Planning: Liubao Tea House
People in this issue: Tang
—— Master Tang, director and general manager of Liubao Black Tea Refinery in Wuzhou, Guangxi.
Tip: This article is rather long, and it needs to take some time to read. However, the wonderful process of an old tea maker's tea-making experience and mental journey can't be described in words. We can only record its key points to get a glimpse.
Background: There are outstanding leaders in any industry, and Liubao Tea is no exception. They may be outstanding foreign investors, outstanding representatives of local entrepreneurs, or high-spirited young talents. However, he has been immersed in Liubao tea industry for a long time and has become a respected and outstanding figure. He is one of them.
Maybe one day, I will leave the three thousand world and live a peaceful life.
Whether you are lost or enlightened by meditation.
After that, I took a white pony, drank the water of thousands of rivers and tasted Liubao tea until the clouds were light and the wind was light.
The sunshine in June passes through the old trees and the arcade street of Hedong ancient town in Wuzhou, looking for the old tea man in Liubao tea industry. He is a practitioner of the first generation of modern Liubao tea-making technology and witnessed the rise and fall of Liubao tea industry for half a century. He is a low-key and mysterious man, and his private affairs are rarely reported in newspapers. If it weren't for his old neighbor and tea drinker, he wouldn't know the taste of his own Liubao tea.
Arcades of baroque, mixed, China traditional and modern styles stand on both sides of the street. The streets and alleys are full of shouts, and the old streets are performing Cantonese opera, like old times. Really? Little Hong Kong? Known as 22 arcades, there are more than 500 large and small firms/kloc-0, and merchants gather and are bustling. Nowadays, due to the westward migration of population, the glory of the past has long faded, and the arcade has also evolved from a former commercial place to a cultural propaganda place. Here, it is no longer suitable for business.
Master Tang Tea Factory Store is located in Da 'nan Road, Wuzhou City.
I met 85-year-old Master Tang (hereinafter referred to as "Master Tang") in a secluded corner in the middle section of Dalan Road in Qilou, in the quaint storefront of "Guangxi Wuzhou Master Tang Liubao Black Tea Refining Factory". The master of Liubao tea industry, with deep eyes and wearing a beige polo shirt, sat in a rocking chair, leisurely and kindly held out his hand to signal me to sit in front of the coffee table, skillfully and vigorously made tea and handed me a cup of tea in one go.
The fragrance of tea is refreshing and the taste is warm and mellow, just like this arcade outside the door, which permeates the taste of the ancient street. A magnificent historical picture spanning half a century is slowly unfolding with people's memories of Master Tang's tea-making experience.
Tea making experience-learning
Master Tang is from Changzhou District, Wuzhou City. When I was a teenager, I worked in Liuzhou Machinery Factory, then went to the sugar factory in Guixian (now Guigang), and returned to Wuzhou in the 1960s to be the second-in-command in Qianjian Winery. In 1970s, he joined Wuzhou Native Produce Company to produce tea machinery. Since then, he has formed an indissoluble bond with tea.
Wuzhou Native Produce Company set up Liubao Tea Factory in Liubao Town, and the local native produce company invested in equipment investment, development and planting. Since Master Tang is good at mechanical work, he has been assiduously learning tea-making technology from tea-making engineers and working with them to improve tea-making technology since he first entered the tea factory and started to operate tea machinery and equipment.
Tea making experience-tea picking
To make good tea, start with choosing good tea. Master Tang traveled all the year round to the hills of Liubao Township. Speaking of the experience of picking tea, Master Tang told me that many young tea makers may not know that the tea before the clubhouse was strictly graded according to the daily picking time. Before dawn and sunrise, when there is fog, the tea picked is a grade. These teas are clear as water, still fragrant and smooth, but not resistant to soaking, because the tea leaves are too tender and only suitable for making green tea. Picking once every one and a half hours is another grade; It's about 10, which is also a grade. At this time, the sun is fierce, and the higher the temperature, the higher the tea green is.
Tea making experience-cooked tea
In the past, Liubao tea was cooked by double steaming and double pressing, but the yield was low because of the short evaporation time. The taste only changed the bitterness of tea, and the soup turned yellow and reddish, but it didn't reach the red and mellow taste.
Xiong, then an engineer of Wuzhou Native Produce Company, led the technical team headed by Master Tang to overcome the key problems of cooked tea technology and invented cold fermentation technology.
Cold water fermentation time is longer than double steaming and double pressing, and it goes through three high temperature stages: high temperature after cold fermentation, re-steaming and post-steaming. After compaction, it will be stored in a cold place for natural fermentation for one year or half a year, and then it will enter the stage of medium temperature and low humidity.
Cold fermentation technology greatly improved the output of Liubao tea and further improved its taste. The soup is bright red, mellow and tastes better. This technology won the special prize of scientific and technological invention in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Entrepreneurship experience; pioneer
1979, the state allowed private ownership, and Master Tang established the first teahouse in Wuzhou on Xiaonan Road? Huaqiang tea house
Old photos of Huaqiang teahouse in those days
At that time, the old tea girls in Liubao Township were all purchased by the local supply and marketing cooperatives, and Master Tang received them at a price of 30 cents per catty. However, the local sales of Liubao tea were limited, so Master Tang actively explored foreign markets and sold Liubao tea from Wuzhou to Fangcun, Guangzhou. At that time, Fangcun in Guangzhou was far from its present scale. Master Tang's wife Song (now the director and technical director of the tea factory) started a business with Master Tang, and Song often personally escorted tea from Wuzhou to Fangcun, Guangzhou.
Master Tang's wife-Song
When there is no expressway or even secondary highway, it takes at least one night from Wuzhou to Guangzhou. The road is not easy to walk, and the security environment along the road has not improved. Robbery happens from time to time. At that time, a car full of tea could collect about 8 thousand, and the money was all cash. Insecurity lurks in it and bothers me. A woman trudged between two provinces and was often exhausted when she reached her destination. On the way to delivery, there was a traffic jam for three days and three nights due to the collapse of the road. All kinds of difficulties did not stop Song from carrying tea, because she knew her husband's determination to promote Liubao tea to other provinces.
Entrepreneurial experience: Jupu
Cantonese love tea, and there are countless restaurants and teahouses. Among Master Tang's many customers, a boss in Fangcun specializes in supplying tea to the teahouse. The boss is very clever. He mixed master Tang's Liubao tea with Pu 'er tea, and then added chrysanthemum to make "chrysanthemum tea", which was very popular in Guangdong. In fact, at that time, the raw material of "Jupu" tea was mainly Liubao tea. Because Pu 'er tea is famous, it is named after Chrysanthemum. This tea soup is bright in color, delicious and resistant to foaming. Very popular with hotels and tea drinkers, it has become the main sales product of Guangzhou Tea House, and it is also the weather vane for Cantonese people to drink tea. At this point, the best-selling road of Liubao tea was opened.
Tea House Culture in Guangzhou
Entrepreneurship experience? set back
No one's road to entrepreneurship is smooth sailing, and Master Tang is no exception. A flood in 1994 caused great losses to Master Tang.
Wuzhou has always been famous for floods. Before the completion of the flood dike in Hedong District in 2004, Hedong District suffered from floods every year. Maybe it's a habit. Every year, before flooding the streets, all shops have plans to relocate their property, which is not surprising to Wuzhou citizens. However,1From June to August, 1994, there were three consecutive floods in Wuzhou, which also caused waterlogging in Hexi District, plunging the whole city in the east and west of Wuzhou into a Wang Yang Zeguo.
1994 this unexpected flood caused heavy losses in Wuzhou.
According to Song, a batch of tea had just been unloaded, and the government had asked all merchants to evacuate to ensure personal safety, so it was too late to move the property. All the tea and non-staple food were flooded. At that time, the inventory of tea was a whole Dongfeng car, about 10 tons.
The loss of tea has been so serious that the blow is even worse. Because the tea leaves are put in the hemp bag, the mouth of the bag is loose because of soaking, and the tea leaves are all floating in the whole street. So the flood receded, and the walls and tile roofs of every household were all tea from Master Tang. What's more, the tea leaves soaked in water precipitate colored tea leaves, and the walls of every household are stained with brown, which is extremely difficult to clean. Master Tang silently endured all this and hired people to help residents clean up streets and houses.
Entrepreneurship experience; insist on
From 65438 to 0996, Master Tang entered the village of Dukan in Cangwu to establish Huaqiang Tea Factory, which changed from a teahouse to a tea factory, and from a single sales model to a model integrating picking, production and sales. I wanted to make great efforts to push Liubao tea to the peak, but I didn't expect to encounter a trough in the Liubao tea market. During the operation of Huaqiang tea factory, Liubao tea market was once in a downturn, black tea was unpopular and scented tea was king. At that time, Wuzhou tea factory was also transformed into selling scented tea. Master Tang didn't follow suit. He knew the characteristics of black tea, so he classified all the raw materials of Liubao tea into Liubao tea and kept them in the warehouse. Later, these old teas also brought rich returns to Master Tang's persistence.
1993 areca Liubao tea produced by Master Tang Tea Factory.
In 20 15, the tea factory moved to the present Nan 'an Mountain Villa, and was renamed as Liubao Black Tea Refinery of Tang Master in Wuzhou, Guangxi. At this time, the market competition of Liubao tea has become fierce, and all manufacturers are trying to save costs and simplify the process to create higher profits. Master Tang still insists on using the traditional cold water fermentation process to make tea. Master Tang told me that the key to making Liubao tea is to control the temperature of the pile and ferment it properly, so as to have the best quality of tea soup. At the same time, in order to ensure the taste, the Liubao tea made by Master Tang still insists on natural aging for three years before it can be sold in the factory. He proudly said that the Liubao tea I made was not afraid to compare with any Liubao tea! This is an outstanding old tea man who has been confident for forty years.
Tangshifu store
When talking about the development plan of his tea factory, Master Tang said eight words slowly: not seeking the biggest, but seeking the best. Abide by the quality of products, just as Liubao tea is more fragrant as it ages.
Insufficient achievements. original aspiration
Master Tang always adheres to the bottom line of honest management when making tea. He proudly said that from Huaqiang Tea House to the current tea factory, he has never owed a penny to his partners in terms of payment; In terms of product quality, it is worthy of conscience, partners and consumers; Even my colleagues have their own brands, but they often come to my teahouse for tea and chat. Everything depends on it? Integrity management? Four words. Master Tang has always believed that character is tea, and people with bad virtue can't make good tea.
Over the past 40 years, Master Tang has created many firsts in Liubao tea industry: the first private teahouse in Wuzhou, the first wholesale and retail model (which promoted the prosperity of Shajie wholesale market in Wuzhou), the first well-known self-employed individual in Wuzhou, and the first person in Guangzhou to sell Liubao tea to Fangcun market. Behind these achievements is the busyness and persistence of Master Tang day after day.
Speaking of highlights, Master Tang looked excited.
When talking about the development of the industry, Master Tang bluntly said: "I am the only Liubao tea man who is still alive. What I hope most is that the tea-making skills of Liubao Tea will always belong to our Wuzhou people. "
Song told me a story: it has always been a sad thing for Master Tang, that is, the candied dates originally belonging to Wuzhou specialty were mastered by mainlanders due to various factors. Gradually, Wuzhou local candied dates lost their market and gradually faded out of people's sight. At a tea fair, a foreign tea merchant offered to hire Master Tang as the technical director with a high salary, but Master Tang flatly refused.
It is precisely because of the persistence and development of the older generation of tea people like Master Tang that the entire Liubao tea industry has flourished and flourished today. Master Tang not only witnessed the iteration and innovation of Liubao tea technology, but also harvested the fruitful results brought by the prosperity of the entire industrial market.
Liubao Tea in Master Tang's Shop
You can tell the tea by its fragrance, and the reason by its people. Have a cup of Liubao tea and listen to an old story. I understand why Master Tang didn't choose to set up the tea factory in Lijiang Tea Wholesale Street in Yuanjiang or the bustling business district in Hexi City, but still stayed in the hometown of Qilou Street. I understand why the 85-year-old master Tang still does not change his original intention, silently guarding the Liubao tea that he has struggled for half his life.
When I was leaving, Master Tang gave me a side of tea, and a poem was inscribed on the tea box: Sit and drink cold water and watch the fried sand and dust. There is no reason to give a tea lover a dish.
This article is edited by "Liubao Tea House" with references:
Liubao Tea Beginner's Manual.