On this morning, the genius was slightly bright, and before the sun had risen, Su Zhongkang came to the roof early. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Today happened to be the day when Xianding Cloud Mist Tea could be picked, so he was ready to start busy early in the morning.

Since listening to Deng Yin's words, Su Zhongkang has a plan in his heart, and he plans to make this first water tea cake into a steamed green tea cake using the technological means of tea cakes in the Song Dynasty.

In the Song Dynasty, there were six main processes in the production of cake and tea: tea picking, tea picking, steaming tea, tea grinding, tea making and roasting.

The Song people's requirements for tea picking conditions are extremely high. Since Su Zhongkang decided to follow the ancient method, he naturally wanted to complete all the steps according to the conditions as much as possible.

First of all, the Song people have requirements for the seasonal climate, and they stipulate that tea picking should be in the early spring cold climate of "cloudy and not freezing, sunny and not so cold", that is, before the spring equinox or even stunning, but because it is the middle of summer at this time, this point cannot be satisfied. However, there is no way to do it, but fortunately, the location of the teahouse is near Chashan Park, and the climate will still be a little cool in the morning, so it can only be settled.

Secondly, the requirements for the time of the day of tea picking must be in the early morning before sunrise, "the method of tea picking must be early in the morning, the sun is not visible, the morning is the night dew, and the tea buds are fat; When the sun is seen, it is thinned by yang energy, so that the ointment of the buds is consumed internally, until it receives water but is not distinct. "The requirements of the second point are relatively more important than the requirements of the first point, so Su Zhongkang honestly got up early to prepare.

The last requirement is, "Every bud that is broken must be with a nail, not a finger." If you use your nails, you will break it quickly and not knead it, and if you use your fingers, it will be warm and vulnerable", that is, do not let the tea be polluted by physical damage and sweat stains during the picking process, so as to maintain its freshness.

The second step of tea selection is to sort the fresh leaves that are picked, mainly to pick out the green tea that is damaged to the color and taste of tea.

This process of picking tea is also used to distinguish the quality of tea raw materials used to make tea cakes. In the Song Dynasty, the tea grades of cake tea were divided into three categories: medium buds, small buds, and water buds. The middle bud refers to the bud and leaf that has grown into a flag and a gun, that is, a bud and a leaf; Small buds are buds and leaves that are as small as eagle's claws; The water bud is a thin bud in the center of the small bud.

It can be seen that the tea picking process of the Song Dynasty has been refined to what extent, no wonder the annual output of Longtuan Shengxue is only a few catties, and this water bud has become the insurmountable peak of the tenderness of tea raw materials.

According to the ancient method, Su Zhongkang quickly and decisively picked the young leaves of one bud and two leaves with his fingernails. If it is placed in the Song Dynasty, this is not even a middle bud, but he only has such a baby pimple now, not like the great family business in the Song Dynasty.

If he did that, the buds and leaves of this tea tree would be completely ruined.

This tea tree has been cultivated by the tea ceremony system, and it is already several laps larger than ordinary tea trees.

It took Su Zhongkang less than half an hour to pick all these buds and leaves, and it was just more than a pound of young leaves.

Because the amount of young leaves was too small, Su Zhongkang directly skipped the process of picking tea.

He took the tea back to the tea room downstairs, washed it again and again with mountain spring water, and then began the process of steaming the tea.

For steamed tea, the Song people also pay special attention to its heat, neither can be steamed undercooked, nor can it be steamed too ripe, because underripe and overripe will affect the color of the tea soup.

Su Zhongkang carried out this step carefully, if these tea greens were steamed, then he would not even have a place to cry.

But fortunately, there are still some experiences in his memory, and he finally survived without danger, although he did not reach a very perfect state, but he was so-so qualified.

After steaming the tea, it's time to grind the tea. This process is mainly to add water to the leaf-shaped tea and grind it, and repeatedly process it into powder, which is also called "grinding paste".

For Song tea, the finer the tea powder, the higher the quality, and the better the effect when ordering tea. Especially for those top-quality tea cakes, the requirements for grinding tea are extremely high, and the man-hours spent are one of the important parameters for the quality of tea.

After steaming, add water, grind until the water is dry, called one water, then add water, and grind until dry, until the tea is fine enough, then stop. It is recorded in ancient books that the tea grinding process of the first outline of the world "Longtuan Shengxue" is "sixteen waters", and the tea grinding process of the rest of the cake tea is "twelve waters".

The tool for grinding tea in this step is a stone mill, which is relatively easy to find in the south.

This process is really extremely time-consuming, and it took Su Zhongkang a whole morning to grind these tea powders to "sixteen".

In fact, with the quality of the tea green this time, it is not necessary to grind the tea powder to such a fine level. However, this time the amount of tea is less, and the grinding time spent on each water is less, and secondly, this is the first tea cake that Su Zhongkang has made by hand after all, and he wants to make it the best, so Su Zhongkang spent some more time grinding.

It is worth mentioning that after the tea grinding process is done, the next two processes do not need to spend so much physical strength.

This tea-making is to make tea cakes by putting the ground tea powder into a juan mold. The dragon and phoenix tea cakes of the Song Dynasty were pressed in this process with a mold engraved with dragon and phoenix patterns.

Su Zhongkang didn't have a matching mold, so he could only buy a few molds that looked relatively small to apply.

The last process, also known as "over-yellow", is the best way to use charcoal fire for this roasted tea, which is full of fire and has no flame. It pays attention to the tea cake slowly roasted with charcoal fire, without the flame there will be no smoke, and it will not damage the tea taste due to smoke.

Therefore, this process pays attention to the materials and heat used in roasting, and the number of roasting fires depends on the thickness of the tea cake itself.

These six processes complement each other and are interlocking, and the man-hours consumed are relatively large.

Su Zhongkang got up early in the morning and was busy until he reached the willow tops on the moon, so that he could make such a little tea cake. This is still Su Zhongkang's quick hands and feet, rich experience in handmade tea, and the relationship between the heart, if it is placed in the Song Dynasty, which has low productivity, it is not enough to give double the time.

Originally, there were more than a pound of green tea, but when it was finished, there were only three taels left, a total of six cakes.

Su Zhongkang hurriedly put away the six priceless tea cakes. This is completely handmade according to the ancient method.

If nothing else, these three, two, six cakes are the only Song Dynasty tea cakes in the whole world.

If this is taken out for auction, if people like Wu Mingshun or Cao Lei who know the goods can see it, they will definitely spend a lot of money and are eager to offer them like family heirlooms.

However, Su Zhongkang did not plan to make these tea cakes public immediately.

Because, when he is not fully grown, these tea cakes may not necessarily bring him joy, maybe it will still be a disaster!