How is modern canned tea made? A detailed guide to the preparation steps
The method for making canned tea is as follows:
The first step is to roast the dates until the date skins are scorched and give off a delicate fragrance, then they can be put into the can. It is said that only in this way can the date flavor better blend into the tea aroma;
The second step is to place the can filled with ingredients on an electric stove. Generally, the tea leaves are added last. As soon as the tea goes in, the water will boil;
The third step is to prepare the small teacups for drinking tea, watch the boiling water surface in the can, and wait for the fragrance to drift out. Only by simmering slowly and sipping quietly can you experience the pleasure in it and taste the pure fragrance of the ingredients.
Below are different feelings that people from several different places have about canned tea:
1. In a cup of canned tea, in fact, all the hardship and vicissitudes of Tongwei have been contained, and canned tea has likewise worn away the fighting spirit of too many people of Tongwei. In such bitter canned tea, the people of Tongwei have lived generation after generation without hope. A certain United Nations organization once came to Tongwei for an inspection and said that in a place like this, it is already a miracle for people just to be able to stay alive, so what development could there even be to talk about?
Later, when I was transferred to the county town through work, I did not have much time to drink canned tea anymore, but I still keep this tea-drinking tool and habit to this day. It is just that now my tea drinking is no longer simply drinking tea; it seems more like drinking a dose of Chinese medicine. First put some tea leaves in a cup, find a small iron cup (an evolved ququ can), place it on a small electric stove, pour in water, and also add ingredients, mainly goji berries, longan, lychee, jujubes, grapes, walnut kernels, rock sugar, and so on, then simmer it for a long time, using this to brew the tea. On every Saturday morning, while listening to "Plateau Red," I savor this rare leisure. I can think about anything, or I can think about nothing at all. It is quite pleasant too. If you do not believe it, come and try it when you have the chance.
2. If you go to the countryside of Dingxi as a guest, no matter which household you visit, you will get to drink canned tea. On the streets and in the alleys, as long as you run into an acquaintance, you will be greeted warmly: "Come on, go to my house and drink canned tea!" In people's eyes, drinking canned tea seems to be a symbol of status and standing. Only older men can take it as a kind of enjoyment with a clear conscience. When young men drink tea, they can only brew it in a cup, or secretly simmer a can behind the adults' backs. If anyone drinks canned tea in front of the adults, others will silently criticize him.
3. Liupan Mountain is located in a high, cold mountainous area and does not produce tea. But here there is Xiji, an important town on the ancient Silk Road, long known as the "dry port of western China." Since ancient times, commercial activity has been very brisk, and the history of tea drinking is also quite long. According to the Ming dynasty "Hezhou Gazetteer," as early as the early Ming dynasty a Tea and Horse Office was established here to exchange horses for tea. From this it can be inferred that at least by the Ming dynasty the people of Xiji were already using canned tea. This is probably directly related to the local people's nomadic life and commercial trade.
4. In certain rural areas of Lanzhou, such as the Beishan area of Yuzhong, this is a traditional way for people to boil tea. Generally, donkey dung is used as fuel, and a can made from a pull-tab beverage can is used to boil tea leaves. There is a poem that says:
Canned Tea (Anzi)
The pitch-black iron can
In the flames of burning donkey dung pellets
Surrounded by smoke and vapor
Tea fragrance and dung stench
Between them there is only a thin iron wall
Two entirely different worlds
Enacting a stretch of harmonious life