The production method of sour citrus tea

Many people know that the Great Lake in Miaoli County is rich in strawberries, but they do not necessarily know that the Great Lake has another kind of "sour citrus tea", which has a special flavor and strong Hakka nostalgia. In the mountains of Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Pingtung in Taiwan Province, where there are Hakkas, there is the production of "sour citrus tea."

Sour mandarin is a plant of the family Rutaceae, also known as "mandarin". It is native to sour oranges in southern Asia in Meixian County, Guangdong Province, China. It is larger than ordinary oranges, with a diameter of about 100-150 mm and a thick peel of about 10-15 mm. But the pulp is very sour and not suitable for consumption, so it is called "sour mandarin".

Because sour oranges are not suitable for consumption, and tea is produced in Meixian County, Guangdong Province, some people mix sour mandarins with tea to make "sour citrus tea". After brewing, it is used as a necessary medicine for families, such as reducing fire, treating heatstroke, loss of appetite, cough or inflammation of tonsils.

Sour oranges will be picked at about seven or medium well. After storing them for more than ten days, the sour orange peel will soften. When under pressure, feel that dry, hard, flexible is more conducive to production, otherwise because of too much moisture in the fruit, it is easy to break. Select sour oranges, use the mouth of a cylindrical row of empty cans to dig a round hole near the top of the pedicel, and then set aside the dug skin, which can be used as a cover for fruit. Dig out the citrus meat inside, mix it with tea and stir it into a ball, or add traditional Chinese medicine such as lemon and bergamot, then stuff it into an empty sour citrus shell, cover the round citrus peel that has just been dug up, and cross-tie the sour orange up and down with rope thread, which can be tied into eight or five lines, so that the citrus peel shows a petal-like concave pattern, pressed into a flat round line into a steamer, steamed until ripe. Then, expose it to the sun; if it is cloudy and rainy, hang it with a string next to the chimney tube on the stove and use hot air to smoke and dry the sour orange tea. When the sour citrus peel changes from golden to yellowish brown until it becomes a hard, rough dark brown solid, it becomes.

Made of sour citrus tea, it smells like a faint scent of tea, brown and slightly sweet tangerine peel. When drinking, cut the sour orange even skin into small pieces, brew with boiling water, the concentration is random, can add a little rock sugar appropriately, drink up sour, sweet, fragrant, bitter, astringent, do not have a taste.