#processing method

[chinesegreenteagoldentriangle]

Traditional Chinese medicine talks about tea, have you been drinking it correctly?

When I was young, I only knew of two types of tea: "big bowl tea" and "Biluochun" tea. Later, I learned about tea because of studying traditional Chinese medicine and discovering that tea is also a type of medicine. For example, the Chuanxiong tea blend is recorded in the "Essentials of Materia Medica": "Tea leaves have a bitter and sweet taste. They enter the Hand and Foot Shaoyin, Taiyin, and Jueyin meridians. They are effective in clearing the heart and lungs, purging the intestines and stomach. When combined with chamomile, it can treat headaches; when combined with ginger, it can relieve water retention and stimulate the bladder and kidney meridians when consumed after drinking alcohol." However, tea is ultimately cold in nature, and since my body constitution is weak and cold in the spleen and stomach, I remember drinking Pu-erh tea once and having to go to the bathroom halfway through, so I rarely drink tea. But one chance encounter changed my perspective.

Recently, I went to visit a small shop near the Wudaoying Hutong next to the Beijing Yonghegong Temple. The shop owner is a good friend of mine who invited me to try Biluochun tea. This is a type of green tea, and at the time it was dinner time, so how could I dare to drink green tea on an empty stomach? So I politely declined. But my friend said, "Just take a sip, I guarantee it won't be too cold." She said that this tea comes from an 80-year-old tea tree growing on a sunny mountain in Dongting Lake. This is the first crop of early spring tea picked by hand and processed with firewood, so it is not like other green teas. Unable to resist her persuasion, I sat down and tasted the Biluochun tea. After drinking a few cups, I was surprised to find that my stomach and intestines felt slightly warm and comfortable, with no signs of diarrhea. I let out a few belches and felt quite comfortable, and even had a slight feeling of fullness. I stayed until 8pm, drinking the tea on an empty stomach, without any discomfort, and even feeling slightly full without hunger. The warm tea entered my stomach and I broke out into a light sweat, feeling very comfortable. Later, my friend gave me some Biluochun tea, and every time I drank it, I felt the same way, so it seems to be no coincidence.

This chance encounter changed my understanding of tea, especially green tea, and reminded me of an elderly person who once said that his father, who was over ninety years old, had been drinking tea his whole life and lived a long and healthy life, as did many other elderly people. At first, I thought it was due to their physical constitution, but now I see it's not entirely the case. Recently, I've been thinking carefully and have had some realizations.

Although the nature of tea is generally cool, ultimately its temperature can be influenced by two factors: first, the growth environment, whether it is in a relatively yin, cold, and humid area or a warm and sunny one. Just like the difference between grapes grown in the north of China and those grown in Xinjiang, or the difference between two types of Chinese medicinal herbs called niuxi: Sichuan niuxi promotes blood circulation, while Henan niuxi nourishes the liver and kidneys. Similarly, ginseng grown in the northeast is warm in nature, while American ginseng is cooler. These differences in nature are due to their different growing environments, including temperature, sunlight, soil, and planting methods.

Second, the processing methods are also important. Most teas need to be withered and then undergo a process called "kill-green," which involves roasting with fire. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that medicinal herbs and raw herbs that have been processed by fire have different cold, hot, warm, or cool properties. For example, raw licorice has a cold and cool nature that can clear away heat and detoxify, while roasted licorice can tonify the spleen and supplement qi. Raw rehmannia has a cool nature that can cool and activate blood, while steamed rehmannia has a slightly warm nature that can nourish the kidneys. Most herbs that have been processed by fire tend to have some warm properties, depending on the specific method of fire processing, which can even vary between using firewood or an oven.

There are many steps involved in tea processing, and many of them involve using fire, either by roasting or steaming. The tea processing method determines the warmth or coolness of the tea. I used to think that fermented teas, such as black tea and Pu-erh tea, were not cool, but that was because I didn't understand the fermentation process of tea. Tea fermentation is usually done by spreading the tea leaves flat and letting them sit at room temperature of around 25 degrees Celsius, so it's different from using fire. Therefore, to sum up, the warmth or coolness of tea depends on the environment and processing method.

In light of this, people with a cold constitution are not necessarily unable to drink green tea, while some fermented teas, such as Pu-erh tea, may not be suitable. Therefore, finding the right tea for oneself and knowing the principle of moderation is the key to health.

Author: Zhang Dong, Chief Physician of the Cardiovascular Department at Xiyuan Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.

[infoexploreindonesia]

Kopi

Kopi Indonesia | Etimologi | Jenis | Sejarah | Cara Membuat | Cara Pengolahan Kali ini kami akan memperkenalkan sejenis minuman yang sangat banyak diminati oleh berbagai kalangan di dunia yang disebut Kopi. Kopi, merupakan minuman hasil dari seduhan biji kopi yang telah disangrai dan dihaluskan menjadi bubuk. Kopi Minuman ini merupakan salah satu komoditas terbesar di dunia yang dibudidayakan…

[uniworu]

the sun's embrace

some progress pics and a comparison with the greek mythology klapollo i drew in december 2023

[alfheimr]

erosion

[sparxyv]

dueling practice w/ milena and sebastian 😽

milena is a BIG perfectionist.

while it doesn't usually affect other people, she WILL correct sebastian's dueling stance if she sees a mistake. (because it could save his life during a battle, obviously.. 🙄🙄)

[suntails]

🐙⚔️

this is a piece from my silver artbook, currently accepting preorders!! u can get a copy here!

non-UK: suntails.bigcartel.com

UK: etsy.com/shop/SuntailsArt

[sunlit-mess]

There's something so divine about your textured art style it looks like someone drew it on a crumbled paper they found on the school's floor with some pencil borrowed from a classmate

My love for textures was since my oldest style (back in 2017) and picked it up again in 2020 when I discovered Artists from FFXV fandom @/smolbirbgjo @/ohprcr @/thanhuki @/viv-url @/idledee and became my biggest insp in art style ehehe

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

gee wiz, it sure is cool that Gordon survived the resonance cascade, I sure hope he's doing well

Finally decided to give Gordon a ref for my au Aftermath (which i've talked about here. Once.)

Also bonus:

[ursiday]

im curious, how do you color your lines? they always look so pretty!!!

Thank you! I pretty much just use a bunch of layers lol I start with something like this in just one color (I used a soft round brush on like 70% opacity for lining this)

Then on a new layer in multiply I go over all the parts I want to stand out more in a different + darker color. I also make a clipping layer to lighten certain parts of the lines from the first step. Explaining which lines I color is difficult to describe but I'm mainly thinking about defining the edges of distinct objects and the light source

You can stop there but I like to add some kind of color filter top of that. My favorite way is make a solid color layer on exclusion mode above the lines > merge all visible layers on a new layer > set this to "color" layer mode so it colors all the lines underneath, but there's a lot of ways you can do similar stuff. I think a gradient map would probably be easier and give you more control for a similar effect

Then I add flats on a multiply layer above all that. TLDR I like to have variation in value of the lines and then vary the hue depending on the value. I don't have a method for how I pick the filters or line colors really I just play around with what I think looks nice with the colors of the piece 🫶

[stealingpotatoes]

Soooooo I saw that post where you posted that tutorial how you draw so Im curious if we can get another please ?

you mean another timelapse? yh sure here's a comic one this time!!

[crocuta1]

Marie's Spinosaurus 💔💔💔💔

I haven't decided if I like the name Calzone or Hot-pocket for maries spino :/. WHICH ONE SUITS HIM BETTER GUYS......

[quirkle2]

space/saturn imagery ritsu i love you

[cozylittleartblog]

small PSA: if you shop at craft shows or artist alleys, please bring more than apple pay or a virtual card - especially if you're not comfortable entering your card number manually. not all of us have fancy card readers, so please also bring your physical card or cash, even if it's only as backup 👍

[guiltypleasure-art]

✶ Final artwork can be found here ✶

[saradika]

bleed for me

I’ve been working on a new hobby for a while (and it’s far from perfect!!) but it’s cool to think I made this from start to finish!

[s0fter-sin]

punk!soap metalhead!ghost brain blast!!!

ghost trying so hard to get soap out of the bad parts of the scene bc he's starting to get pulled in by the shadows, a group of wannabe anarchists that stand for nothing except themselves, but soap loses his shit; laying into ghost for daring to try and "save" him

no one's ever been there for him when he needed them; no one ever offered him support or a soft place to land, why the hell would he want ghost's help when he's perfectly fine on his own? (when he’s always had to be?)

"you think i can't make my own decisions? well fuck you, ghost, who needs a washed up piece o’ shite like you!"

he doesn’t talk to ghost for days, doesn’t let himself acknowledge the hole he’s left behind until he's getting pissed with the shadows one night in an abandoned house and graves starts waving around the gun he snuck through customs and it accidentally goes off, grazing soap's temple

he's never heard anything so loud, even at all the shows he’s attended and there’s so much blood; it's getting in his eyes, running down his neck and soaking into his clothes and he’s frozen. graves and all his shadows bolt after hearing the gunshot, worried about cops finding them and they leave him there; staring at the growing puddle at his feet

soap's panicking; half-blind, blistering pain lighting up his head and he can't think about anything beyond how much he wants ghost

ghost's been sulking at his flat since soap blew him off; pissed at soap for going off on him when he just wants to help but still worried about the punk. he doesn’t want him going down the same road as him; doesn’t want him to repeat his mistakes when he could save himself so much suffering and he almost doesn't answer his phone when it buzzes on the couch

he lets out a ragged sigh as he picks it up; raking a hand over his shaved head when he sees the bubble emoji and contemplates letting it ring out. contemplates answering with a growl; something a younger, crueler version of him would spit. in the end, he decides on silence and puts the phone to his ear just before it can stop ringing

he almost breaks it when he hears soap choke out, "i've been shot."

he's out the door in a heartbeat, running down the stairs because the lift is too slow; trying to get more information out of him but he can't get anything out beyond a repeated, "i've been shot."

he breaks every law there is as he speeds to soap's location; visions of his cold, bloodless corpse staining his mind's eye. the only thing keeping him calm are the strangled breaths from the other end of the line; he's not dead, he can work with not dead, this isn't tommy, soap won't end up like tommy-

ghost screeches to a halt outside a random alley and throws himself from the car when he sees soap collapsed against a garbage bin. he's covered in blood, soaked, just like that night, it's everywhere and he's not moving, he's not moving-

“johnny!”

he skids to his knees and fits his hand under his chin to check his pulse… but his heart beats strong under his fingertips and soap's eyes flutter open; flooded with blood but conscious and alive

the second he registers ghost in front of him, he’s reaching out for him; babbling apologies over and over, "you were right, i'm sorry ghost, i should've listened; i'm sorry, i'm so sorry."

ghost just gently hushes him, cupping his face heedless of the blood. "that doesn't matter now, johnny. we're gonna get you all fixed up, yeah?"

soap’s hands fist in his shirt, clinging to him. "i got shot, ghost," he says again; lost and smaller than he's ever heard from his punk and it's been years since he's felt this kind of rage but he doesn't let a drop of it touch his voice

“i know, lad. i know. gonna let me take a look at it? make it right?"

soap finally nods, his stuttering apologies coming to a halt and ghost runs back to his car to get a towel. he presses it to soap's skin, trying to soak up as much as he can so he can get a proper look; cooing assurances as soap absently hisses in pain the closer he gets to it

it's only a graze and something in his chest unravels; old fears and grief settling as the shallow wound continues to gush into the towel

ghost slumps, pressing his forehead into the top of soap's head and takes a second to just breathe. “‘s’alright, johnny; it’s not even that bad, not even that bad,” he promises, low; spoken more to himself than soap

his hand starts to grow damp and he forces himself to his feet, gathering up soap and getting him into his car. he puts the towel in his hand and presses it against the wound, trying to coax him through his shock to put pressure on it so he can drive

soap curls up in the passenger seat; eyes distant, seeing nothing and ghost has to tighten his grip on the steering wheel so he doesn't turn around

soap is the priority

he has to get him home; has to get him cleaned up and safe

then he can go hunting for the gutless shadow that hurt his punk