After returning from the "Sanjitang Tea Shop" in Hankou, Nong Tianyi took his sister Nong Tianqin to visit his teacher, Mr. Qi Yu. His home is high in the mountains.

In Nong Tianyi's impression, Mr. Qi's hometown is barren and desolate, and as soon as the summer passes, everywhere is dry and yellow, and the feeling of gloom comes out.

In early winter, people outside the mountains are still wearing thin coats, and it has begun to snow in the mountains. There is a perennial shortage of water in the mountains, and the temperature is low, so the rain turns into snow before it hits the ground. As a result, throughout the winter, the people and animals in the mountains could only rely on melting snow to maintain water for one winter.

The melted snow water is actually far more hygienic than the stagnant water in the weir pond, the color is clean and translucent, and there is an indescribable peculiar fragrance, if you have this experience and then reminisce about that fragrance, you will know that it is as clear as snowflakes.

What's more, snow water tea is particularly delicious, although there is no good tea in the mountains, but the tea fragrance and snow water are intertwined, and it has become Mr. Qi Yu's favorite.

The ancients paid attention to the best water for making tea is "falling water from the sky" - snow water, dew, rain, etc., thinking that it comes from the sky, clean, and delicious, put the clean snow directly into the pot to boil, steam it and filter it again, filter out the impurities inside, and then boil, and then make tea as usual.

Mr. Qi's house can be regarded as a poor mountain and bad water, but there is a large tea garden, about dozens of acres, growing on a slope, at the end of the tea garden, there are two simple stone houses standing on a large vacant land, this is where Mr. Qi's family roasts tea.

Every spring, when the tea garden blooms with a new green, the tea picking season has arrived.

At this time, the tea affair will break the tranquility in the mountains. Tea picking is busy for several days, sometimes intermittently, and the tea garden is like a festival, so lively. While pinching the tea leaves, they made a fussful and sometimes made some vulgar jokes, and then the women laughed, and after laughing, they picked the tea with their hands and feet.

In Nong Tianyi's view, Mr. Qi's family is almost isolated from the world, and ordinary people rarely go out of the mountains, so they are not very good at managing tea plantations. Therefore, this tea garden is self-fending and rising and falling, so Mr. Qi often has a mantra, "I want to drink wild tea." ”

In a word, it made Nong Tianyi laugh out loud.

Therefore, Mr. Qi's tea garden has been almost forgotten, and there is no even the most basic fertilization and weeding, allowing his tea garden to grow freely.

This piece of tea trees growing in the wilderness does not hoe, prune, or fertilize, so it is not in good condition. Tea trees are of different heights, thick branches and large leaves, even the smallest and most tender green leaves on the tip of the tea tree, it does not look like the tender green, but a little dark yellow, just like a child lacks nutrition, the color of the tea brewed is naturally a little dull and heavy, but people in the mountains love to drink.

Mr. Qi has many families, he will take his children to pick tea, I don't know whether he is afraid that the tea will be spoiled, or Mr. Qi is anxious, and the tea leaves he picks home never let go overnight, he always roasts all the tea overnight, sometimes even all night to fry tea.

He fried tea mostly in the local method, talking about practicality, the big pot earthen stove, fried tea is just right, as soon as the green leaves are poured into the cauldron, he gets busy.

At the beginning, the fire should not be too big, after the green leaves are in the pot, Mr. Qi began to turn over the tea leaves with his hands, so that it is evenly heated, the tea leaves slowly become soft, and then begin to change color and roll, when appropriate, he will ask his wife to increase the heat a little, seeing that the tea leaves are getting smaller and smaller, and finally shrinking into a ball, the fragrance of the tea leaves has also changed from light to strong, but Mr. Qi is still constantly stir-frying, until the fried tea leaves come out of the pot.

All the tea leaves are fried, all the tea leaves are spread out, put in the dustpan, the overall color is brownish, and after it is completely cooled, Mr. Qi's wife will bring a dark red ceramic pot to fill the new tea and put it on the windowsill of the Huolong House, which is the tea that Mr. Qi's family usually drinks. Then his wife put all the rest of the tea leaves into a large bag, tied the bag tightly and hung it on the floor of the hall, which was the family's tea for a year.

Of course, these teas are often used to entertain guests, which is a necessary etiquette for mountain people to entertain guests.

"You can't talk about tea without water."

Mr. Qi Yu often explained tea history classics to Nong Tianyi. He said: Since the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's sentence "strike the dragon group, but pick tea buds to advance", has made the way of drinking tea have undergone earth-shaking changes, from sencha tea to tea, and the requirements for water quality have become more stringent.

Xu Cishu said in "Tea Shu" that "fine tea contains fragrance, borrowed from water, and tea cannot be discussed without water". It was also from this time that there were more discussions about snow water in various tea books. With this, the sayings of "spiritual water" and "heavenly spring" appeared.

At this time, Mr. Qi talked to Nong Tianyi about making tea with snow water: first Tian Yiyi's "Boiling Spring Sketch", he classified the water from the sky such as dew, rain, and snow as "spiritual water", that is, "the water that the heavens descend from". He also specifically mentioned: "The snow, the cold of heaven and earth." "The Book of Victory": "Snow is the essence of the five grains". He believes that snow water is good for grains, so it is especially suitable for making tea.

I don't understand why Lu Yu listed snow water as the last product. Of course he didn't understand, because Lu Yu hadn't mentioned Xueshui at all.

This was followed by Tu Long's "Tea Notes", which talked about "Tianquan": "Autumn water is the first, and plum water is secondary." …… Snow is the essence of the five grains, taking the righteous sencha, and the quiet people are clear. He classified rain and snow water as "heavenly springs", and especially explained that the quality of rain varies in different seasons.

After hearing this, Nong Tian said: These two people have raised the status of snow water to make tea to the extreme, better than mountain spring water. Interestingly, some people praise snow water as spiritual water and heavenly spring, which is supreme, but there are also people who degrade snow water to the bottom.

At that time, Nong Tianyi didn't like to drink tea, he always felt that it smelled fragrant, but it tasted astringent and bitter, at first, he didn't touch tea.

Nong Tianyi and Mr. Qi had a happy time. Only on a snowy day, when Nong Tianyi came home from playing outside, and his hands and feet were cold, he would always be coaxed by Mr. Qi, who was sitting by the fire and drinking tea, to drink a few sips, and said that children drinking some tea is good for their health, and a few sips of hot tea went down to their stomachs, Nong Tianyi immediately felt much warmer, maybe it was the reason why the snow water boiled tea, maybe it was too cold, and he really felt that it was not as bad as before.

Later, when he got older, Wu Qing told Nong Tianyi: In winter, in order to warm your body, Mr. Qi always boils some weak tea and adds some sugar before you finish studying, waiting for you to drink, so Nong Tianyi always feels that the tea still has a sweet taste.

Growing up, Nong Tianyi also fell in love with drinking tea, especially tea with added sugar. This habit comes from Mr. Qi. As the saying goes, one day is a teacher, and a lifetime is a father.

Time flies, the white horse passes by, and in the blink of an eye, people are young, Nong Tianyi will always take the time to see his teacher, pass by the tea garden, look at those tea trees, and unconsciously return to the immature time......