Can we accept a summer without air-conditioning, ice-cola, refrigerator, and ice cream? At least among the younger generation, few people can accept such a “purgatory on earth”. However, in the era when there was no air-conditioning refrigerator, our ancestors still used their wisdom to spend one hot summer after another.
Today, when we open the refrigerator, we can get ice cubes and other refrigerated and frozen foods. But “icing” is not a modern coup. As early as before the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, ice cubes formed naturally in winter were kept for use in summer.
“Ling Ren, Zhang Bing” records, “Ling Ren, Zhang Bing.” The so-called “Ling Ren” is the official responsible for affairs related to ice. Their responsibilities are: “In the tenth year of the year, there are two months, the order cuts the ice, and the three rises. The spring begins to govern. The food of the outside and the inside is shame to Jian Yan. The same is the case of the wine and the wine. The guests share the ice…” The Book of Songs also described people “cutting the ice on the second day and rushing through the ice on the third day.” And in “Sui Shu·Ji Ji Zhi”, there is also a comment on Bingjiao
After finally storing a large amount of ice, what the ancients would do later was to use the ice. The ancient “refrigerator” came into being. Today, we have seen the “refrigerator” of the Warring States Period, which the ancients called “Bingjian”. An exquisitely structured ice book was unearthed from the tomb of Hou Yi of Zeng, whose main function was to make iced wine.
However, it is still too extravagant for ordinary people to use a gorgeous ice mirror to ice a pot of rice wine like this. Therefore, in the folk, people will ice and make other tricks. Among them, the most popular are all kinds of smoothies and cold drinks.
Among them, the most familiar one is probably the Sushan in the Tang Dynasty. Su Shan was not invented by Su San, but its raw materials are crisp and ice. The crushed ice is often piled in the shape of a mountain. However, the crisp used in Sushan comes from the northern nomads, and the cost is relatively high. Therefore, although Sushan is delicious, it is mainly popular among the affluent class. And those that appear in the streets and alleys are all kinds of cold drinks.
Compared with various smoothies, cold drinks have a lower production cost, because in addition to using ice to chill, you can also use well water instead. Although this makes these cold drinks not as good as today’s ice-cola, they have their own tastes.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the common cold drinks included sugar mung bean, pear milk, papaya juice, brine plum water, black tea water, coconut wine, ginger honey water, bitter tea, fragrant mushroom drink, perilla drink, lychee paste water, and white mash cold water. , Plum wine, kumquat snow bubble, shrinking spleen view, ice and snow, Shen perfume and so on.
At that time, there were three well-known cold drink shops in Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. One family opened outside Zhuquemen and was named “Cao’s Congshi”, and the other two were outside the old Songmen gate, but the name of the store is no longer available.
Although “Congshi” refers to the staple food at that time, that is to say, the main food of Cao’s Congshi is actually steamed buns, steamed buns, pies and the like, but his family’s cold drinks are also very popular. The three “ice and snow”, cold syrup, licorice soup, medicated papaya, water papaya, and cold water lychee paste were all hot-selling products at that time.
The cold drinks of the Song Dynasty were mainly made with ice, water and some auxiliary materials. “Bingxue” is the crisp mountain of the Song Dynasty. Song people would put sugar, dried fruit, fruit juice and other raw materials into the water together in winter, and then put the water basin outside to let it freeze naturally. After that, the ice cubes are stored in the ice cellar for consumption in the coming summer.
Cold syrup is fermented and then iced rice soup. Song people will cook rice or millet into a thick porridge, and then add cold water. After the mixture is uniform, the porridge is poured into a large tank, sealed, and waited for its natural fermentation. After about five or six days, the rice will be saccharified, and then people will filter it again, leaving a sweet juice. As long as these juices are chilled again, they become delicious cold syrup.
Licorice soup, as the name suggests, is iced licorice water. The cold water lychee paste has nothing to do with lychee. It is made by boiling fruit gum from ebony plum and adding it to water. For medicinal papaya and water papaya, the former is to pickle the papaya with honey and several Chinese medicinal materials, then boil it and mash it into a puree, and then add it to the water. The latter is simply cutting the papaya into pieces and putting it in water.
However, although these cold drinks are made of real materials, there are no preservatives or additives, but they are not as safe as we think. Because the ice and ice water used are mainly from natural ice collected by people in winter. These ices are taken from rivers and contain a lot of impurities. If they are eaten directly, they are easy to eat. Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty had trouble with his stomach because of eating ice. This incident was also recorded in “Song History”, and Xiaozong was advised by his subordinates.
People take food as their heaven, no matter ancient or modern, in the hot summer, people will always think of some way to dispel the bad mood brought by this sultry weather. Today, we can taste various flavors of ice cream and drink a variety of cold drinks, and we cannot do without the experience accumulated by our predecessors.
