Tea is a kind of plant that has rich feelings with people, and it has a cultural sentiment formed historically, and has a sense of identity across time and space.

Talk about tea, talk about Shennong, talk about Lu Tong, talk about Lu Yu. Many ethnic groups that have a long history of migration have long since lost their memories in the displacement.

However, when they are faced with tea, they can still quickly recall a lot of information that is far away.

The Central Plains classics described in the "Tu Tu and Solution", by the mountain village living in the people of the people used very skillfully, the picked fresh leaves are cooked in the food, made into their favorite taste, the longevity of the old people in the village, with their own living habits to explain to people another look of eating tea health.

In Chunqiu Village, an ancient village where people live together, tea still occupies a very important position in every family. Lao Chunqiu Village is close to the depths of the mountains, I don't know what the reasons for the people who settled here at that time, this choice of escapism often hides a lot of untold stories. Today, almost all the villagers of Lao Chunqiu Village have moved to live in the river valley and gentle slope area.

Nong Tianyi saw some dilapidated old houses, overgrown with wild grass, because of tea, so that this abandoned village, every year in the spring and autumn tea season, will usher in the tea maker to take care of it. On the side of the road, a big stone is engraved with the words "Old Spring and Autumn Village" in big characters, and the edge is drawn with lacquer red, which is a sign for people who go into the mountains to find tea.

According to the memories of the old people in the old Chunqiu Village, this village had more than 40 families in its heyday, and they made a living from animal husbandry and tea cultivation. Some people who have mastered mature farming skills have fled to this desolate land. They used their existing production and survival skills to quickly find a path suitable for their own development and reproduction.

The old Spring and Autumn Village is located on the flat land in the deep mountains, and the altitude is higher than that of the river valley. According to the old man's account, their elders also initially wanted to settle in the river valley, and from the perspective of production, it was more suitable for them to grow rice and food crops in the river valley, but they could not adapt to the river valley area. Especially if you are bitten by a mosquito, you will not be able to slow down for a few days. As long as you stay in the river valley for a few more days, your body will have all kinds of symptoms of adaptation. Then it is impossible to live and work.

As a result, some villagers are afraid to settle in the valley, but they have to bring their own tea to the valley to sell, or exchange rice and other daily necessities with the Ba people living here.

The reason why Nong Tianyi found this old Spring and Autumn Village is for the raw material base of cactus tea. The tea trees and quality of Lao Chunqiu Village are very suitable for making cactus tea, and it has been successful.

After his innovative process, the improved cactus tea is divided into three grades, namely special grade, excellent grade and primary grade.

He focused on introducing the special tea to the merchants: picking fresh leaves requires one bud and one leaf, the bud is longer than the leaf, more white, and the length of the bud leaf is 2.5-3 cm. The processing is divided into three main processes: steam killing, frying and shaping, drying and shaping.

Bai Longjie said that the steam finishing is carried out in the steamer, the temperature reaches nearly 100 °C, the steam killing time is 50-60 seconds, and the fresh leaves lose their luster, showing gray green, emitting a fragrance, and the leaf quality is soft.

As soon as Nongtian enters the tea leaves, it is cooled and fried. The three steps of frying green and making shape are divided into three steps: first green, second green and shape, which are the key processes to form the unique shape of cactus tea.

He told the story: the first green stir-fry method mainly adopts "shaking", and it must be shaken quickly and dispersed; The second green stir-fry method adopts the combination of "shaking" and "belt" to make the tea take shape; The formation of the palm shape is mainly through "making shapes".

The method is to hand over the four fingers together, the thumbs apart, flatly stretched into the pot, using the "grasping" and "pressing" techniques to fry, and strive to make the tea flat and straight, about seventy percent of the dry, drying and shaping. When the water content is about 5%, it is baked and packaged for collection.

Its shape is flat like a palm, the color is emerald green, and the white is disclosed; After brewing, the buds and leaves are stretched, tender green and pure, like lotus flowers standing upright in the water, the soup color is tender green, clear and bright; The fragrance is elegant and light, refreshing to the heart, and the taste is mellow and refreshing.

The initial sip is light, the aftertaste is sweet, followed by mellow and fresh, lingering between the teeth and cheeks, which is refreshing and pleasant, and the aftertaste is eternal.

In the production of steamed Qingtuan tea, in order to improve the shortcomings of bitterness and improper fragrance, the practice of direct drying without kneading or pressing after steaming was gradually adopted, and the steamed Qingtuan tea was transformed into steamed green loose tea to maintain the fragrance of tea, and at the same time, the appreciation method and quality requirements for loose tea also appeared. This reform appeared in the Song Dynasty.

"Song History ▪ Food and Goods" contains: "There are two types of tea, called piece tea, called loose tea", and piece tea is cake tea.

Wang Zhen of the Yuan Dynasty recorded in detail the process of making steamed green loose tea at that time in the "Ten ▪ Hundred Grains of Agricultural Books ▪": "Picking, a retort of slightly steamed, raw and cooked." Steamed, spread thinly with basket foil, knead it with wet, bake, evenly spread the fire, dry it, and do not scorch".

From the Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, cake tea, dragon and phoenix group tea and loose tea coexisted at the same time, to the Ming Dynasty, due to the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang in 1391 edict, the abolition of the dragon group to promote loose tea. This makes steamed green loose tea very popular. Compared with cake tea and group tea, the aroma of tea leaves is better preserved in steamed green loose tea, however, there are still shortcomings in the use of steamed green tea.

As a result, the technique of stir-frying green tea using dry heat to bring out the excellent aroma of tea leaves appeared.

Fried green cactus tea has been around since the Tang Dynasty. Tang Liu Yuxi's "Xishan Lanruo Tea Song" said: "The mountain monk has a few tea bushes after the eaves...... Si must be fried into a full room of fragrant", and there is a sentence of "from picking to frying the Russian sky", indicating that the young leaves are fried and full of fragrant, and the stir-fry time is not often, which is the earliest written record of fried green cactus tea found so far.

After the further development of the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, the number of fried green tea gradually increased, and in the Ming Dynasty, the method of fried green tea became more and more perfect, which was recorded in detail in the "Tea Record", "Tea Shu" and "Tea Solution". The preparation method is roughly: high-temperature killing, rolling, re-frying, baking to dry, this process is very similar to the modern roasted green tea preparation method, see the appendix in the cactus tea manufacturing process.

Nong Tianyi's purpose in discovering cactus tea as a famous tea in Jingshan is to inherit the long-standing tea-making skills. At the same time, the tea planting area will be expanded and the tea production will be increased.

At this time, Nong Tianyi and Bai Longjie discussed the main characteristics of cactus tea. Nong Tianyi said that the shape of dry tea is flat like a palm, the color is emerald green, and the white is disclosed.

Bai Longjie said in amazement, yes, it is really not easy to make cactus tea! The number of dried tea buds per catty is about 28,000 if it is a special grade tea, about 23,000 for excellent grade tea, and at least about 18,000 for primary grade tea.

Nong Tian said "uh-huh" in a row, and said that it was indeed not easy.

He picked up the teacup and said, you see, the brewed cactus tea, the soup color is clear and bright, the fragrance is long-lasting, the taste is fresh, and the bottom of the leaves is tender green, even, and flowery.

Bai Longjie leaned over and said, the intrinsic quality of cactus tea is unique and rich. It's a rare tea!