千年茶香指間留

◇ 文 |本刊記者 圖 |

4月12日上午，巴南二圣山茶園里，一位老人戴著草帽，俯下身子，仔細觀察著茶葉的長勢。在他身后，連片的茶山間云霧繚繞，蔚為壯觀。

老人名叫陳樹福，今年61歲，是市級非物質文化遺產項目“巴南茶葉制作技藝”代表性傳承人。

祖輩世代都在二圣茶山上以茶為生，這使得陳樹福從小耳濡目染，采茶、制茶的技藝幾乎就是他與生俱來的一部分。40多年來，每當新春茶樹抽出第一抹嫩芽，陳樹福就會守在山上，一直到五月初，春茶采摘季結束。

In the morning of April 12, an old man, wearing a straw hat, leaned forward and carefully observed the growth of tea at the Ershengshan Tea Garden in Banan District. Behind him was the spectacular view of stretches of tea hills shrouded in the mist and clouds.

The old man was Chen Shufu, 61 years old,the representative inheritor of "Banan Tea Making Techniques" of the municipal intangible cultural heritage project .

His ancestors used to make a living from tea production on the Ersheng tea hills, which allowed Chen Shufu to be exposed to tea production techniques and made it all natural to him. For more than 40 years,whenever the first tender buds of tea trees were about to sprout, Chen Shufu would stay on the hills until early May when the harvest season of spring tea ended.

“茶葉三天內是寶，三天后是草。”陳樹福必須隨時關注茶葉的長勢，以確保每一片葉子都能在最合適的時機被采摘。

"Tea buds are treasures within three days of sprouting, but would be reduced to grass after that."Chen Shufu had to watch closely the growth of tea leaves so as to ensure that every leaf could be picked at the best time.

在許多外人看來，手工采茶、炒茶或許是件雅事，但其中的辛苦，只有專業的制茶人最有感觸：一捧茶葉雖輕，但經年累月憑一雙赤手在炙熱的鍋中翻炒，絕沒有想象中的詩情畫意。

“炒茶的第一個步驟叫做殺青，也就是用高溫去除鮮葉中的水分和青草味，這樣茶葉才能長久保存。”

當鐵鍋的溫度達到300攝氏度左右時，新鮮茶葉被倒入鍋中，陳樹福手掌朝下，從鍋底抓起茶葉，迅速翻轉手掌搖晃，讓茶葉均勻散開落回鍋里……

“新鮮的茶葉非常脆弱，在高溫下，幾秒鐘的差異，就能影響茶葉的品質。炒的時間稍長，茶葉會過熱變黃；時間稍短，就不能去除茶葉中剩余的水分……”

炒茶師傅只能依靠經驗，用手心感受茶葉微妙的變化，來準確把握溫度和時機。這需要長年累月的訓練。陳樹福攤開手掌，40多年的制茶歲月，就深深烙印在那一手又厚又硬的老繭中。