green grass. There is a crystal spider silk that hangs straight from the eaves into the stone mortar. Realizing that Spider Spirit was stealing fairy tea, the fairy said, "Old benefactor, can I exchange a gold ribbon for your mortar?" Aunt said, "Do you want this mortar? It's no use keeping it anyway. You can take it! " The fairy thought, I have to find verbena to weave a nine-foot rope, tie it up and take it away.
As soon as the fairy left, my aunt thought, this mortar is dirty, how can you get your hands dirty! So I found a spoon, took out all the garbage, poured it in the field where there were 18 tea trees in front of my house, and found a rag to clean it. I didn't want to disturb Spider Jing, but Spider Jing also said that someone had come to grab his tea! With a spell and a loud click, the stone mortar was driven deep into the ground. The fairy turned around with the rope and saw that the stone mortar was gone, so she had to return to heaven empty-handed.
Later, the "teacup" of the Heavenly Palace, which was driven underground, became a well. Once a dragon came to suck fairy tea, but the dragon left and left a well. This is the legendary Longjing. Things have changed, and so has history. Aunt's hut was transformed into the old Longjing Temple, which was later renamed the Gong Hu Temple in Longjing Village. Eighteen tea trees in front of the temple have been nourished by fairy dew, and the longer they grow, the more lush they are, and the higher their quality is.
When Emperor Qianlong went down to the south of the Yangtze River, Wei Fu came to the foot of Lion Peak in Longjing Village, Hangzhou. When the old monk of Gong Hu Temple accompanied Emperor Qianlong on a mountain tour, he suddenly saw several village girls happily picking new buds from eighteen tea trees in front of the temple. Unconsciously, they quickly walked into the tea garden and learned to pick tea. Just picked it for a while, suddenly the eunuch came to report: "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother is ill, please hurry back to Beijing." Qianlong was worried when he heard that the queen mother was ill. He immediately put the tea buds in his hand into a bag and went back to Beijing day and night to pay his respects to the Queen Mother. In fact, the queen mother is not seriously ill, but she is angry, her eyes are red and swollen, and her stomach is uncomfortable. Suddenly, when I saw the arrival of the emperor, my mood improved, and I felt a faint fragrance coming on my face. I asked, "What good things did the emperor bring back from Hangzhou, so fragrant?" Emperor Qianlong was also surprised. I came back without anything. Where did I get the fragrance? Smell it carefully, it does have a strong fragrance, and it comes from the bag. He touched it casually, and it turned out to be a handful of tea from Gong Hu Temple in Longjing Village, Hangzhou. After a few days, it dried up and gave off a strong aroma.
The queen mother wanted to try this kind of tea, and the maid-in-waiting served it. Sure enough, it is mellow, full of saliva after drinking, and the aftertaste is mellow and refreshing. After 3 cups, the eye swelling subsided and the stomach was comfortable. At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi had a coke and called Hangzhou Longjing tea a panacea. Emperor Qianlong was so happy to see the Empress Dowager, and he smiled happily himself. He sent a message that the eighteen tea trees he personally picked in front of Gong Hu Temple under Lion Peak in Longjing, Hangzhou were named Royal Tea Trees, and they were specially picked every year as a tribute to the Queen Mother. Since then, Longjing Tea has become more and more famous. Eighteen imperial teas have been replanted many times, but this "imperial tea garden" has been preserved to this day and has become a tourist attraction.
The shape and legend of Longjing: In ancient times, there lived an old woman next to Longjing, surrounded by 18 wild tea trees. The road at home is the only way for Nanshan farmers to go to the West Lake. Pedestrians always want to have a rest when they come here, so the old lady put a table and several benches at the door, and made a pot of tea with wild tea for pedestrians to rest, which has a long reputation. One winter, when the Spring Festival was approaching, it snowed heavily and the tea trees would freeze to death. Pedestrians still stop at the old lady's door in an endless stream. One of the elders saw the old lady's sad face and asked, "Did the old lady buy new year's goods?" The old lady sighed and said, "Don't say that there is no money to buy new year's goods. Even these tea trees will freeze to death, and there will be no tea to drink next spring." The elder pointed to a broken stone mortar on the side and said, "Here's the baby. Why not sell it to me? " The old lady said, "The older the mortar, the better. It's worthless after washing now. " The old lady said, "Broken mortar is worthless. You should take it away. " The elder took out 10 silver to move the stone mortar, but the old lady refused to accept the money. The elder turned around and disappeared, so the old lady had to accept the money. After the New Year, in the spring of the following year, 18 tea trees showed new tender teeth, which grew better than in previous years. Numerous tea trees grew in places washed with mortar and splashed with water, and the old lady happily applied tea again. This is the origin of Longjing tea. According to legend, the flat shape of Longjing tea today originated from Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. According to legend, when Gan Long traveled to Hangzhou, he came to Gong Hu Temple at the foot of Shifeng Mountain in Longjing Village in disguise. The old monk dedicated the treasure of West Lake Longjing tea-Shifeng Longjing to Gan Long for drinking. After drinking, Gan Long felt very fragrant, so he picked the tea himself, put it in his pocket and hurried back to Beijing. After a long time, the tea buds were flattened, but they were greatly appreciated by the Empress Dowager ... The tea tree in front of the Gong Hu Temple was named Imperial Tea by the decree of Qianlong, and it was fried into flat Longjing every year for the Empress Dowager to enjoy. In fact, this is a beautiful legend. It is generally believed that the flat shape of Longjing tea was influenced by Dafang tea production near Anhui in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. The newer the new tea, the better. Improper drinking can easily hurt the stomach. Because new tea has just been picked, it has a short storage time and contains more unoxidized polyphenols, aldehydes and alcohols, which has little effect on healthy people. But for patients with poor gastrointestinal function, especially those with chronic gastrointestinal inflammation, these substances will stimulate gastrointestinal mucosa, and people with poor gastrointestinal function are more likely to induce stomach diseases. Therefore, new tea should not be drunk more, and new tea stored for less than half a month should be drunk less or not.
In addition, tea contains more caffeine, active alkaloids and a variety of aromatic substances, which will also excite people's central nervous system. Patients with neurasthenia and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should drink it in moderation, not before going to bed or on an empty stomach.
The delicate taste of Longjing tea:
In terms of water temperature, water of about 75 ~ 85℃ is used. Never use 100℃ boiling water, because Longjing tea is not fermented, so the tea itself is very tender. If it is brewed with too hot water, it will crush the tea leaves and brew bitter taste together, which will affect the taste. So how to control the water temperature? Of course, we won't use a thermometer to measure it, so it's best to pour boiling water into a "fair cup" first, and then pour it into a small saucer for brewing, so that the water temperature can be easily controlled. One more thing to remember, that is, to go up and down. Because "high impact" can increase the contact area between water column and air, and make the cooling effect more efficient. After the tea is brewed, if you don't intend to brew it immediately after pouring out the tea soup, open the lid of the small cup and don't close it. As for the amount of tea, it is enough that the tea just covers the bottom of the small cup. Brewing time increases with the increase of brewing times. Longjing tea, the tea culture in China, has no certain brewing method, but when you enjoy Longjing tea, you can not only taste the beauty of its tea soup, but also experience the ups and downs of Longjing tea in the brewing process. Here, I would like to introduce three brewing methods of Longjing to tea lovers, which can also be called "Longjing brewing fun". These methods were obtained in the vcd of Chinese Tea Art produced by the Tea Ware Cultural Relics Branch of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. I named it "Three Rural Longjing", hoping to bring some fun to tea lovers when brewing Longjing. In addition, it is worth mentioning that at the end of the Longjing chapter of Chinese Tea Art, it is mentioned that "bland taste is actually the most delicious", which is worth remembering by tea lovers who taste Longjing.
Single-line Longjing: Up-throwing method
Longjing tea is flat, with tender leaves, neat strings, uniform width, yellow-green, smooth feel, and one or two leaves per bud.
1. Prepare a transparent glass (in this case, the size of the glass is about 200ml), add a proper amount of boiling water with a suitable temperature, and add about 5g Longjing tea.
2. Wait for Longjing tea to sink one by one, and slowly appreciate their graceful posture.
3. The tea leaves are gradually scattered in the cup, with one flag and one shot, ups and downs, and the soup is bright green and lifelike.
4. More careful appreciation is really an artistic enjoyment!
Although it is ready to drink, it is always difficult to give up. Look at her again.
Erlong Longjing: CIC Method
1. Prepare a transparent glass (in this case, the size of the glass is about 200ml). First, put about one-third of boiling water with appropriate temperature, then add about 5g of Longjing tea, and wait until the tea leaves slowly disperse.
2. After the tea leaves are elongated, add boiling water.
3. You can drink!
Longjing in agriculture, countryside and farmers: upside down method
1. Prepare a porcelain-covered cup (about 150ml in this case), warm the cup and add a proper amount of Longjing tea.
2. Add a little warm water.
3. Pick up the brewing cup and shake it slowly to make the tea completely wet and let the tea stretch naturally.
4. After the tea leaves are slightly stretched, add nine separate waters.
5. Wait for the tea leaves to dissolve from the tea soup.
6. Gently stir the tea soup with the lid to make the tea soup dissolve more evenly.
7. Pour it into a small teacup.