Chapter 23 drinking water

When God created man, it was obviously careless, or deliberately careless, let these poor creatures live on a planet that revolves stupidly around the sun. The fragile fate of dying.Compared with camels and tortoises, human beings are obviously much more pitiful.Fortunately, human beings have a better imagination than tortoises and camels. Millions of years later, in terms of food, human beings have reached the heavens and the earth, doing everything.It is estimated that when God comes to the world, if he is beautiful and delicious, he will be tried with a spoon and dagger by ignorant people.In terms of drinking, the development of human beings can be described as lackluster. The normal temperature liquid with the chemical formula H2O has become the most indispensable thing for human beings.

The world is divided into so many continents, and there were some inventions with the same purpose but the same effect during the period when they could not communicate with each other.Like religion, bows, kings, wars, swords, armor, and wine.Human beings have always been dissatisfied with the status quo. They eat when they are hungry, and they can eat leaves when the environment is difficult. Once an outbreak occurs, even the deer that eats the leaves and the tiger that eats the deer would like to cook them in different ways.And when it comes to wine, it is nothing more than the fermentation of grains or fruits, which has been caught by human beings.The Mesopotamians discovered beer, the Chinese Grandpa Yidi offered sorghum wine to Yu who was controlling the water, the grape farmers in Gaul discovered wine, and the barley farmers in Scotland invented whiskey .All of a sudden, these complex liquids rich in ethanol have become indispensable for people.Drinking only water is obviously shabby. This is called evolution.

However, wine as a thing makes people crazy, makes people crazy, gets carried away, and is not conducive to daily life.The Russians are in a state of vodka every day, and the Scots and Irish laugh at themselves as recognizing relatives after drinking and vomiting at the door of the hotel, but most of them live in bitter cold, and alcoholism and madness are not universal.Human beings are smart and discovered that soaking leaves in water can make the water taste more delicious. Arab brothers accidentally discovered that a certain kind of fruit is ground into powder and soaked in water can make people stay up late.These are the discoveries of people with the spirit of assiduous study.

The last time I saw a report, some Americans teased: Europeans should be grateful that the Chinese exported tea for them, and the Africans contributed coffee to them, otherwise, besides wine, they can only drink water now up. Like the rest of the aristocratic class in China, drinking tea became a culture when it became popular.According to the conclusions of modern experts, tea can refresh the mind, stimulate the nerves, and benefit the stomach. It is almost a panacea. effect.This is a later story.But Chinese people rarely talk about these things when they drink tea. The scholar-bureaucrats are reserved and elegant, just like seeing a beautiful girl who wants to marry home and become a concubine, but it cannot be said that in order to satisfy the great desire for love between men and women, they have to extend "unfilial piety" There are three ways to be great without descendants" to continue the flow of incense.Similarly, many of the practical effects of tea are vaguely reflected in the peaceful, far-reaching, elegant and leisurely feelings of Chinese scholar-bureaucrats.Tea became a symbol when it came time. Lu Yu said that tea is cold in nature and suitable for people with poor conditions, so it was marked with character.Shennong probably scratched his head when he heard this: Grandpa, I was looking for grass leaves all over the ground to eat, but I didn't think tea was so sacred; I accidentally overdid the excellent tea, and I didn't provoke the wrath of the sky and people to complain about the thunderbolt.

The old cadres of my grandfather's generation are very particular.To drink tea, you must first have good dishes, new tea, pure water, good charcoal, and a good stove. You can’t wait for spring water and a clear boat. After making tea, the boiled tea should be pure and elegant, light and elegant.People in my grandfather's generation paid attention to alcoholic beverages that should be full-bodied and long-lasting, while ordinary people were not particular about drinking alcohol, and they also required pure alcoholic beverages.Mixed with water, the drinkers will have something to say, and they will have an excuse to run on the shopkeeper.

Up to now, tea and wine have begun to be mixed with fruit juice and condiments. People who don't like it will inevitably feel impure and lose the tradition.In fact, this is more or less a restoration of tradition. In Lu Yu’s time, Chinese people drank tea with salt; in Tang Dynasty, Chinese people were very fond of drinking matcha—this habit is still in Japan today, and the matcha mills and tea whisks are made by traditional craftsmen; the tea that people in Song Dynasty drank, There are also many spices added, which have a strange smell and smell. In "Water Margin", Wang Po made Ximen Qing's tea, adding dried fruits such as pine nuts, so-called "order a cup of tea for a thick one".In the tea, the multi-eyed monster also made jujubes in the tea that Tang monk and his disciples drank.It can be seen that fruit tea, salt tea and the like have existed since ancient times, but after the Ming Dynasty, scholars and bureaucrats liked to drink fresh ones.Many anecdotes in the Republic of China said that there used to be old tea drinkers in Beijing, but they didn't like to drink the fresh tea, but liked to drink the fragrant slices of double smoked tea.This is to get rid of the pure scholar-official spirit, and still return to the true nature of tea-it is meant to be drunk, so it has to have a distinct taste.

The British love to drink black tea, but there is nothing they can do about it.For example, in the past, the Tubo people drank tea bricks, probably because of the tea-horse trade, and tea had to be stored for storage before it could be transported.Green tea has not been fermented, and it is unknown what it looks like when it is shipped from China to Europe, so it has to be made into black tea for sale. Black tea is delicate and fresh, not as good as green tea, but fortunately, it is milder and more mellow than coffee. Therefore, how Europeans add milk, sugar, bergamot and oranges is universal, and it has become a worldwide drink.Green tea is a sharp and clear girl, and black tea is a graceful and mature lady.The former is as bright as a diamond, and the latter is as gentle as a precious jade. Each has its own strengths, but the latter is suspected to be more oriental and subtle.

Europeans have many different ways of drinking.Drink wine with water, drink whiskey with ice, and Poles drink shochu, adding lemon juice and ginger juice to it.Wine tasting is a very deep way and requires a special license.Those wine tasters in Europe who can tell the winery, year, grape harvest season climate, backlighting or not with a sip are the same as some master chefs in Guangdong teahouses who can tell the year of origin after a sip of tea. They are all in my mind. god man.Of course, they all want to drink pure ones, and they may not bother to drink mixed and fancy drinks.Adding ingredients to wine is also available in China.Ximenqing served shochu soaked in jasmine, and the girls and Baoyu ate crabs, as well as shochu soaked in acacia flowers.Nowadays, rice wine in Jiangnan with shredded ginger and rock sugar, and Chengdu’s heart-pounding boiled beer are actually improvements of ancient methods.It can be seen from this that the world is in harmony.Everything that tastes good has been invented a long time ago.