Green tea making techniques (West Lake Longjing)

Name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: green tea making techniques (West Lake Longjing)

Applicant: Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Project No.: 931

Project No.: VIII - 148

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Zhejiang Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Protection unit: Longjing tea industry association, Xihu District, Hangzhou

Introduction to green tea production technology (West Lake Longjing)

Applicant: Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province

Tea production technology has a long history in China. More than 3000 years ago, tea for drinking appeared in the sacrificial rites of the Western Zhou Dynasty. Tea is called "tea" in ancient times, and its name can be seen in the book of songs. During the Three Kingdoms period and the Western Jin Dynasty, tea drinking in the south of the Yangtze River became a custom. Tea was very popular in Tang Dynasty. Xuanzong changed "tea" into "tea" in "Kaiyuan characters", and later Lu Yu's "tea classic" appeared. Before the Song Dynasty, most of the tea was pressed tea, that is, the tea was steamed, mashed and made into lumps. When drinking, the tea was boiled with water, and sometimes dried fruits such as melon seeds and pine nuts were put into the tea. In the Qing Dynasty, it was changed to boiling water brewing. Green tea is a kind of tea which is killed by high temperature without oxidation and fermentation, also known as "non fermented tea". The production process mainly includes picking fresh leaves, killing green, rolling, drying and other steps. Top grade green tea is made from tender sprouts. It is usually picked before Qingming or Guyu. The finished tea is commonly known as "Mingqian" or "Yuqian". In the Tang Dynasty, it was popular to pick small sprouts of tea, which were sharp as a spear and had small leaves shaped like a flag. Because they were called "spear", their name has been used to this day. It can be divided into steamed green tea and roasted green tea. In ancient China, high-temperature steam was used to kill the green, which was called "steaming green"; in modern times, it was used to fry the green in an iron pot instead of "frying green". The tea leaves are softened and rolled tightly into a stick shape by rubbing with fingers, which is called "rolling". Rolling is beneficial to the extraction of tea juice during the brewing of finished products, and reduces the volume of tea, which is convenient for storage and transportation. At present, green tea is mainly produced in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Fujian, Sichuan and other places. Among them, Hangzhou West Lake Longjing and Jinhua Wuzhou Juyan in Zhejiang, Huangshan Maofeng, Taiping Houkui and Lu'an Guapian in Anhui, and Suzhou Dongshan Biluo (original "Luo") spring in Jiangsu are the most famous.

Xihu Longjing tea originated in Tang Dynasty, became famous in song, yuan and Ming Dynasty, and flourished in Qing Dynasty. It is mainly produced in Xihu District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Longjing Village in Xihu is rich in green, fragrant, mellow and beautiful tea, so it is called "Longjing tea".

West Lake Longjing tea is a famous tea in China. Green tea represented by West Lake Longjing tea is closely related to Chinese people's daily life. Through long-term production practice, tea planting and production in Longjing tea district of West Lake gradually formed a series of tea production experience, such as breeding improved varieties, diligent cultivation, fine picking, scientific stir frying, etc., especially in the process of stir frying, a set of stir frying technology with distinctive technical characteristics was explored, including shaking, belt, squeezing, throwing, straightening, extension, buckle, grasping, pressing, grinding, etc "Ten techniques". The whole set of tea production technology condenses the wisdom of local tea farmers and shows profound cultural connotation.

With the rising reputation of West Lake Longjing tea, many tea producing areas, in order to obtain economic benefits, scrambled to imitate the stir frying method of West Lake Longjing tea, and pretended to be Longjing tea, thus affecting the reputation of West Lake Longjing tea. In addition, due to the acceleration of urban development, the area of tea garden is decreasing year by year, and the output of Longjing tea is decreasing day by day. In the situation of mechanized production instead of manual operation, the ancient hand frying technology of Longjing tea gradually declined. It's time to inherit and protect the picking and making techniques of West Lake Longjing tea, which must be put on the agenda as soon as possible.