Chapter 72 Tea Party (Part 2)

The name of the tea brewing method comes from the technique. First, the tea cake is roasted, then cooled, crushed and sieved, and then slowly roasted in a pot. After the tea fragrance is roasted, it is brewed with boiling water. It was mostly used for drinking tea cakes and tea balls in the past. Nowadays, the techniques of frying and roasting tea are popular. The tea ceremony that only requires brewing is an orthodox tea art and is an authentic ancient method. In the past, it was only seen a few times when tasting ancient tea cakes. I didn't expect that now, two people use this method to brew tea together.

Meng Si and his partner sat opposite each other, one strong and the other gentle, just like a beautiful flower and a majestic green pine. The seriousness and caution on their faces were the same, showing their respect for the tea ceremony.

While she was talking, Si Tang had already baked the tea cakes and crushed them. Meng Taotao was still at the stage of breaking the tea cakes. The sound of the small hammer hitting the wooden board was crisp and even, and each sound led people into a mysterious state. With just this one move, she fully demonstrated her excellent tea ceremony skills. Compared with the technique Si Tang had demonstrated before, it even had a more ancient flavor.

But how could such a person end up like this?

Many people exchanged glances, all expressing the same meaning. Si Li pretended not to notice their regretful expressions, took two steps forward and walked side by side with Wu You to where Wu You was sitting, "Manager Wu, please."

Wu You's face trembled and he whispered, "That's where you are."

He was pointing at the remote corner that was arranged earlier. Si Li raised her eyebrows and asked in confusion, "Yes, isn't that prepared for my servant? Even though I didn't inform him before, Manager Wu was still so considerate. He really has a sincere heart to help the younger generation."

There was indeed an empty seat next to the shopkeeper Wu, which was reserved for the shopkeeper of Sanzhenzhai. The old man was cautious and smooth, and although he had previously helped to instigate the tea tasting party and the literati's disturbance, it was not time for him to show up. Seeing Si Li speaking with confidence, she took two steps to the seat. The outcome of the game had not yet been decided, and the tea tasting party had not yet completely defeated the milk tea thing. Wu You did not want to quarrel with her for the time being, so he could only nod.

As the owner of a teahouse, the seat reserved for herself was naturally the best. Si Li sat down to watch the show. The tea ceremony requires concentration and calmness, and a slow and leisurely pace. After watching for a while, she felt a little bored, so she adjusted her sitting posture and found a more comfortable position.

Although she still sat upright, she looked a little strange, in stark contrast to Meng Taotao. However, due to her bright and cheerful temperament and half of her beautiful face, it seemed that it was due to her personal temperament, and no one objected.

Since being called out by Si Li, Miss Si has become Miss Si No. 2. Although she knows that this is an unwritten custom, and that people are called by their family name, Si Tang still can't help feeling wronged. Noticing the attention of the crowd, Si Tang is one step ahead of Meng Taotao, and has already entered the process of brewing tea. The tea aroma with a hint of moisture and astringency is lingering, and the mist rises up, as if a fairyland is approaching the dust, but it can never suppress the milk aroma in the house, but instead blends with each other and becomes sweet.

Yunshan Wu Tea's famous sencha tea mist emphasizes astringency, fragrance and sweetness. Before drinking tea, it can lead tea drinkers to taste the tea flavor, and the mist is the essence of its beauty. However, this time the astringency only lasted for a moment, and the sweetness followed closely. Instead of attracting exclamations, the experienced tea drinkers in the audience raised their eyebrows and showed doubts.

Si Tang waited for a long time but did not smell the fragrance of water that his mother had talked about. He began to panic. His hands stopped, and the rhythm of his smooth movements was disrupted, making the slow movements of Meng Taotao in front of him even more obvious.

After taking a look at the opponent's movements, Si Tang realized that the opponent was using the same ancient method as her, rather than pretending to know as she had guessed before, and she felt even less confident. Only she knew that her method was just taught by her mother in the past two days, and she was not skilled at all.

The scholar next to him looked at the scene for a while and said sideways, "Miss Si, I wonder what kind of tea cakes Wanglaiju has prepared? Pu'er? Fu'er tea? Tea-horse ancient bricks?" He mentioned a series of famous tea cake names, and Si Li's expression under her veil became more and more strange.

In order to make her figure look more graceful, the sleeves of Meng Taotao's scholar's shirt were too wide, and they hung down to block the tea cake she took out, so that people could only see the hammer falling down and the broken tea leaves being swept out. As for what kind of tea Wanglaiju used, everyone at the meeting had their own guesses, and when someone asked the question, they all pricked up their ears.

"Tea?" Si Li smiled. "I'll introduce it after it's brewed. It would be bad to disturb the elegant occasion now. Don't worry." What good tea? It was just a pack of ordinary roasted tea prepared by the shopkeeper Tang last year. It cost one coin and one tael of silver. It had clumped up after being stored for a long time. It was just right for pretending.

Some people were intimidated by her unfathomableness and focused on watching the action on the field. Si Tang took in all the conversations. In this situation, it was as if he was treating the two people on the field as a dancer's performance, and his indifference was obvious.

Previously, the manager of Wanglaiju was not worthy of being her opponent, so why is it that now the manager of Wanglaiju is judging her from a high position and putting her and the opponent's partners on the same level?

With the comments of people like her being a dancer, this blatant humiliation was stuck in her heart. Her anger was growing. Her arms began to lose control. The movement of the shovel to turn the broken tea was inevitably a little heavy. When Si Tang realized that he had done something wrong, it was too late. The fragrance of Yunshan Mist Tea had not yet come out, but the mist was gradually dissipating. If he didn't add boiling water, this pot of tea would be ruined.

After she stopped turning the tea, Si Tang's hands were shaking as she picked up the boiling water beside her. She tried to calm her breathing, telling herself that the ancient method was rare, and the Yunshan Mist Tea brewed by the ancient method had not been seen for many years. It was not necessarily that someone would see through the mistake on the spot. As long as she finished brewing it well, it was still in time to save it.

However, the idea was good. Both sides used the traditional method of brewing tea. Although one had a special mist and the other did not, most of the people gathered here had been immersed in this art for a long time. They could see at a glance that Si Tang's efforts were unsuccessful. His rhythm became increasingly chaotic and no longer as smooth as it was at the beginning. He was also not as good as the other person's unique style, with charm in every turn of his wrist.

Boiling water poured down, the fire in the stove got bigger, and the aroma of Yunshan Mist Tea filled the air. Although it was slightly different from what Si Tang had seen before, fortunately the difference was not too big. She breathed a sigh of relief and glanced at the other side.

Meng Taotao took much less time to brew tea than Si Tang. After Si Tang started brewing tea, she also picked up the small wooden barrel she brought in. In Ah Sheng's wooden barrel, besides ten cups of milk tea and a small wooden spoon, there was this barrel of milk that had been boiled with jasmine and added with condensed milk. Si Li did not intend to make the milk tea recipe public, so she could only do some tricks on the milk.

Seeing Meng Taotao taking out the wooden barrel he brought with him, no one in the scene noticed anything wrong. After all, someone had brought their own snow water or spring water to make tea before. If one thought the water source at the teahouse was not good, it was very common to bring one's own water to make tea.

The lid of the bucket was opened and the milk fell into the cauldron. Meng Taotao's technique was skillful and had an ancient charm, but the tea bubbling in the cauldron was completely different from all the previous displays.

Seeing the color difference, some people didn't react and muttered, "Where is this water? Why is it as white as milk?" As soon as they asked the question, someone next to them hit them on the head and said, "That's milk!"

The sweet milk aroma with some sweet floral scent was heated by the fire, completely suppressing the tea aroma in the room. Wu You's face changed drastically, and he said in a deep voice, "How can you treat milk tea as a joke at a tea tasting party?"

The milk aroma was strong for a moment, and soon merged with the broken tea in the pot, bubbling, and the lingering tea aroma was sweet but not greasy, mellow but not astringent, with an lingering milky taste, but also retaining its own character. Even without careful distinction, you can tell that this is exactly the same source as the milk tea in the small teacup that Si Li distributed after entering the door!

The noise in the lobby gradually increased. When Si Li was at the door, the argument between milk tea and tea was not fully discussed because of the obstruction of the scribes, and now it was officially exposed in front of everyone.

"How can you insult the teapot with your little trick of making milk tea, and brew it using the ancient method?"

"It was originally a crooked path, but I followed it with the right way, and I went astray!"

“The fun of drinking tea is not even half as good as milk tea!”

Si Tang took the opportunity to add fuel to the fire, and burst into tears, "How can my Yunshan Mist Tea be compared with milk tea in the discussion of tea ceremony? Such a great humiliation is really unbearable! If you want to comment on them together, you might as well let me destroy this pot of tea!" Tears welled up in his eyes, but did not fall. His strong and dignified look made several people in the hall nod their heads.

Meng Taotao's movements were still full of rhythm and were not affected by what others said. The tea soup in the cauldron had already boiled once, and the second boil was like a spring gushing out from the edge of the cauldron, and the tea bubbles gradually rose. This was the most orthodox way of brewing tea. Si Li saw someone in the hall notice the changes in the cauldron and his expression changed slightly. He smiled and said, "Since it is tea tasting, milk tea is also tea, why is it a joke? May I ask Manager Wu, when tasting tea and discussing the truth, what are we tasting and what are we discussing?"

Before Wu You could answer, someone else said, "Taste the flavor of tea and discuss the world!"

Most of the tea drinkers are literati. The literati can be divided into two groups: those who are involved in the world and those who are not. Although they all drink tea, some drink tea for the sake of worrying about the prosperity of the country and the people, while others drink tea for the sake of leisure and elegance of hermits. Milk tea is not elegant, but it can also add some interest. This is obviously not the answer Wu You wanted to give, but Si Li did not intend to give him a chance to explain.

"If that's the case, then milk tea should be considered a flavor of tea." Si Li spread her hands, "There are all kinds of life, from sweet to sour, from firewood to rice, from oil to salt, and the sweet taste of milk tea is one of them. The meaning of milk tea is to make people relaxed and happy. Some people use tea to relieve their worries, and some people use tea to enlighten their minds, but we can't say that tea is meaningless just because it tastes sweet, right? Drinking a cup of milk tea, the relaxation and happiness of the sweet milk flavor, the satisfaction and happiness are incomparable to anything else, and it also retains the lingering aftertaste of tea. It is exactly the new way of making tea!"

After hearing this nonsense, some people in the hall were stunned. But more people still criticized the nonsense. Someone was quick-witted and stood up and said loudly, "Since ancient times, milk tea and tea have been clearly distinguished. Why bother with milk tea!"

The teapot in front of Meng Taotao was surging like a raging wave. He skimmed off the black tea foam with a bamboo clip, and snowflake-like camellia flowers blossomed in the pot. Different from the cream-colored tea, this was authentic camellia made using ancient methods. When the pot was opened, the fragrance filled the air, muting the reprimands in the hall for a moment.

"Oh?" Si Li stood up and walked past Si Tang who was still staring at Meng Taotao. She took a cup of freshly brewed milk tea from the kneeling Meng Taotao and chuckled. "Although I am not well-educated, I still know a little about the Classic of Tea and the Tea Ceremony. May I ask this gentleman, has brewing tea really remained the same from ancient times to the present? Maybe the past of adding salt and spices that I remember is false..."

The girl's eyebrows relaxed, and she glanced across the hall with a half-smile. Her words were humiliating, but her expression showed a completely opposite attitude. She deliberately teased, causing the scholar who jumped out to blush and remain silent for a long time.

Si Tang looked at the girl's back, remembering how she ignored him when he walked by her and the strong sense of familiarity in her heart. She opened her mouth but didn't know what to say. This was no longer a debate she could participate in. The storekeepers and the scholars in the hall seemed to be at the same level.

Meng Taotao poured out cup of milk tea, glanced at Si Tang who was looking dazed, shook her head inwardly, and her eyes were indifferent, which made Si Tang's heart beat rapidly.

"The traditional method is correct. You replace water with milk..." someone argued, but before he finished speaking he realized that he was being tricked. He admitted that milk tea is just a kind of tea and quickly stopped talking.

In the Wuwei Building, everyone was talking and only the sound of milk tea was left. Si Li smiled wider, "Since tea and milk tea are of the same origin, please try the milk tea that my family brought here. There is also the jasmine milk tea that was just cooked in the pot. It may be a little hot. The one served in front of the door is pudding milk tea, next to it is caramel taro milk tea, and next is ginger candy milk tea..."

While everyone was dizzy and speaking, Si Li quickly explained in the order they had just been distributed. At this moment, Wuweilou did not seem like Wuweilou, but rather like a place for Wanglaiju to showcase new products.

In the center of the hall, the girl was full of energy and cleverness, making it difficult for people to rebuke her. Someone lowered his head and stopped looking at the scene, shouting in a muffled voice, "Heresy, lies and tricks, don't listen to it!"

With the start of the movement, the heretics' shouts suddenly became as loud as thunder. At Wu You's signal, the staff and guards of Wuweilou surrounded them and tried to drive Si Li and the other two out of the door. Xiao Que and Ah Sheng jumped out in time to block them. Both sides looked at each other unkindly and were on the verge of a fight.

Everyone else was targeting Milk Tea, which was expected, but a familiar scholar who had been shouting at him jumped out and said loudly, "This person has violated the rules and presumptuous, pretending to be a student. It's really abominable, he should be sent to the government office!"

"Heresy? Ha, nonsense!" A steady and familiar voice of rebuke came from the door. Before Si Li and Meng Taotao could defend themselves, they were interrupted by him.

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The author has something to say:

Yunshan Wucha is purely fictional. The method of brewing tea is taken from Lu Yu's Tea Classic, with some modifications and self-editing. Originally, it should be to boil water first and then add tea to boil for the second time. Here it is changed to brew tea first and then add water to boil for the third time. It is not a proper method, so don't take it seriously. (.)