The fragrance of my hometown

The people open the door "seven things", wood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. Welcome a wisp of mountain wind, boil a pot of hot tea, carefully tasting a bite, how pleasant it is.

My hometown in the Yimeng Mountains of Shandong Province, the villagers have the habit of drinking tea in the morning, especially the older people, which is a must. "Cold night guests come tea as wine, bamboo stove soup boiling fire first red." Tea fusion of family and friendship, treating guests to tea has become the etiquette of rural and urban homes in the Yimeng Mountains.

The original poor living conditions in the countryside, I remember that in the early years, the villagers drink big bowls of tea, and then the rise of enamel tea jars, some directly onto the stove burn. At the time of wheat harvest, some use the iron pot for cooking tea, into the wooden basket or iron bucket stretched to the ground. Later, the conditions were better, tea also sophisticated up, many people with the more fashionable "fast pot" boiling water bubble tea.

Fast pot, a boiling water tool in the rural areas of the Yimeng Mountains, is basically not seen today. It is made of aluminum skin all over. The bottom three legs, the main body of the pot is cylindrical, the middle of the vertical conical liner on the thin and thick, but also the pipe. Between the outer aluminum skin and the pipe can hold one or two ladles of water, covered with an aluminum cover, both sanitary and thermal insulation. One side of the pot is the spout, the other side is the handle. Available firewood, roots, sticks or crop straw for fuel, lit on fire from the top and down into the pipe, a moment to hear the sound of water and boiling sound. After the water boils, first pour off the mouth of the pot of water that does not open, and then pour it into the thermos, and then rushed into the teapot with good tea leaves, smothered for a few minutes, you can pour out the tea fragrant tea.

I remember one year "May Day" holiday, my wife and children and I returned home to the Yimeng Mountains, Li Jiaquan village. Just after dawn, the sound of roosters crowing in the courtyard, the sound of croaking bellows and the crackling of firewood burning in the fast pot, woke me up. I rushed to get up, only to see my grandfather sitting on a wooden pier, using an axe to chop an old acacia wood to fill the quick pot, to boil water to make tea. My father had just returned two buckets of fresh spring water, washing the teapot and tea bowl. Mother was busy making breakfast.

"This is the new tea fried in our village, let's try it." My father handed me a packet of tea wrapped in rough kraft paper, I carefully opened, a faint smell of tea came to me. I began to put tea leaves into the teapot, pouring boiling water according to the rules demonstrated by elders. When the tea leaves in the teapot smothered for a few minutes, the first half bowl of tea poured back into the teapot, gently shaking, and then with a dragonfly point of water first "point", and then raise the teapot while pouring tea, diffused over half a tea bowl on the good. The tea was bright yellow-green, fragrant and inviting, and I brought the first bowl with both hands to my grandfather who was proudly watching me pour the tea. Grandpa stroked his beard, happy to take a sip, hot and a jolt. I was shocked, grandpa still praised: "good tea, good." Then I poured a bowl of tea for each member of the family in turn. Accustomed to "light tea" family, the small courtyard immediately tea fragrance lingering, laughter. This pot of hot tea, the morning of this mountain village soaked warmth.

Our village east, north and west of the three sides of the mountain, especially the east side of the north and south of the mountain cloudy, where the climate, soil and other natural conditions suitable for long tea. Over the years, people's taste in life has improved, drinking tea is becoming more and more sophisticated. Planting tea, selling tea has become an important livelihood of our village folks. The village is surrounded by lush, vibrant tea plantations, out of the door can see the bright green eye-catching tea bushes. Qingming season, smooth and oily tea buds swaying in the spring breeze and spring rain. The tip of the tea buds, crystal water droplets, flashing a shimmering light.

Whether back in my hometown or in the field, whether it is busy with work or leisurely reading and writing, I have developed the habit of drinking a cup of authentic hometown tea every day. Every morning, with the first rays of sunlight, boil a pot of hometown tea. Boiling tea such as clouds rolling, the flavor of the room, sweet and mellow. The moment the tea enters, I feel connected to the hometown blood, roots and veins connected, body and mind a moment of clarity and clarity.

Hometown, so I can not forget, not only this pot of hot tea ah!