20 19- 1 1-02

Tongmuguan Village in Wuyishan is one of the most representative tea producing areas in China. The towering trees and mossy bamboo make it a nature reserve. Because the natural environment is protected, it is almost primitive. The towering trees and the low shrubs set each other off. Above the water, the sides of the wooden bridge are covered with moss, and the bamboo forest is hidden in the fog. It is called "the paradise of birds" and "the kingdom of snakes", but it is tea that really brings fame to Mutong Village.

As the birthplace of black tea, Mutong Village is quite famous. It is the only place where the world's first black tea, Zhengshan Tea, is produced. Tongmuguan is divided into 12 production teams, including Ma Su, Guadun, Guanping, Miaowan, Jiangdun, Sangang, Pikeng, Guwangkeng, Longdu and Qili. Among them, Tongmu Village is the highest in Ma Su, with an altitude of 1500m.

Ma Su, 1200 mu of Chashan, has more than 60 people. Life here is like heaven, slow and long. Chen, a tea man, has lived in this birthplace since childhood. After a simple breakfast, Chen intends to go deep into the mountains to find a special kind of wood-Pinus tabulaeformis, which is the only six secret tree species in Zhengshan.

Pinus tabulaeformis, a coniferous evergreen tree of Pinaceae, is 30 meters high from the ground, which is equivalent to the ten-story height of a modern residential building. The unique taste of the traditional Yashan race is hidden in it. In the eyes of tea people, this pine is an indispensable secret for making traditional crafts. The most representative pine smoke fragrance of Masayama race is hidden in such wood. In order to make the best tea and achieve the first-class taste, Chinese pine is indispensable. However, Mu Tong Village has been designated as a national natural ecological protection zone, and pine trees in this area are prohibited from being cut down. Once logging materials, gradually forgotten by the world. Pine trees used to smoke traditional Masai people must be transported out of the reserve.

However, the exquisite old tea people are very particular about the choice of smoking pine firewood of Zhengshan race, and most of them choose pine hearts or pine roots that produce more rosin locally. They firmly believe that only this kind of wood can make tea show precious rosin fragrance, but also contain a touch of honey fragrance. That authentic taste, like an innate aristocratic lineage, is by no means simply comparable to the fragrance of pine smoke.

Chen's own environmental awareness and the rules and regulations of the mountain farm forced him to go deep into the mountain farm to find the dead pine trees. Years of living in mountainous areas have made him familiar with everything here, but it is still not an easy task to find the best and most suitable Pinus tabulaeformis. In the deep mountains, there are scattered dead trees and debris, and Chen and his son are like treasure hunting. The blade cuts off the dead skin, removes the rotten part and leaves the intact part. Chen and his son looked at the pine tree in front of them, which was their harvest of the day. Facing the coming tea season, he knew it was only the beginning.

The picture of primitive labor is like the reappearance of ancestors from generation to generation. No matter how the outside world divides the Zhengshan race, in the eyes of local people, only the black tea with "pine smoke fragrance and longan flavor" produced in Mu Tong village can be called "Zhengshan race". And those smokeless black teas produced in Wuyishan except paulownia are called "small black teas". As for the black tea beyond Wuyishan, it is only called "Kung Fu Black Tea".

Amber, pine smoke and longan flavor are the only criteria for judging the first-class race in Zhengshan. Only the black tea produced by traditional techniques from this producing area can be called a real "mountain race". This strange gift from nature is the unique taste of Mutong Village, and the name of "Zhengshan" represents the authority of origin.

The once-cut materials are gradually forgotten by the world, but the authentic taste is the noble lineage of Mu Tong village people, and they insist on and inherit this unique taste.

Eager for the best tea trees and pine trees, Chen never stopped looking for the figure. The vegetation of Panicum miliaceum consists of broad leaves and bamboo. The old trees growing in the wild are the raw materials of the first-class products of Zhengshan. Rocky soil and scattered roots are the environment in which old tea trees grow, which is in line with the saying in the tea classics that "the top grows rotten stones".

The picking of fresh leaves of zhengshan species is very particular, and one bud, two leaves or three leaves is the standard of zhengshan species. Different fresh leaves are the embryonic forms of different tastes. With precious pine, it must be matched. The most precious tea green comes from the earth and nature. In Chen's view, this is his only chance to make a perfect taste in a year.

In the eyes of a tea man, the most precious pine trees and the most precious fresh leaves are the necessary conditions for making the wonderful taste of Zhengshan people.

Ma Su's tea leaves began to wither, and the annual tea-making time was Chen's most concentrated moment. Although we have first-class pine trees and first-class fresh leaves, can we make a real mountain race with pine smoke and longan flavor? Everything is unknown.

This is the art of fire. The perfect control between low temperature and high temperature when burning pine comes from the experience of tea people for many years. This is a contest between wood and fire, and it is also the nirvana between man and tea. Hot air and pine smoke spewed along the cracks in the bricks on the floor, baking the tea leaves in the layers of water curtains on the shelves. To become a proper mountain race with pine smoke fragrance and longan flavor, it is necessary to undergo such transformation before the flavor in tea green can be fully activated. This process is like a windy place in a gossip furnace, where tea leaves have experienced smoky fire, so disastrous figures have trained the eyes of people.

Picking tea leaves and evaporating 40% water is the best kneading time. The green of fresh leaves gradually darkens, and even if the veins are twisted, they are still intact. Compared with hand twisting rope, the machine makes the rope tighter and more uniform. Because of this, the traditional crafts of Zhengshan people were replaced by machines.

The unique technology creates a unique taste, and the unique pine smoke aroma and longan taste are all derived from longifolene components in flue gas. Coupled with the excellent adsorption of tea itself, the taste experience can be the ultimate.

People and tea are very important, and wood and fire are bright and warm. Tea adheres to tradition and respects nature all its life. Thanks to the persistence of tea people, the traditional taste can be passed on.