Li Meiying, the legendary leaver： ＂I just like making tea all my life!＂

Legendary leaver Li Meiying

The soul of cooked tea is fermentation. In today’s cooked tea market, the identity of the cooked tea leaver has been recognized by more and more people, and he has gradually changed from a micro-fermentation worker in the era of state-owned tea factories to a pathfinder of fermentation technology and a scientist of microbial engineering. They are active in the front line of tea making, and constantly have a "dialogue" with tea, microorganisms, flavor and market. Let’s approach the legendary leaver Li Meiying and listen to her story.

Compared with many tea makers, Li Meiying, who is indifferent to fame and fortune, has always been relatively low-key.

However, among some old tea drinkers, especially senior consumers of cooked tea, Li Meiying has no shortage of loyal fans.

This legendary leaver, who is honored as "the 85-year-old woman", won the title of "Tea King" at the Kunming Tea Expo in 2006, and sold 100 grams at a high price of 220,000 yuan.

Become attached to tea

In December 1945, Li Meiying was born in Lancang Lahu Autonomous County. In 1966, in order to develop agriculture, Lancang county government established Jingmai tea training class on Jingmai Mountain. Li Meiying, who was in her early twenties, was selected into this tea training class and began her lifelong love affair with tea.

Due to the difficult living conditions of the tea training class, many students have to work for more than ten hours every day and still have not enough to eat. At the end of the three-month course, the number of students has dropped sharply from more than 100 to more than 30. Li Meiying remembers that because there were many wild animals such as black bears on Jingmai Mountain at that time, and there were sometimes "bad guys" near the border, the students had to take turns to stand guard with guns.

As the same group of students who entered the tea training class, Li Meiying and Du Chunsong, the chairman of Lancang Ancient Tea Co., Ltd., lived together at that time, and they formed a deep sisterhood. She recalled: "The two of us are so honest that we will stand guard honestly no matter how late!" This honest attitude towards life also runs through the tea career of the two old people all their lives.

After the course, the tea training class was not dissolved, and it continued to be stationed in Jingmai Mountain in the form of tea training class. Students rely on the skills they have learned to raise tea seeds, branches, grow tea and make tea on Jingmai Mountain. At that time, the tea seedlings of the tea training class were sold all over Lancang County, even Simao.

Explore fermentation technology

Wang Yongtai, Li Meiying’s husband, is the first batch of professional tea planting and processing technicians trained in Yunnan Province after the founding of New China. In 1976, under the preparation of Wang Yongtai, Lancang Tea Factory was built. In 1978, Lancang County Tea Factory arranged for Li Meiying, who worked in the Examination Department, to study the fermentation technology of cooked tea in Menghai Tea Factory. At that time, the pile fermentation of cooked tea was a state secret technology, and it was not something you wanted to learn. Li Meiying only learned a little. "Work hard and suffer" is Wang Yongtai’s evaluation of Li Meiying. After returning to Lancang, Li Meiying kept trying according to what she saw, learned and understood about tea, and finally completely mastered the fermentation technology of cooked tea, and the technology became more and more mature, and the quality of fermented cooked tea became better and better. She also grew from a technician and reviewer to a technical section chief and chief engineer of Lancang County Tea Factory. With the development of fermentation technology, the cooked loose tea produced by Lancang County Tea Factory for export was commended by the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade in 1983.

Just be a tea waiter all your life

In 1998, Lancang County Tea Factory was restructured into Lancang County Ancient Tea Co., Ltd.; In 1999, Li Meiying officially retired. Li Meiying and Du Chunyu have been sisters for more than 30 years since she went to Jingmai Mountain to study tea in 1966. Li Meiying’s "Hugh" did not actually retire, and she was rehired by Gucha Company to continue to be responsible for technology and R&D work.

After the restructuring, Lancang ancient tea began to glow with new vitality, and Li Meiying also ushered in the peak of her life achievements after retirement. Under the "perfect combination" of Li Meiying and Du Chunsong, star products such as Lancang ancient tea 0085 cooked tea and 001 raw tea have come out one after another. In 2006, at the Kunming Tea Expo, the palace cooked loose tea was rated as the "tea king", and the price of 100 grams was 220,000 yuan.

With the continuous recovery of the Pu ‘er tea market, Li Meiying has been invited to Shanghai, Beijing and other places to attend various Pu ‘er tea promotion activities, and served as an expert as a jury member of the "World Pu ‘er Folk Tea Fight" and "Beijing Badachu Pu ‘er Tea Folk Tea Fight" and other activities, contributing to the promotion and popularization of Pu ‘er tea.

In 2007, due to her health, Li Meiying had to take a break from fermentation for more than 40 years to recuperate. However, many tea people come to the door, hoping that she can give technical guidance to ferment cooked tea. After recovering almost, Li Meiying devoted herself to her tea career.

"I just like making tea." When she said this, her eyes sparkled with light, which was the joy of silently sticking to it.

"Doing everything yourself" is Li Meiying’s most sincere care for tea. Even though she is now over 70 years old, she has to do it herself before each fermentation, carefully cleaning the fermentation workshop from the doors and windows to the corners and making the whole pile by herself. After the pile is ready for fermentation, you should look after it twice a day in the morning and evening, grab a smell and keep abreast of the fermentation.

Li Meiying still uses traditional bulk fermentation, with fermentation time of more than 60 days, moderate fermentation and slightly raw leaf bottom. She explained that Pu ‘er tea has the characteristics of getting more fragrant as it ages. Moderate fermentation is to reserve a certain aging space for cooked tea, because cooked tea will continue to transform.

"The degree of fermentation is related to time, but it also has a great relationship with the process, mainly the control of water." How much water to add each time and how high the pile is are the key technologies for fermenting cooked tea. According to the accumulated experience for many years, Li Meiying will adjust the pile height and water quantity according to the raw materials, weather and other conditions. Even if it is the same pile, the pile height is different every time it is turned over, sometimes it is higher and sometimes it is shorter, which has the mystery of Li Meiying’s mature tea fermentation technology for more than 40 years.

This is an innovation accumulated by more than 40 years of experience in cooked tea fermentation, and it is also the subtlety of Li Meiying’s cooked tea fermentation. Because the raw materials are different, the water content of tea is different, and the amount of tidal water and water supplement between different raw materials is also different, which need to be controlled more accurately. Li Meiying emphasized that the fermentation of cooked tea should believe in science and the water content should be well controlled. She believes that the key technical points of cooked tea fermentation are fermentation water, pile height and tidal volume, especially the amount of water supplement during the third pile turning.

Due to her advanced age, in recent years, Li Meiying has only helped familiar tea people ferment cooked tea in a small range. In order to let tea lovers who like Li Meiying’s cooked tea drink the cooked tea fermented by her and inherit her fermented technology, Li Meiying’s daughter Wang Tao founded the brand of "Meiying Pu ‘er".

"A mountain, a piece of tea, a lifetime; Enriched feelings, faded grievances and became a legend. " This is Li Meiying’s son-in-law’s evaluation of her.

Author | Duan Zhaoshun/Wen Meiying Pu ‘er Zi Han/Figure

Compilation | Su Li Cao Qihan

Li Yan

Original title: "legendary leaver Li Meiying:" I just like making tea all my life! " 》