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Introduction Lei Cha Chapter 10

Introduction Lei Cha Chapter 10

Drinking tea is a traditional social method in Jiangle. Every wedding, birthday, housewarming, gatherings of relatives and friends, and visits from neighbors, they often treat each other with tea. Parents will invite the teacher to come home to drink tea if their child is in the college entrance examination. The big bowl is respected, and the small bowl is added to show the deep affection of not forgetting the mentor’s cultivation. On the tea party, there are generally loose, sweet, fragrant and crispy tea food such as candy, biscuits, melon seeds, and peanuts.

People in coastal areas are warm, and they often treat guests with tea. Lei tea for hospitality is divided into two types: meat and vegetarian. For vegetarian guests, add peanuts, cowpeas or soybeans, glutinous rice, kelp, sweet potato vermicelli, dried japonica noodles, cold vegetables, etc.; for meat eaters, add fried shredded pork or small intestines, sweet bamboo shoots, shredded mushrooms, Fried tofu, vermicelli, chives and other ingredients.

Foods served with tea in different regions

Drinking Taojiang Lei tea, there is also the habit of placing “dishes”. On the quaint Baxian table, there are usually eight “dishes”, including withered shell peanuts, burnt-flavored fried sweet potato chips, sturdy pumpkin seeds, crispy Qiaoguo slices, and purple ocean nests. …all are home-made, appetizing and delicious green foods.

Why put eight plates? The locals say two meanings: one is that eight people sit at a table, which means that everyone has a share; the other is that the eight characters are auspicious numbers, and the locals believe in the creed of “eight on the table, there is wealth”.

When drinking Wuling Leicha, it is accompanied by fried noodles with rich local characteristics and specially made jars, which is called “take tea”. There are as few as a dozen kinds of tea, as many as forty-eight kinds, and it is very interesting to eat and drink.

The production of Jiexi Lei tea is not complicated. The main ingredient is rice or popcorn, but the ingredients are complicated. Put peanuts, sesame seeds, tea leaves, Jinbuhuan or bitter-spicy cores in a beating bowl, beat them into a paste with a tea stick, rinse with boiling water, and then fry some dried radishes, cabbage, green onions, shallots, soybeans, Vegetables, etc. Or add some lean shredded pork, shrimp rice, squid, etc., and finally mix cooked white rice (or popcorn).

Such Lei Cha tastes sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and salty, which is very appetizing and flavorful. Especially on the seventh day of the first lunar month every year, every household eats Leicha. Because it uses seven kinds of vegetables on the seventh day of the first lunar month, it is called “seven kinds of vegetable tea”.

After the preparation of Lei Cha, relatives and friends gathered around the table and drank the steaming Lei Cha. At this time, some melon and fruit refreshments, plus chatting from all over the world, are an extension of the happiness after the hands-on work of Lei Cha.

call for tea

In Jiangle, calling people to drink Leicha is called “calling Leicha”. In the local area, this is a bit of a rule: call the festival tea at four o’clock and eighth, call the reciprocal tea on weekdays, call the happy tea when there is a happy event, and call the thank-you tea when you ask for help. The hottest time for shouting Leicha was in mid-August. At this time, those who have been admitted to colleges and secondary schools, those who are recruiting, and those who have graduated are all shouting for tea, and the emphasis is on asking teachers. …

The main genres of Lei Cha

The production methods of Leicha vary from place to place, especially in the choice of ingredients. According to regions and ethnic groups, it can be divided into two categories: Hakka Leicha and Hunan (non-Hakka) Leicha.

For example, the folk Leicha in northwestern Fujian is made of tea leaves and an appropriate amount of sesame in a pottery Leicha, ground into fine powder with tea sticks, and then added with boiling water; Guangdong Qingyuan, Yingde, Shanwei, Jiexi, The Hakka Leicha drink by the Hakka people living in Puning and other places is made by putting the tea leaves into the tooth bowl (the Leicha pottery pot with lines on the inner wall) and pounding it into powder, adding cooked peanuts and sesame in turn, then rotating and pounding, and then adding Add a little salt and coriander, and brew it with hot boiling water; the Taohuayuan area in Hunan has a special custom of drinking sesame tea.

The tea, ginger and raw rice are crushed in a bowl made of hawthorn wood, and then poured into boiling water to drink. If you can put some sesame seeds and fine salt in it, the taste will be more fragrant and delicious.

When drinking Qin Ren Lei tea, one should take it while it is hot, and second, it should be swallowed slowly. Only in this way will one have a feeling of “nine ileums, refreshing and happy”; Hunan’s Taojiang Lei tea is mainly sesame and peanut, and it is crushed in a grinding bowl. After brewing with boiled water, add some sugar. Lei tea is thick and sticky after being made, the color is light brown, the aroma is fragrant, and the entrance is smooth and soft, sweet and refreshing. The preparation method is roughly the same as Taoyuan, but the eating method is different.

Taojiang Leicha is generally sweetened with sugar, making it a “sweet drink”. Taoyuan Leicha, on the other hand, contains salt, which is mostly “salty food”. When women in Taojiang become pregnant, they have a custom of drinking lei tea, saying that the more lei tea they drink, the fatter the baby will be.

When ordinary guests arrive, a spoonful of rice, a handful of fried beans, and mixed into the tea can be entertained. What is amazing is that Lei Cha does not exclude any “food”, and almost all foods can be added. Farming materials are very convenient. Peanuts, vermicelli, dried fruits, etc. should be cooked first, and then poured into the water; mushrooms, bamboo shoots, spices and meat should be fried separately; sesame rice flowers can be sprinkled directly into the tea. Mix well with a spoon and it’s ready. It can not only quench thirst, but also satisfy hunger. It is used for hospitality and is economical. The Hakka people are warm and hospitable, and people who eat lei tea often see a share. The more people eat, the more people eat, and the guests eat bowl after bowl.

Strictly speaking, it is not accurate to use the word “drink” to use the word “drink” or the word “eat” because drinking tea is to be chewed. Hakka people all use the word “food” to express. People who eat Leicha often have a share, and the more people they eat, the more people they eat.

If there are guests, especially female guests, the guests and the host should sit around the dinner table, and the neighbor housewife will not be invited, and bring all kinds of refreshments, such as fried peanuts. Salted beans, orange cakes, fried cakes, etc., are all placed on small plates, and the entire table is full of dazzling colors.

While offering tea in turn, the host frequently said, “Eat, eat”. The actions are enthusiastic, the voice is sweet, the love is warm, and the meaning is lingering. A tea banquet opens people’s hearts and communicates people’s emotions. . Everything seemed so smooth and natural, without any trace of artificiality. Such an atmosphere of “Xia Liba” is difficult to appreciate in a metropolis with “spring and snow”.