BXBX NOVEL Chapter 606
Chapter 606: Top quality tea (1)
Ye Lingyun slept on the floor of li Zhifu’s room while Xia ruofei returned to the car, laid down the back seat, and went to sleep.
He felt like he had just closed his eyes when his alarm went off. Actually, it had only been an hour. He was a light sleeper.
Xia ruofei sat up and looked out of the car window. The lights in li Zhifu’s room were already on. Xia ruofei quickly opened the door and jumped out of the car.
After more than an hour of rest, coupled with the effects of the spirit Heart Flower petal solution, li Zhifu seemed to be full of energy. He was directing ye Lingyun to move the water sieve out.
The root of the Poplar tree had already pulled an electric wire in the courtyard and hung a 200 – watt light bulb. The courtyard was suddenly bright.
Xia ruofei also went forward and saw li Zhifu carefully examining the tea leaves under the light. After a long time, he nodded with satisfaction and said,””The process of making the green is perfect! Right now, Cha Qing has three red and seven green lights!”
Li Zhifu saw Xia ruofei’s confused look and explained with a smile,””Three red and seven green is what we call it. After the tea leaves go through the process of shaking to turn green, the edge of the leaves will be rubbed and collided, and the injured part of the leaves will appear dark red. At this stage, three red and seven green are the best.”
Xia ruofei finally showed an enlightened expression and said,””Old Mr. Li, there are too many rules to pay attention to this ancient tea method!”
“Where are we now?” li Zhifu laughed. There are more than a dozen processes for the Da Hong Pao, and each process has a lot of attention to it. If it wasn’t for master’s step – by – Step teaching and practice every day, even the smartest person wouldn’t have been able to learn it!”
Xia ruofei nodded and said,”yeah!” He wouldn’t have known if he didn’t look, but once he did ... It was all about the skill! Old Mr Li, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of Ling Yun ...”
“Don’t worry! Since I’ve accepted him as my disciple, I’ll definitely do my best!” Li Zhifu said indifferently,”there aren’t many people who are willing to learn this traditional tea – making skill now. It’s meaningless even if I keep some of it. It’s not like I can bring it into the coffin!”
......
“Master, you’re in good health!” Ye Lingyun quickly said. Don’t say such inauspicious things!”
Li Zhifu looked at ye linyun with undisguised love in his eyes. He smiled kindly and said,”Alright, enough chit – chat, let’s get to work!”
The next step was to stir – fry the tea leaves. Yang tree root had already prepared the iron pot, but the step to start the fire was personally made by li Zhifu. This was related to the heat control of the tea leaves, so he would never let others do it.
After the pot was heated up, li Zhifu poured the fermented tea Green into the iron pot and began to stir – fry the tea Green with his hands.
His hand gesture was also very strange. The tea leaves were turned up and down under his stirring, and the water in the tea leaves quickly evaporated. The fermentation process was stopped by someone, and the essence of the tea was completely retained in this process.
Slowly, the tea leaves in the iron pot began to emit water vapor, and the temperature of the iron pot began to rise. Li Zhifu began to change to two half – Moon shaped wooden tea leaves. First, he shook them slightly once or twice to emit some water and evaporate the green gas. Then, he used two tea leaves to stir the stir – fried tea leaves.
After a while, the tea leaves were almost ready to be served. Li Zhifu shook the tea leaves a little to let the water spread out evenly. After a few more times of stir – frying, the tea leaves were all out of the pot.
Li Zhifu didn’t even have time to take a breath and immediately started the kneading process.
The kneading was also done purely by hand. The action was a bit like washing clothes. Li Zhifu pressed the stir – fried green leaves into the kneading sieve and pushed it back and forth until a sufficient amount of Leaf Juice flowed out. He rolled it into a strip and immediately began to cut it into pieces and shake it loose.
Immediately after, li Zhifu re – fried the tea leaves in the pot. This process was very short, only about half a minute. He only flipped it a few times, then took it out and kneaded it again. The kneading time was also shorter than the first time.
From the beginning of stir – frying, to kneading, re – frying, and re – kneading, the whole process only took about half an hour.
However, the workload was still very heavy. Li Zhifu didn’t rest for a moment, and he was sweating all over after he finished.
Xia ruofei quickly handed over the ‘nutrient solution’ that he had prepared earlier.
Li Zhifu took the small porcelain bottle and drank the solution in a few gulps. He then wiped his mouth and said,””Gen ‘er, is the baking room ready?”
“Master, I’m ready!” Yang tree root said quickly.
“Let’s start the water baking!” Li Zhifu said decisively.
“Alright!”
Coming to the baking room, li Zhifu placed the stir – fried tea leaves evenly in the narrow – Waist drying cage. Then he started a fire in the drying cage and added charcoal.
The heat control during this process was also quite critical. Li Zhifu had been making tea leaves for decades, and the reason why he was famous was that he had a perfect control of the heat control during the baking process. Therefore, during the process, ye Lingyun and the Poplar tree root both stared at it without blinking, afraid of missing a detail.
The charcoal in the kiln started to turn red. Xia ruofei could feel the waves of heat just by standing in the room.
Li Zhifu carefully felt it and adjusted the position of the charcoal several times. Then, he evenly sprinkled plant ash on it. This was also li Zhifu’s unique skill. He could control the temperature of the drying cave with plant ash, and the heat emitted was more uniform.