Self-driving tea horse ancient road purpose
Where should a real trip to Xishuangbanna go?
It is more than 2800 square kilometers of tropical rainforest! It is a thousand-year-old tea mountain shrouded in clouds and mist and a profound tea-making culture! Of course, there are also the colorful customs of ethnic minorities and the pious Theravada Buddhist culture here.
Yunnan Pu'er tea has a long history. As early as the Qing Dynasty, it was famous all over the world and was selected as a tribute tea. Xishuangbanna is the origin of Pu'er tea and the starting point of the ancient tea-horse road in Yunnan. The ancient tea-horse road has a long history and contains colorful landscapes and rich cultural connotations. The ancient tea trees, the imperial stele of the Qing Dynasty hidden in the grass nest... are the real charm of Xishuangbanna's history and culture.
During the Spring Festival this year, I took my mother on a trip to Xishuangbanna, and I couldn't get enough of it. In mid-February, together with my friends, I went to Xishuangbanna again and walked the thousand-year-old tea-horse road by myself.
journey
The first day: Chengdu - Kunming, live in Yuncha Hotel (tea culture theme hotel).
Day 2: In the morning, visit the Yunnan Puer Tea Trading Market and Xiongda Tea City next to the Yuncha Hotel, and start this journey of Puer tea exploration——from the market to learn about the price, taste, quality and various tea sets and tea toys of Puer tea. Then rush to Yuanjiang County, visit the so-called "world's highest bridge", and then walk 45 kilometers on the mountain road to Yangjie Village to see terraced fields. Then return to the expressway and drive from Yuanjiang to Pu'er City.
Day 3: In the morning, visit the tea mountains in the outskirts of Pu’er City, visit the tea factory, and learn about the process of Pu’er tea from picking to industrial production. In the afternoon, drive to West Jinghong in Pu'er and visit the Wild Elephant Valley.
Day 4: Taste tea and listen to stories in some large tea houses in Jinghong City.
Day 5: From Jinghong to the hometown of tribute tea - Yiwu Ancient Town, Mengla County, see the Yiwu (Mansa) Ancient Tea Mountain, visit Yiwu Old Street, visit the folk tea doctor Gao Fachang (whose "The Six Ancient Tea Mountains") "Historical Research" book is very famous in the industry), visit the Pu'er Tea Museum, taste Pu'er at the time-honored tea shop Cheshunhao and the new tea house Zheng Silong, and learn about Pu'er; rush to Xiangming Township, Mengla County - the six ancient tea mountains The four tea mountains of Yibang, Manzhuan, Mangzhi, and Gedeng are here, stay overnight in Xiangming Township, drink Pu'er tea at time-honored tea houses, and listen to the tea farmers' battle.
Day 6: Worship at Yibang Ancient Village, which has a history of hundreds of years. In ancient times, Yibang was the administrative center of Banna, the six major tea mountains. Visit the cottages growing on Longji, and experience the atmosphere of the "Longjibei" street with ancient administrative levels. In the afternoon, visit the Menglun Botanical Garden and Jinuo Mountain (Youle Mountain, the first of the six ancient tea mountains, is now renamed Jinuo Mountain because the Jinuo people lived here), and return to Jinghong in the evening.
Day 7: Go to Menghai County, visit the Tea Tree King and Menghai Tea Factory; go to Nannuo Mountain, visit the tea farmers’ homes, and learn about the tea farmers’ tea-making techniques.
On the eighth-ninth day, return to Chengdu in Xishuangbanna.
In addition, at the Yunnan Puer tea trading market in Kunming, each of us bought one piece (24 pieces, 5 pieces each) of Xiaguan super Tuocha as food rations.
The Regrets of China's Top Ten Famous Teas
China's top ten famous teas were selected at the national "Top Ten Famous Teas" appraisal meeting in 1959, and it has been exactly 60 years since then. For a period of sixty years, the number of famous teas of "Guozihao" still has no reincarnation. It is still West Lake Longjing, Dongting Biluochun, Huangshan Maofeng, Lushan Yunwu Tea, Lu'an Guapian, Junshan Yinzhen, Xinyang Maojian, Wuyi Rock Tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Keemun black tea.
Times have changed, which of these ten famous teas are still worthy of their names?
The regret of the first choice of Pu'er tea country tour
Pu-erh tea is arguably the most difficult to understand among the best-known teas in China. From the perspective of tea culture, Pu’er tea has a long history and is famous for its ancient tea-horse road. The six ancient tea mountains, Youle (Jinuo), Mansa, Manzhuan, Mangzhi, Yibang, and Gedeng, are all over a hundred years old. There is a mystery hidden in the deep mountains that no one knows; from the taste point of view, due to the coexistence of bitterness, astringency and sweetness in Pu-erh tea, and with the passage of storage time, the bitterness and astringency will gradually fade and become more fragrant with age. Therefore, even senior tea drinkers sometimes misunderstand the age and quality of Pu’er tea. From the classification point of view, Pu’er tea can be divided into raw Pu’er (unfermented tea) and cooked Pu’er (fermented tea). Tree tea (a century-old tea tree) and small tree tea (only a few years old); in terms of shape, there are hair, cake, garden, lump, and loose, as well as other tea paste, tea powder, teabags, etc. Shape; in terms of production season, there are spring, summer, and autumn teas; in terms of tea grades, there are one-leaf-one-bud, two-leaf-one-bud, three-leaf-one-bud grades one, two, and three; in terms of production scale, there are traditional manual production There are new and old tea houses in China and tea factories using modern technology and equipment; in terms of perception of Pu’er tea, there are folks representing traditional tea houses, experts and scholars, and celebrities representing certain interest groups. Opinions on tea can be varied and everyone expresses their own opinions; from the market price point of view, the cheap one can cost as much as 10 yuan a cake, and the expensive one can reach more than 100,000 yuan a cake. circled.
The Regret of Getting to Know Pu-erh Tea for the First Time
People in Chengdu like to drink Gaiwancha, which is well-known throughout the country, and the tea leaves used to make Gaiwancha, and Sichuan tea’s Sumaofeng and Huamaofeng green teas, almost dominate the world. The first time I came into contact with Pu'er tea was because a friend gave me two cakes of Pu'er tea, one cake was a limited edition with a number, and the other cake was a gift. The first time I drink it, I feel that the taste is acceptable, and it also has health functions such as clearing away heat, eliminating indigestion, degreasing, and losing weight. The impression is quite good.
Before I drank Puer tea, I heard that Puer tea was fried to the sky. Those who understand tea but don’t understand tea bought a bunch of Puer tea and put them at home, waiting for the value to increase, because they believed that “Puer tea is soft gold” and “the more hidden the more Speculators such as "Precious", "Pu'er Bank" and other elaborate speeches. Looking at it now, most of those who speculated on Pu'er at the beginning suffered a terrible loss. When I first met Pu’er, I was scared away by the hype of Pu’er, so I can only drink two cakes of Pu’er with regret. This time I came to the Pu’er tea village, and I was secretly glad that I didn’t follow the trend. The new tea from old trees is only one or two hundred cakes now, and the hairy tea from old trees is only tens of yuan a catty. If it is tea from small trees, the price is even cheaper.
Think about it too. Tea, the leaves of the tea tree, is for drinking, not for frying.
Pu'er Tea and the Regrets of Pu'er City
Pu'er City was originally named Simao City, but Simao City was renamed Pu'er City in January 12 years ago. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court set up a tea tax officer in Simao, and the tea in Xishuangbanna Prefecture was taxed when it entered other regions outside Yunnan through Simao. Therefore, people outside of Yunnan called this kind of tea with the seal of "Pu'er" Pu'er tea.
In the seven villages and eight villages of Yiwu Town, as well as in Nannuo Mountain, there are such "sentinel booths" notices at the entrance of the village: "Do not bring in tea from outside!" Absolutely authentic" "Never associate with outside Pu'er tea"...
Regrets of raw and cooked
Pu'er tea is very popular because of the six ancient camellias, Youle, Mansa, Yibang, Manzhuan, Mangzhi and Gedeng. Among the six ancient tea mountains, Youle Mountain is located in Jinuo Township of Jinghong City, and is now called Jinuo Mountain because the Jinuo people live here; Mansa is located in Yiwu Township, also called Yiwu Mountain; The four mountains of Zhi and Gedeng are located in the current Xiangming Township. Because of their geographical location, there is no harsh summer, no severe cold in winter, short frost period, and the four seasons are like spring, with sufficient sunlight, abundant rainfall, white mist, and fertile land. The tea trees are generally ancient and have a profound background. The tea produced is not only resistant to brewing, but also bitter and astringent, bringing back sweetness, and the sweetness and body fluid production are strong and long-lasting. The longer the age of the tree, the lighter the bitterness, and the longer it is stored, the less bitter the taste, and the more fragrant it is. The color of new tea soup is mostly yellow and clear, and the color of tea soup after natural aging is bright red or deep red and bright.
The Ancient Tea Horse Road mainly started from Yibang and Yiwu. In ancient times, Yibang was the administrative center of Banna, the six ancient tea mountains, and Yiwu was the main tea trading market. The Ancient Tea-Horse Road passed through Pu'er City, official tea traveled from Kunming to Beijing, commercial tea traveled from Dali to Tibet, and then flowed into the mainland. Because the ancient tea-horse road is long and difficult to walk, it has been several years since the tea from the six major tea mountains was picked and made, then entered the mainland via the ancient tea-horse road, and then passed from dealers to users. Pu-erh tea is fermented slowly, and the older the Pu-erh tea is, the more fragrant it is, and it is gradually discovered and recognized by everyone. After five or six years of fermentation, the bitterness and astringency of Pu-erh aged tea are basically gone, and after 8 to 10 years, the aged Pu-erh tea has a strong fragrance. At the best time, therefore, before the 1970s, Pu-erh tea could only be divided into new tea (which is now called raw Pu-erh tea) and aged tea, and there is no current name for cooked Pu-erh tea.
After 1970, because aged Puer tea was loved by everyone, shrewd merchants invented the "Wodui" fermentation technology, artificially shortening the fermentation time of Pu'er tea, and called the tea produced by this technology called Shupu. , and mass produced. In fact, cooked Pu'er is a clever use of the concept of aged Pu'er. If you must classify Pu'er tea, it should be divided into raw Pu'er (that is, new tea), Chen Pu (naturally fermented after several years) and cooked Pu'er (after several years of natural fermentation). artificially fermented).
In the current six ancient tea mountains, the production of ancient tea trees has become less and less, and the ancient tea trees have been replaced by tea seedlings with new cultivation techniques. Some tea mountains have also planted rubber trees under the decision to get rich quickly. Shupu, under a lot of publicity and momentum, covered up the old tea and became the embodiment of getting better with age. The new tea mountains occupy all the tops of the mountains, and the original six ancient tea mountains are slowly covered up.
The Regret of Pu'er Tea Culture
However, here is a solemn statement: Shupu is not bad - Shupu produced with good fermentation technology is also good tea, and it can indeed shorten the time for us to drink Chenxiang tea. Good cooked Pu is as red as red wine and smells old, but a large amount of soup looks black and red and smells musty. Don't drink it. Bad tea, no matter how many years it is kept, it is impossible for it to become good tea.
If you want to store tea, it is recommended to store raw tea from old trees. The raw tea will become more fragrant with time, and you can taste it every year, and it will have a different taste every year. Of course, your home must meet the conditions for storage. The temperature should be between 5 and 20 degrees Celsius, and the humidity should not be too high. It is best not to exceed 75 for 10 consecutive days. If you live in a city with high humidity, you can buy a The water jar seals the tea inside and places it in a ventilated place that is not exposed to direct sunlight. Good Shupu, because the fermentation time has been artificially shortened, the fermentation process has been completed, so it is recommended to drink it directly, and there is no point in storing it.
The tea cakes in the picture above are, from left to right, 2010 Raw Pu, 2006 Chen Pu and Shu Pu. The Shu Pu is obviously darker than Raw Pu and Chen Pu. The big cup on the top row and the small cup corresponding to the third row are the soup colors of these three kinds of tea in turn—the 2010 raw Pu is yellow and clear, the 2006 Chen Pu is red and bright, and the cooked Pu is red and black. The fourth row shows the shapes of these three kinds of Pu-erh tea after brewing. The raw Pu-erh and Chen-pu tea leaves are still in shape, and the cooked Pu-erh tea should be broken.
Come on, the irrelevant people are gone, we can sit down and enjoy a cup of tea quietly.
In my humble opinion, the price of tea does not depend on the price; the taste does not depend on seeking the same. As long as you like it, it is good tea.