A Detailed Guide to the Entire Processing Flow of Dragon Whisker Tea
Dragon Whisker Tea is a special congou black tea created by Ninghong Tea Village in Manjiang Township, Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province, using a unique craft. It rose together with "Ninghong" during the reign of Emperor Daoguang of the Qing Dynasty, and was named for its finished tea "wearing a red robe and shaped like a whisker." Dragon Whisker Tea is particular about material selection, finely made, unique in style, and excellent in quality. In the past, the tea firms (factories) of Manjiang each year would place 5-24 Dragon Whisker Teas as a topping layer in the first batch of high-quality "Ninghong" tea chests for export (commonly known as tribute chests), as a decorative flourish and mark, and the product sold well in Soviet Russia and the countries of Europe and America. This tea is also packed in refined small wooden boxes and exported separately, and each one once sold for as much as one silver yuan. Dragon Whisker Tea has a unique artistic style and distinctive color, aroma, taste, and shape, and is suitable for brewing in a covered glass cup to appreciate its beautiful appearance. When brewing, find the colored thread end, pull out the flower thread, and place it in the cup; the whole Dragon Whisker Tea then sinks in a bundle at the base of the tea liquor, while the buds and leaves spread upward and open out, like a vivid chrysanthemum, seeming to float and sink, novel and beautiful, hence the saying "a chrysanthemum at the bottom of the cup, a spear in the hand."
Dragon Whisker Tea has a fresh, brisk, and richly fragrant aroma, a sweet, mellow, and refreshing taste, and a red, brilliant, and bright liquor color. After brewing 3-5 times, the color, aroma, and taste remain good.
In 1982 and 1985, at the Famous Tea Evaluation and Appraisal Meeting of the Jiujiang region, Dragon Whisker Tea won a famous tea certificate and a quality excellence award certificate. In 2002, it won the Excellent Product Award at the "China Jiujiang Second Agricultural and Sideline Products Fine Products Exhibition." In 2004, it won the Jiangxi Province Famous Tea Special Production Award. The picking and processing of Dragon Whisker Tea is divided into 8 steps, briefly described below.
1. Picking
For the fresh leaf raw material, it is advisable to select buds and leaves that grow vigorously, retain tenderness well, and have plump buds, mainly one bud and one leaf and one bud and two leaves, with a small amount of one bud and three leaves just opening. Do not pick diseased or insect-damaged leaves, purple bud leaves, rain-soaked leaves, or opposite-pair leaves. The buds and leaves should be basically consistent in size and length.
2. Withering
The fresh leaves brought back from picking should be gently and evenly spread on bamboo trays, spread separately in the order of picking, with a spreading thickness of about 3CM. Depending on the temperature, turn the fresh leaves 1-2 times every 2H, and the movement should be gentle. During natural withering, the bamboo trays near the window and those inside the room should be promptly swapped in position so that the withering degree of the same batch of raw material is consistent. When indoor conditions permit, try as much as possible not to use sunlight withering.
3. Rolling
It is advisable to use a miniature rolling machine for rolling. The leaves loaded into the rolling barrel should be even, lightly pressed with the palm of the hand, and heavy pressure must be avoided. Roll for about 30min, with the tea strips tightly rolled as the proper degree, then remove from the machine and break up the lumps by hand.
4. Fermentation
Evenly sprinkle the rolled leaves, after lump breaking, into a fermentation box with specifications of 60cm*40cm*12cm, with the amount adjusted so that the fermented leaves are level with the rim of the box, to prevent insufficient oxygen supply for reddening and uneven fermentation caused by a conical pile. Cover the fermentation box with a half-dry, half-moist cloth and place it in an environment with humidity of about 95% and temperature of about 24 degrees. When most of the fermented leaves have turned yellow, they can be transferred to the next step.
5. Passing through the red pan
The purpose of this step is to rapidly inhibit enzyme activity and stop continued fermentation; improve the appearance of the tea strips to make up for insufficient shaping by rolling. It requires a high pan temperature and a moderate amount of tea leaves added.
6. Tying into bundles
After the tea leaves that have passed through the red pan are spread to cool, select complete tea strips from them for tying into bundles; single broken leaves must not be used. Straighten the complete tea strips one by one, align the bases evenly, and make about 100 strips into one bundle; tie the short tea strips in the middle and wrap the long tea strips on the outside, binding tightly with white cotton thread from the base to the bud tips, so that the appearance is like a large writing brush full of ink.
7. Drying
Arrange the tea bundles one by one in a ring at the roasting core, and bake with a conventional roasting basket over a gentle fire. During baking, turn the tea bodies several times. The temperature should be high at first and low later. Baking takes about 36h.
8. Tying with flower thread
Remove the white cotton thread from the shaped tea bundles, then tie white thread at their base, and tie the tea bodies into a net pattern with white, green, yellow, blue, and red five-color silk threads. After the flower threads are tied, use a needle to pass the thread ends into the tea bundles.