正宗传统正味铁观音

我从小生活在福建安溪的铁观音茶区，每次寒暑假或者铁观音茶季回到老家，总能听到人们讨论和茶叶相关的事情，诸如这个茶季收成如何，谁家做的茶卖出了好价格，是不是又该客土施肥了……铁观音早已和当地人的生活融为一体。

2018年茶季我回到村里，却发现茶农表现出了更多的犹疑和焦虑。这固然是受到了铁观音消费市场萎缩的影响，但更多的是，他们对于市场想要什么样的茶，以及自己应该如何做茶感到深深的迷茫。甚至有不少茶农抛弃了茶山，进城务工。

何以至此？当我把这个问题抛给村民时，他们毫无例外地会谈到当时销毁压茶机的事件。

被抛弃的压茶机

铁观音制作工序繁琐，初制涉及采青、晒青、做青（凉青+摇青）、杀青（炒青）、揉捻、包揉、干燥等工序，精制包括拣梗、筛分、拼配、焙火等流程。农户一般负责初制，初制过程中包揉这道工序耗时最长且十分费力。在传统的半机械制作中，杀青后的100斤茶叶要分成6个茶包进行包揉，每个茶包最少要经过10次以上的解松再包揉，这个环节至少要花费茶农6个小时以上。

●铁观音初制工序图解。图片来自网络

而压茶机（全称“茶叶压揉成型机”）集揉捻为一体，只需将杀青后的茶叶倒入压茶机入口，启动电源，2分钟即可揉压一遍，花20分钟即可完成此道工序，极大地减少了人力成本。压茶机压制出来的茶叶外形与包揉机揉出的茶叶在外观上没有直观的差别，甚至比一般的半机械成形更匀整。由于机械成形有利于提升茶叶产制标准化及提高生产效率，因此2010年左右压茶机在政府的助推下进入市场，并逐步被更多茶农接受。

然而随着铁观音市场日渐低迷，官方话语发生了极大的转变。自2016年秋茶季以来，县委、县政府先后出台了一系列整治压茶机的文件，严厉打击压茶机的使用。当地政府认为，用压茶机代替包揉机进行茶叶塑形，简单地用巨大压力从四周将茶叶压制成形，与国家标准《地理标志产品安溪铁观音》的技艺要求相违背，颠覆了安溪铁观音传统制作工艺，与工匠精神和消费者需求背道而驰，严重影响了县茶叶品牌的形象。

●2006年发布的《地理标志产品 安溪铁观音》国家标准中虽然强调铁观音要用“独特的传统加工工艺”制作，但并未对其做出进一步说明。

原本被认为是制茶高效助手，能让茶叶更加圆结、翠绿的机器，现在变成了具有“极大危害性”的、需要被立马拔除的“毒瘤”。2016-2017年县委出台的一系列文件规定：凡是有压茶机的要回收销毁，所有的“压制茶”一旦被发现便没收，若是包庇或未能完成任务的，村干部就地免职、镇干部也相应追责。在雷厉风行的打压下，许多茶农只好抛弃制茶，选择外出谋生。

●农户家里被查封及毁坏弃用的压茶机，一台压茶机市场价2万多，加上全部配套工具（如打散的机子）需要3-4万不等。

“传统加工工艺”谁说了算？

政府认为压茶机使得安溪茶没有“观音韵”，做出来的茶不再是“真观音”，但茶农自己对于茶的“韵味”却有自己的理解。他们认为，茶叶滋味的正宗性首要在于它的品种和制作工艺。而最能定义乌龙茶的制作工艺是发酵，也就是铁观音工艺中的“做青”。

做青是摇青和凉青交替的制作过程，对茶叶品质的成形起着决定性作用。安溪茶区流行着“看天做茶，看茶做茶”的俗语，仅摇青过程就有“五看”之说。根据季节、天气、品种、鲜叶老嫩程度和晒青程度的不同，来决定摇青的时间长短和力度轻重。摇青后还要观察茶青的发酵程度，发酵适宜则需要马上进行杀青。茶农认为做青环节和杀青时间的把握就基本上为茶叶品质定了性，而压茶机只是一个做形的过程，和茶叶品质固然相关，但仅是次要的因素。

另外，传统制作工艺也是一个动态变化的过程，不能简单地以“是否使用机器”作为判断标准。比如在压茶机出现之前，茶农们就已经用平板机和揉茶机代替了用脚包揉茶叶。因此，他们常常对回归传统的说法不置可否：“茶（的制作）总是在变的……我记得我小时候吧，家里摆个宽宽长长的大木板凳，用脚包揉茶叶的。到我可能上小学的时候，或者更大一些，才有我们后来的平板机和揉茶机。那现在包揉就是压茶机。你说传统传统，回到大木板凳算是传统？”在茶农眼中，机器与手工艺并不是截然对立的，因为使用机器的经验和手工制茶的经验一样，需要日积月累的拿捏和把握。

●传统铁观音制作工艺中的包揉环节又可细分为初包揉和复包揉。绘图©潘文龙/泉州集邮文化

因此，技艺的现代与传统或许并非问题的关键，更值得探讨的是这些技艺以什么样的形态嵌入当下农民及农村的社会生活，又如何生产与再生产着他们与土地、与自身、与村庄的关系。

在城市化的进程中，原本携带技艺的茶农大部分已经离开了村庄，在城市谋生，想让他们回归并不容易。而留在当地的茶农，由于长期与机器打交道，也渐渐丧失了传统的技艺。最重要的是，原本支撑传统茶叶工艺的社区支持网络消失了，手工生产所需求的密集劳动已经不再可能，机器不可避免地成为茶农从事生产的必需品。在这种情况下，抵制机制茶和毁坏机器，只会让更多的茶农离开土地，进一步抛弃自己的技艺。

多样化种植：生产者的逻辑

压茶机事件给整个茶区带来不小的震动，茶农的悲观情绪也感染了我。而2019、2020年我再次回到安溪研究地方产业治理的时候，却发现那些还留在村里从事茶叶生产的茶农，很快就从之前的事件中恢复了过来，他们根据农时安排和市场需求，灵活调整自己的茶叶生产。其中一种典型的做法是，保留更多的本地品种，并由此延伸出其他茶叶品类的制作。

●因地因时制宜的多样化种植，是传统茶区的常见操作。

安溪茶树品种资源丰富，据不完全统计，县域内共有64个茶树品种，原生茶树品种亦超过30个，而铁观音只是众多品种中的一种，种植的地域范围也相当有限。为了打造地方品牌，上世纪90年代中期起，地方政府便开始着力于铁观音基地的建设，推广单一核心品种的规模化种植：一是新开的茶园全部种植铁观音，二是将茶园的其他茶树品种替换成铁观音。在这个过程中，铁观音逐渐被认定为安溪茶中最正宗的一个品种。

●1953年安溪县茶叶指导站对安溪茶产制及运销展开调查，发现即便是最适合种植铁观音的西坪尧阳，铁观音的种植面积尚不及五分之一。

但有意思的是，即便是在铁观音市场最火热的时期（据2007年安溪茶厂数据，特级铁观音毛茶收购价150-600元/公斤，特级色种茶收购价13-15元/公斤），茶农也并未全部种植铁观音，还留有相当部分的“色种茶”（小品种制作的成品茶）。原因非常简单：茶叶生产需要考虑到农时安排，不同茶叶品种成熟期和持嫩性不一样，茶农需要搭配不同茶叶品种以延长茶季的生产期。

虽然主流的声音认为铁观音在安溪最正宗，但具体到不同的乡镇，农民会认为本地的特色品种，比如芦田的梅占，蓝田的大叶乌龙、大坪的毛蟹等，比铁观音更正宗。我在田野期间，经常听到茶农和茶商说，某乡镇的地土不太适合种铁观音，但那边的毛蟹品种做成的乌龙茶质量很不错。在铁观音市场低迷的时候，一些适制性广的本地茶叶品种，可以制作成红茶、白茶等，依托铁观音市场二十几年来建立起来的茶商网络，销往全国各地。

●芦田茶农将梅占制成红茶，称为“梅占红”。

●大坪的茶商将毛蟹制成发酵程度较高的乌龙茶，取名为“银毫美人”。

小农户-中间商-大市场

来自茶产区的茶商在沟通生产端和消费端上起着不可替代的作用。他们一方面连接茶农，一方面直接面向消费者，源源不断地将家乡的茶叶卖到全国各地。

20世纪90年代以来，乌龙茶在整个大陆市场消费量急剧增长，直接推动力源自安溪茶区商人在全国各地的推广。1990年代开始，安溪茶逐渐打开北方市场，如北京、西安、沈阳等地，改变了安溪乌龙茶“只销南不销北”的局面。从2000年起，安溪茶农开始将铁观音茶店开到全国各地，截至2007年，安溪人在全国各大中城市开设的茶店、茶馆等3万多家，有10万多的茶商在在全国各地经销安溪茶叶，形成了“无安不成市、无铁不成店”的茶市格局。

●北京马连道及福丽特茶城等茶叶市场里有许多来自安溪的茶商，均是90年代末期及2000年代初期来京。其中有多数茶铺维持至今。

虽然在对接大市场时，分散生产的小农户无法“统一生产、品牌直销”，保证产品质量的稳定性。但是就茶叶消费而言，不同地区的口味偏好各不相同，例如闽南和潮汕地区青睐正味和浓香型铁观音，而消青铁观音在山东、北京等地更受欢迎。有了中间商作为桥梁，茶农可以根据客户的口味来调整制作。

为了应对消费市场多元化，许多茶叶店也开始了多元化经营，从乌龙茶拓展到红茶、白茶、绿茶、黑茶等品类，这些口味和行情传导到茶叶生产区，让茶农的灵活生产成为可能。

农民的“时变”

最初进入茶区做田野调查的时候，我深受汉学家艾约博（Jacob Eyferth）《以竹为生》的影响。他在书中批判了这样一种对农民形象的看法，即认为农民的生活总是根植于土地并囿于土地，甚至农民就是土地。

艾约博认为，农民与土地之间的关系，并不比其他生产者与生产资料的关系更为直接，更为“浑然天成”。土地产出产品的过程、产品转化成商品的过程都要求技能的介入。当农民丧失自己赖以生存的技能之后，其与土地的关系也难以持续。

我在铁观音茶区的观察让我更加确信这一点。相比政府回归传统、大规模推广正宗品种的策略，茶农的生产实践更为灵活。他们并不似我们想象地那般囿于机器，也并不囿于某种特定的手艺。茶农们擅长因时、因地、因人制宜地调整自己的生产制作，和对特定资源、技艺和关系的使用。长久来看，这种自然生长的“时变”逻辑更能适应复杂多变、多层次的真实市场。

I have lived in the Tieguanyin tea area in Anxi, Fujian since I was a child. Every time I go back to my hometown during winter and summer vacations or tea seasons, I can always hear people discussing things related to tea, such as how the harvest is in this tea season, and whose tea is sold. Good price, is it time to fertilize the soil again... Tieguanyin has long been integrated with the lives of the locals.

When I returned to the village during the 2018 tea season, I found that the tea farmers showed more hesitation and anxiety. This is of course affected by the shrinking Tieguanyin consumer market, but more importantly, they are deeply confused about what kind of tea the market wants and how they should make tea. There are even many tea farmers who have abandoned the tea mountain and moved to the city to work.

How come? When I threw this question to the villagers, they invariably talked about the destruction of the tea press at that time.

Abandoned tea press

The production process of Tieguanyin is complicated. The initial production involves picking greens, drying greens, making greens (cool greens + shaking greens), killing greens (fried greens), kneading, wrapping and drying. Refining includes picking stems, screening, and blending. , roasting and other processes. Farmers are generally responsible for the initial production. During the initial production process, the process of wrapping and kneading takes the longest and is very labor-intensive. In the traditional semi-mechanical production, the 100 catties of tea leaves are divided into 6 tea bags for kneading. Each tea bag needs to be loosened and kneaded for at least 10 times. This link takes at least 6 hours for the tea farmers. above.

● Diagram of the initial production process of Tieguanyin. Pictures from the Internet

The tea press (full name "tea pressing and kneading machine") integrates rolling and rolling. Just pour the green tea leaves into the entrance of the tea press, turn on the power, and knead and press once in 2 minutes, and it can be completed in 20 minutes. This process greatly reduces labor costs. There is no intuitive difference in the appearance of the tea leaves pressed by the tea press and the tea leaves kneaded by the bag kneading machine, and even more uniform than the general semi-mechanical forming. Because mechanical forming is conducive to improving the standardization of tea production and improving production efficiency, tea presses entered the market around 2010 with the help of the government, and were gradually accepted by more tea farmers.

However, as the Tieguanyin market is increasingly sluggish, the official discourse has undergone a great change. Since the autumn tea season in 2016, the county party committee and the county government have successively issued a series of documents to rectify tea presses, and severely crack down on the use of tea presses. The local government believes that the use of tea presses instead of kneading machines to shape tea leaves and simply pressing the tea leaves from the surrounding area with huge pressure is contrary to the technical requirements of the national standard "Geographical Indication Products Anxi Tieguanyin" and subverts Anxi iron The traditional production process of Guanyin is contrary to the spirit of craftsmen and the needs of consumers, which has seriously affected the image of the county's tea brand.

●The national standard of "Geographical Indication Products Anxi Tieguanyin" issued in 2006 emphasized that Tieguanyin should be made with "unique traditional processing technology", but did not make any further explanation.

Originally considered to be an efficient assistant for tea making, a machine that can make tea leaves more round and green, now it has become a "greatly harmful" "cancer" that needs to be removed immediately. A series of documents issued by the county party committee in 2016-2017 stipulated that all tea presses should be recycled and destroyed, and all "pressed tea" should be confiscated once found. Officials are also held accountable. Under the resolute suppression, many tea farmers had to abandon tea production and choose to go out to make a living.

●The tea press at the farmer's house was sealed up, destroyed and discarded. The market price of a tea press is more than 20,000 yuan, plus all the supporting tools (such as the broken machine) cost 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.

Who is in charge of "traditional processing technology"?

The government believes that the tea press makes Anxi tea without the "Guanyin charm", and the tea produced is no longer "true Guanyin", but the tea farmers themselves have their own understanding of the "flavor" of tea. They believe that the authenticity of the taste of tea lies primarily in its variety and production process. The most defining process of making oolong tea is fermentation, that is, "doing green" in the Tieguanyin process.

Making green is an alternate production process of shaking green and cool green, which plays a decisive role in the formation of tea quality. There is a popular saying in Anxi tea area, "see the sky to make tea, see the tea to make tea", and there is a saying of "five sees" in the process of shaking the green. Depending on the season, weather, variety, the degree of freshness and tenderness of fresh leaves and the degree of drying, the length of time and the intensity of shaking are determined. After shaking the green tea, it is necessary to observe the degree of fermentation of the tea green. If the fermentation is suitable, it needs to be killed immediately. Tea farmers believe that the control of the greening process and the time of finishing greening basically determines the quality of tea, while the tea press is only a shaping process, which is related to the quality of tea, but it is only a secondary factor.

In addition, the traditional production process is also a dynamic process, and "whether a machine is used" cannot simply be used as a judgment standard. For example, before the advent of tea presses, tea farmers have used tablet machines and tea kneading machines instead of kneading tea leaves with their feet. Therefore, they are often noncommittal about the return to tradition: "Tea (the production) is always changing... I remember when I was a child, there was a large wooden bench that was wide, wide and long, and I used my feet to knead the tea leaves. Maybe when I was in elementary school, or a little bigger, we had the tablet machine and the tea kneading machine. Now the bag kneading is a tea press. You say traditional tradition, returning to a large wooden bench is a tradition?" In the eyes of tea farmers, the machine It is not diametrically opposed to handicraft, because the experience of using machines is the same as the experience of hand-made tea, which needs to be accumulated and grasped over time.

●The process of wrapping and kneading in the traditional Tieguanyin production process can be further subdivided into initial wrapping and double wrapping. Drawing © Pan Wenlong/Quanzhou Philatelic Culture

Therefore, the modernity and tradition of craftsmanship may not be the key to the problem. What is more worthy of discussion is the form in which these craftsmanship is embedded in the current social life of farmers and rural areas, and how they produce and reproduce their relationship with the land, themselves, and the village. relation.

In the process of urbanization, most of the tea farmers who originally carried the skills have left the villages to make a living in the cities, and it is not easy for them to return. The tea farmers who stayed in the area gradually lost their traditional skills due to their long-term dealings with machines. Most importantly, the community support network that originally supported traditional tea craftsmanship disappeared, the intensive labor required for manual production was no longer possible, and machines inevitably became a necessity for tea farmers to engage in production. In this case, boycotting machine-made tea and destroying machines will only make more tea farmers leave the land and further abandon their craftsmanship.

Diversification: The Logic of Producers

The tea press incident brought a lot of shock to the entire tea area, and the pessimism of the tea farmers also infected me. In 2019 and 2020, when I returned to Anxi to study local industrial governance, I found that those tea farmers who remained in the village to engage in tea production quickly recovered from the previous incident. Flexibility to adjust your own tea production. One of the typical practices is to keep more local varieties and extend the production of other tea categories.

●Diversified planting according to local conditions is a common operation in traditional tea areas.

Anxi is rich in tea tree varieties. According to incomplete statistics, there are 64 tea tree varieties in the county, and there are more than 30 native tea tree varieties. Tieguanyin is only one of many varieties, and the geographical scope of planting is quite limited. In order to build a local brand, since the mid-1990s, local governments have begun to focus on the construction of Tieguanyin bases and promote the large-scale planting of a single core variety: first, all newly opened tea gardens are planted with Tieguanyin, and second, other tea gardens are planted with Tieguanyin. The tea tree variety was replaced with Tieguanyin. During this process, Tieguanyin was gradually recognized as the most authentic variety of Anxi tea.

●In 1953, Anxi County Tea Guidance Station conducted an investigation on the production and distribution of Anxi tea, and found that even in Yaoyang, Xiping, which is the most suitable for planting Tieguanyin, the planting area of Tieguanyin is less than one-fifth.

But what is interesting is that even in the hottest period of the Tieguanyin market (according to the data of Anxi Tea Factory in 2007, the purchase price of premium Tieguanyin Mao tea was 150-600 yuan/kg, and the purchase price of premium colored tea was 13-15 yuan/kg) However, the tea farmers did not all plant Tieguanyin, and still had a considerable part of "color tea" (finished tea made from small varieties). The reason is very simple: tea production needs to take into account the arrangement of the agricultural season. Different tea varieties have different maturity and tenderness. Tea farmers need to match different tea varieties to prolong the production period of the tea season.

Although the mainstream voices believe that Tieguanyin is the most authentic in Anxi, in different townships, farmers will think that local special varieties, such as Meizhan in Lutian, Daye Oolong in Lantian, and hairy crab in Daping, are more authentic than Tieguanyin. . When I was in the field, I often heard tea farmers and tea merchants say that the land in a certain township is not suitable for growing Tieguanyin, but the quality of oolong tea made from the hairy crab species there is very good. When the Tieguanyin market was in a downturn, some local tea varieties with wide adaptability could be made into black tea, white tea, etc., relying on the network of tea merchants established by the Tieguanyin market for more than 20 years, and sold all over the country.

●Lutian tea farmers make black tea from Meizhan, which is called "Meizhanhong".

●The tea merchants in Daping made the hairy crab into oolong tea with a high degree of fermentation, and named it "Yinhao Meiren".

Small farmers - middlemen - big markets

Tea merchants from tea producing areas play an irreplaceable role in communicating between production and consumption. On the one hand, they connect with tea farmers, on the other hand, they face consumers directly, and continuously sell their hometown tea to all parts of the country.

Since the 1990s, the consumption of oolong tea in the entire mainland market has grown sharply, and the direct driving force comes from the promotion of merchants in Anxi tea area throughout the country. Since the 1990s, Anxi tea has gradually opened up to the northern market, such as Beijing, Xi'an, Shenyang and other places, changing the situation that Anxi oolong tea is only sold in the south and not in the north. Since 2000, Anxi tea farmers have opened Tieguanyin tea shops all over the country. As of 2007, Anxi people have opened more than 30,000 tea shops and tea houses in major and medium-sized cities across the country, and there are more than 100,000 tea merchants in the country. Anxi tea is distributed in various places, forming a tea market pattern of "no market without An, no shop without iron".

●There are many tea merchants from Anxi in the tea markets such as Maliandao and Fleet Tea City in Beijing, all of whom came to Beijing in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Most of the tea shops remain today.

Although small farmers with scattered production cannot "unify production and brand direct sales" when connecting to the big market, to ensure the stability of product quality. However, as far as tea consumption is concerned, taste preferences vary from region to region. For example, southern Fujian and Chaoshan regions favor Zhengwei and Luzhou-flavored Tieguanyin, while Xiaoqing Tieguanyin is more popular in Shandong and Beijing. With middlemen as bridges, tea farmers can adjust production according to customers' tastes.

In order to cope with the diversification of the consumer market, many tea shops have also begun to diversify their operations, expanding from oolong tea to black tea, white tea, green tea, dark tea and other categories. These flavors and market conditions are transmitted to the tea production area, making it possible for tea farmers to flexibly produce.

The "time change" of farmers

When I first entered the tea area to do field research, I was deeply influenced by Sinologist Jacob Eyferth's "Bamboo for a Living". In his book, he criticized such a view of the image of the peasant, that is, the peasant's life is always rooted in and confined to the land, and even the peasant is the land.

Ayobor believes that the relationship between farmers and the land is no more direct and "natural" than the relationship between other producers and the means of production. The process of producing products from the land and the process of converting products into commodities requires the intervention of skills. When farmers lose the skills they depend on for survival, their relationship with the land is also unsustainable.

My observations in the Tieguanyin tea area made me even more convinced of this. Compared with the government's strategy of returning to tradition and promoting authentic varieties on a large scale, tea farmers' production practices are more flexible. They are not as bound to machines as we think, nor to a particular craft. Tea farmers are good at adjusting their production and use of specific resources, skills and relationships according to the time, place and individual conditions. In the long run, this naturally growing "time-varying" logic is more adaptable to the complex, ever-changing, multi-level real market.