"Huh, alright Xiao Che, take out the firewood and take a break."
Tang Yuanming wiped the sweat from his forehead and breathed heavily. Roasting tea is really a physical job.
Fortunately, my health has improved now. If it were in the past, I probably wouldn’t be able to straighten my waist.
Jiang Che nodded and immediately pulled out the wood from the stove and stuffed it into the ash underneath.
"Grandpa Tang must be tired, drink some water quickly."
Jiang Che immediately brought a bowl of cold water. Tang Tian glanced at Jiang Che, nodded slightly, and took it.
"Xiao Che, I'm thirsty too. Why don't I have any water to drink? Aren't you too partial?"
Old Man Sun said sarcastically from the side, "Old Tang is such an annoying guy. You said you were coming, so why did you have to bring your granddaughter along?"
"Haha, I'm coming right over. You two old men, have some water too."
Jiang Che smiled, picked up the kettle, poured two bowls of cold water, and brought them to the two old men.
"You two old guys always fight over everything."
After drinking the water, Tang Yuanming said unhappily, turned around and spread out the freshly fried tea leaves in the winnowing basket. Feeling that the heat had almost dissipated, he took it out.
Jiang Che scooped a large ladle of water into the iron pot to cool it down.
Faced with Mr. Tang's complaints, Mr. Sun Weidong didn't care at all and turned to Jiang Che and said.
"Xiao Che, help me shovel out the burnt charcoal from the stove."
Jiang Che nodded, took the shovel leaning against the wall, put it into the stove, scooped up the red-hot charcoal, and followed Old Sun outside.
On the corridor of the courtyard, Mr. Pan had already prepared the steamer for drying tea leaves.
The drying equipment is very simple, an iron basin and a bamboo drying cage.
"Xiao Che, put the charcoal in the iron basin. Be careful not to burn yourself."
The three elders Sun cautiously moved aside.
Jiang Che nodded, walked over and poured the red-hot charcoal in.
Then Mr. Sun took out a handful of smokeless carbon from the snakeskin bag beside him. These smokeless carbons were all handmade by the three old men these days.
Spread the smokeless charcoal evenly on the red-hot wood, and then wait until all the smokeless charcoal is red-hot and the smoke disappears.
Then place the baking cage on the iron basin and cover the inside of the baking cage with a layer of clean gauze.
Finally, he took the winnowing basket from Mr. Tang's hand and evenly placed the fried tea leaves on the gauze.
They stopped only after covering the entire gauze, and then the three old men and one young man brought a small stool and sat around the baking oven.
It's so hot today, and it's really a bit hot sitting around the charcoal stove.
However, the three old men enjoyed it and observed the changes of the tea leaves very carefully.
Mr. Sun even took out his cell phone, turned on the stopwatch, and meticulously turned the tea leaves on the drying basket from time to time according to the time.
It is very important to control the temperature. If you are too slow, the tea leaves may get burnt.
Originally, these tea leaves did not have much moisture, and the first two processes were completed very well. If he failed here, it would be embarrassing.
20 minutes later, Mr. Sun picked up a few tea leaves and gently twisted them with his thumb and index finger. The dark green tea leaves easily turned into fine powder.
"Okay, that's it."
Old Sun said excitedly, and immediately stood up and lifted up the gauze by the four corners.
Mr. Tang and Mr. Pan also stood up with interest, and they immediately came into the house.
I can finally taste the tea I made myself, even though the quality is not that great.
But the three old men are still full of a sense of accomplishment. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and this can be considered the first step.
Mr. Tang immediately brought the electric kettle and tea set, sat at the small square table and began to boil water and make tea.
It is actually uncomfortable to drink hot tea on a hot day, but the three masters were still in high spirits.
Boil water, add tea leaves, pour boiling water, wash tea, brew tea, and pour tea.
Soon four small cups of tea came out, and the three old men looked at the tea in front of them with full of anticipation.
I picked it up and sniffed it. The smell was just average, as expected.
After blowing on it, the three of them drank it all in one gulp. Suddenly, they felt as if someone was strangling them.
All the facial features are squeezed towards the middle, and the wrinkles on the face are bulging layer by layer, like three blooming chrysanthemums.
"puff……"
“It’s too hard to drink.”
The three of them sprayed out and shouted, sticking out their tongues and quickly rinsing their mouths with water.
Jiang Che was a beat late in picking up the teacup, just in time to see this scene, staring at the three old men in amazement.
Is this tea so bad?
After thinking about it, I decided to take a sip.
Suddenly, an extremely bitter taste with a smell of iron and a burnt smell filled my mouth.
The tip of my tongue felt numb, so I quickly put down the teacup. No wonder the three old men reacted so strongly.
This is too hard to drink, it's like poison.
"The quality of wild tea leaves is too poor after all. There's nothing we can do about the bitter taste."
"But the iron smell and burnt smell are probably because the iron pot is not cooked properly, and our cooking skills are too rusty. We need to stir-fry a few more pots of wild tea to get rid of the iron smell, otherwise this tea will be completely unpalatable."
Tang Yuanming paused for a long time before speaking breathlessly. Elder Pan and Elder Sun also nodded seriously.
The four of them rested for a while, sprinkled some more smokeless charcoal into the iron basin, and then covered it with a layer of ash to let it burn slowly.
Then the four of them immersed themselves in frying tea in the kitchen. During the frying process, Mr. Tang and Mr. Pan's skills improved rapidly, and they were already proficient in it later.
The three old men fried five pots of wild tea leaves in a row before stopping.
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