Traditional features
Zhangyiyuan Tea House
· Jasmine tea
Chinese tea can be divided into six categories based on the production method: black tea, red tea, green tea, white tea, yellow tea, and oolong tea. Among them, there are famous teas like West Lake Dragon Well and Bi Luo Chun that are well-known both domestically and internationally. However, the tea that northerners love the most is not among these six categories, but rather Zhangyiyuan's jasmine tea.
Zhangyiyuan Tea House was founded in 1908 on Qianmen Dashilan Street in Beijing and has a history of more than 100 years. Some people think that "Zhangyiyuan" is a person's name, but it is actually the name of the tea house brand. The founder, Zhang Changyi, opened the "Zhangyuyuan" tea house in the flower market in 1900, which was actually the predecessor of Zhang Yiyuan. The final name "Zhang Yiyuan" means "renewal and rebirth".
Zhangyiyuan's jasmine tea is a locally famous tea in Beijing, made by repeatedly blending green tea with fresh jasmine flowers. The soup is clear, the taste is strong, the aroma is fragrant, and the aftertaste is endless. Its production process consists of multiple steps, using Fujian roasted green tea - spring tea as the tea base. The main steps are withering, killing green, baking (70% dry), hand shaping, and drying. In 2008, Zhangyiyuan's jasmine tea blending technique was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.
According to Wang Xiulan, the national inheritor of Zhangyiyuan's jasmine tea blending technique, Zhangyiyuan has many types of tea, but jasmine tea is the most famous. Flower tea is made by mixing green tea and jasmine flowers. "There are many types of jasmine tea. We require the raw materials to be carefully selected, and I always advocate using spring tea. In terms of the process of making flower tea, we need to pick fresh leaves, let the moisture and dew on the leaves evaporate by cooling them down, then start killing green, and then knead the tea leaves to convert the nutrients. This is a key step. After that, we need to dry the tea. After the initial production is completed, we need to refine it to make the tea base material beautiful, and then start blending the tea."
The history of flower tea blending can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Making flower tea requires using the fragrance-releasing property of jasmine flowers and the fragrance-absorbing property of tea leaves to allow the tea to absorb the aroma of the flowers. When the jasmine fragrance is almost exhausted, the flowers are immediately removed. The entire process is called a "yin" and takes about 12 hours to complete. Depending on the different grades of flower tea, different amounts of flowers and "yin" times are required. In 1925, the founder of Zhangyiyuan went to Fujian to open a tea plantation and personally blended jasmine tea according to the taste of northerners. This is also the earliest recorded finished product of Zhangyiyuan's jasmine tea.
Zhangyiyuan has won the favor of tea customers for decades, relying on the "clear and transparent taste of the tea" he brews. Just like character, insisting on good character and pursuing good tea is the dedication of Wang Xiulan to tea customers, and it is also the internal driving force that keeps Zhangyiyuan going.
Qingxiang Zhai
· Old Beijing Pastry
In Beijing, there are generally only a few pastry shops that are recognized by old Beijing: "Daoxiangcun", "Weiduomei Bread", and those halal old brands with the word "zhai". And there is also a dim sum shop in the hutongs of Tianqiao, which is not well-known, but is loved by the locals.
Qingxiang Zhai Pastry Shop is a 30-year-old store located at No. 63 Liuxue Lu (Rd). The store is not large, but it is filled with various types of pastries, which are neatly arranged and not messy.
In the layout of the store, old Beijing pastry is in the middle, and packaged "exquisite" dim sum is on the shelves on both sides. The prices of Qingxiang Zhai's pastries are very uniform, almost all priced at 12 yuan/jin. There are various sweet and savory biscuits; old-fashioned Beijing-style Zilaihong, Zilaibai; mooncakes with various fruit fillings; all kinds of cake rolls are available. There are also various Beijing-style pastries such as Napoleon, hawthorn guo kui, matcha pastry, sugar fire cake, sesame peanut pastry, etc., with high cost performance. Customers who come here to buy pastries are endless.
New Year's special
Beijing Daoxiangcun
· Beijing Daoxiangcun x Han Meilin Annual Limited Edition Xiaoqing Cake
Beijing Daoxiangcun and Han Meilin jointly launched the annual limited edition Xiaoqing Cake.
Artist Han Meilin used unique lines to blend vivid cuteness, lively joy, unextinguished childlike innocence, and personified emotions in this snake painting.
The filling of the Xiaoqing Cake is a thick coconut and millet flavor, which incorporates the rich aroma of coconut flesh and mixes with the rich texture of millet particles, with a unique flavor.
The corner tower of the Forbidden City
· Forbidden City Corner Tower Coffee
Forbidden City Corner Tower Coffee Snake Year Theme Coffee and Desserts are newly launched.
The snake-themed cup takes the Warring States jade panhuiren pendant in the collection of the Palace Museum as the prototype of the snake pattern, and displays the agility of the snake through a continuous arrangement of regular patterns.
The "Lingshe Nafu" latte is made from fresh coffee beans from Pu'er, Yunnan. Hawthorn syrup is added and mixed with oat milk to recreate the sweet and sour taste of a "sugar-coated hawthorn" snack. The character "Fu" on top of the drink is made from edible sugar paper and is inspired by a calligraphy piece from the Qing Dynasty, which is part of the collection at the Palace Museum. It is believed to bring good luck and fortune.
The "Fulu" cake, flavored with cherry and dark chocolate mousse, is also a symbol of good luck and happiness.
