After breakfast, Chen Xu couldn't wait to call Niu Dashi, and then led by Xing'er to find the tea tree mentioned yesterday.

Twenty minutes later, I saw three huge tea trees in the mountains about a mile away from the entrance of the village.

The three tea trees are all waist-thick and more than 20 meters high. They are obviously ancient tea trees that have grown for hundreds of years. Although it is summer, there are still a large number of white camellias blooming on the trees, and a light fragrance can be smelled on the entire hillside.

The three tea trees are surrounded by thorns and miscellaneous trees, and there are also many large and small tea trees growing, and a thick layer of shriveled tea fruits fall on the ground.

Chen Xu picked a tender leaf from a small tea tree beside him and put it in his mouth for a while. In an instant, an extremely bitter smell spread in his mouth, and soon turned into a tea smell that was extremely familiar to later generations. His taste buds stretched out and his spirit was shocked.

"Good tea, good tea!" Chen Xu was so excited that his whole body began to tremble.

The quality of tea is not important to him. What is important is that as long as this thing is accepted, it will almost become an indispensable part of life and is the most important thing besides grain and salt.

And the most important thing is that tea has a stronger significance for the people on the grassland. Tea can be used to exchange a large number of cattle, sheep and horses from the grassland.

However, the premise is to get the tea out first. As for the issue of trading with the Huns, it is still apart from 100,800 miles. It not only requires a professional caravan, but also requires permission from Qin Shihuang and Qin Dadi.

Moreover, if Qin Shihuang knew the efficacy of tea, whether he would take tea as his own and turn it into strategic reserve materials was also a very serious problem.

But no matter what the result is, the appearance of tea is definitely the best news for Chen Xu after he traveled over.

"Brother Xu, is this what you are talking about?" Niu Dashi picked a piece of tea and stuffed it into his mouth in confusion as Chen Xu.

"Bah, it's bitter and astringent, so unpalatable!" Niu Dashi chewed it a few times and grinned and spit out.

"I know what, hurry up and pick some tender leaves! This is a good thing for us to make a fortune in the future!" Chen Xu said while making a demonstration, and soon picked a handful of them from a few small trees and placed them in the vine basket he brought.

These tea trees are not pruned very low like the tea trees specially planted in later tea gardens, but are in a very barbaric natural growth state. Each one grows like a small tree, with branches and leaves and thorns entangled together, so it is not easy to pick.

The three of them used their hands and feet together. After half an hour, they only picked three or five kilograms of tender leaves. Chen Xu and Niu Dashi were a little better. After all, they were not very tall or strong. They could still pick them, but Xing'er could only watch and worry.

"Brother Xu, do you want to go back and take a saw to cut down the largest tea trees and pick them slowly? It is estimated that it can make hundreds of kilograms!" Niu Dashi said to the three tall tea trees.

"You dare, every tea tree must be protected well. The small trees on the ground must not be damaged. Let's go, so many should be enough!"

Chen Xu looked at the fresh tea leaves in the vine basket and felt that it would be almost a pound of fried food, so he carried the vine basket home.

After arriving at home, Chen Xu reprocessed the picked tea leaves. He pinched the ones that were too long and shorter, and picked out the ones that were too old and threw them away.

Looking at Chen Xu's serious expression, Yu Wuya and Niu Dashi were full of expectations and doubts. He didn't know why Chen Xu was so interested in this bitter and astringent leaves, and would treat them so carefully. You should know that the various leaves all over the mountains and fields accounted for 80% of them, and the remaining 20% ​​were poisonous. Why was he so interested in this kind of tea leaves?

Chen Xu is basically an amateur when it comes to making tea.

But when I was a child, I saw my father stir-frying farm tea twice at home. The production method was simple and rough, but the basic process was roughly clear.

Originally, we had to use an iron pot to stir-fry tea, but there was no one at the moment, only the pottery pot, so Chen Xu could only put it in. When cleaning the tea leaves, Xing'er had already boiled the fire in the stove, and Chen Jiang's wallet was cleaned and placed on the stove to dry. After he cleaned the fresh tender leaves, he put the pottery pot on the stove and told Xing'er to reduce the fire. When the pottery pot was heated and felt very hot with his hands, he put about a pound of tea in it, and then stir-fry it quickly with his hands.

Fried tea is actually not complicated, but you must master the heat well and the action must be fast, especially during the finishing stage. At this time, the pot is hot and cannot make the tea and the pot come into contact for too long, otherwise the tea will become muddy soon, which will not only lead to nutrient loss, but also cause too poor taste.

Looking at Chen Xu's actions, everyone, including Chen Jiang, stood beside him and watched with wide eyes. I wonder why Chen Xu was so serious and serious when he was frying leaves.

Can such bitter leaves really be exchanged for money?

Even if fried tea can cure diseases and strengthen the body, how can it be sold? Will anyone accept it?

"Xing'er, half the heat!" After about ten minutes of frying, the tea leaves in the pottery pot began to soften and wilt, and a fragrant smell of fried green was also emitted. Chen Xu saw that it was almost done, so he ordered Xing'er to anneale to reduce the temperature of the pottery pot.

After finishing the fishing, it is kneaded. This step is not necessary. It is just to roll the tea leaves into strips to curl the leaves and reduce the volume, so that they can be better packaged and stored.

The temperature of the pottery basin has dropped a lot, but it still cannot be touched for a long time. I can only rub the wilted tea leaves with my hands while stirring quickly.

Soon after more than ten minutes, all the green tea leaves were rubbed and deformed, with some traces of green tea in later generations, and the color began to darken. The falling pound of tender tea leaves looked only one-third left.

"Xing'er, let the fire go halfway, but don't extinguish it!"

Chen Xu ordered again, and kept stir-frying the tea leaves faster with his hands. As time passed by, the tea leaves in the pottery pot slowly became dry and the color became darker and darker. At the same time, there was a very familiar tea fragrance emitting.

"Well, this smell makes people feel refreshed!" Yu Wuya was moved by the smell of tea. While admiring, his face became more and more strange, and his eyes became more and more confused when he looked at Chen Xu.
Chapter completed!