Latin tea variety. Asamika (mast. ) Kitamura
Chinese name Pu 'er tea (wild tea tree)
Latin scientific name Theaceae
Chinese camellia
Protection level
Place of production
It mainly produces Menghai, Mengla, Simao, Gengma, Cangyuan, Shuangjiang, Lincang, Yuanjiang, Jingdong, Dali, Pingbian, Hekou, Maguan, Malipo, Wenshan, Xichou, Guangnan and Xishuangbanna, and the arrears are Panxian, Rongjiang, Fusui, Zhaoping, Nanjing, Fujian and Ruyuan, Guangdong. Born in subtropical and tropical mountain forests at an altitude of 1 200- 1 400 meters. It is also distributed in northern Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and India.
Rare species. Wild tea trees (including cultivated wild tea trees), also known as Pu 'er tea, are distributed in southern Yunnan and Hainan. Among them is the "Tea Tree King" in Yunnan, which is over 800 years old. It is a large factory at present. Although local measures have been taken to protect it, the plant is still disturbed by human beings. If management and protection are not strengthened, it will be in danger of being destroyed and killed. With the increase of population, the natural forests in Hainan have decreased sharply. At the same time, there are many people going up the mountain to collect wild tea before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day every year, and the number of wild tea trees is also decreasing.
Lower elevation limit (m) 1200
Height limit (m) 1400
history
Pu 'er tea is named after Pu 'er County, its distribution center and origin. In the Tang Dynasty, Pu 'er was named Buli, belonging to Yinsheng Festival (now Simao and Xishuangbanna). Yinsheng tea is the predecessor of Pu 'er tea, which was called Pu 'er tea in Yuan Dynasty. It was named Pu 'er tea only in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and its heyday was in the Qing Dynasty. According to the Records of Pu 'er Prefecture, "Pu 'er is one of the six major tea mountains ... 800 Li a week, and more than 100,000 people go into the mountains to Simao and Xishuangbanna as the main raw materials producing areas, and Pu 'er and Simao become processing distribution centers. During the Ming Dynasty, six ancient tea-horse roads radiated around Pu 'er, and Pu 'er tea was exported to China, Tibet and Viet Nam.
morphological character
Evergreen trees or shrubs with a height of 5- 13 (-20) m and a trunk diameter of 1 m or more; Young branches and leaves are puberulent. Leaves leathery, oval or obovate-oblong, 4-8 (12) cm long and 1.8-4.5 cm wide. The tip is blunt and sometimes sharp, the base is wedge-shaped, the edge is serrated, and both sides are smooth and hairless. Petiole is 3-7 mm long. Flowers solitary or 2-4 axillary cymes, white, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, fragrant, pedicel 6- 10 mm long, bent downward; Sepals 5 (-6), rounded, persistent in fruit; Petals 7-8 (9), broadly obovate or round; Stamens are numerous, and the outer filaments fuse to form a short tube; Ovary 3-loculed, hairy outside, style 3-lobed at the top. Capsule is spherical or oblate, about 25 cm in diameter, and the fruit is leathery; Seeds 1 or 2, nearly spherical, slightly angular, about 1.5- 1.8 cm in diameter, light brown.
Living habits
Most distribution areas in Yunnan belong to monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest in southern subtropical mountainous area. The annual average temperature of Nannuo Mountain in Menghai is 17- 19℃, the extreme maximum temperature is 22.3℃, and the extreme minimum temperature is -5.4℃ (appearing in 65438+ 10 month). The annual rainfall is 1300- 1400 mm, and the soil is mostly lateritic red soil or Huang Chi red soil. I like the small environment with ravines on the hillside, misty clouds in dry season, moist air, deep soil, good drainage and rich humus. The flowering period is September-165438+10, and the fruiting period is April-June, sometimes flowers and fruits coexist. Wild tea trees are often harvested, and their natural reproduction is poor, and there are few seedlings under the forest. The main related tree species are Schima superba and Quercus truncatum of Schima Emei. Etwils。 And Pu Wennan of Pu Wennan.
Protect value
Wild tea trees are native to southern China, especially southern Yunnan. It is one of the Cenozoic ancient plants, which is of great significance to the study of the origin and evolution of tea trees. Pu 'er tea leaves in Yunnan have been famous drinks since ancient times.
protection measures
Protection measures should be strengthened for extra-large wild tea trees, and picking leaves and fruits is prohibited. It is suggested that Nannuo Mountain, Menghai, Yunnan Province, which is concentrated in distribution, should be designated as the protection point of wild tea trees to maintain the necessary ecological environment and create natural propagation conditions. Camellia in Daheishan is a kind of wild tea in Daheishan, Yunnan Province, which has the same origin and habitat as wild tea trees and should be protected.
Key points of cultivation
The reproductive life of seeds is short, and it is suitable for sowing immediately after harvest. The cultivation method is the same as tea tree.
Types of Pu 'er tea: Pu 'er tea belongs to post-fermented tea, that is, after tea is made, it will continue to undergo post-oxidation, and the tea will become milder and more non-irritating. The longer it is stored, the more complete the oxidation degree and the more mellow the tea soup tastes. Therefore, there is a saying that Pu 'er tea is more fragrant with age. Pu 'er tea can be divided into trees and shrubs according to tree species, and raw tea and cooked tea according to different production methods. According to different storage methods, it can be divided into dry Pu 'er tea and wet Pu 'er tea.
The first lecture on the history of Pu 'er tea
Pu 'er tea originated in Yunnan. However, it is a tradition in Guangdong Province to drink Pu 'er tea in the form of turning waste into treasure. Especially in Hong Kong, old Pu 'er tea is not only a daily drink for Hong Kong people, but also exported to Southeast Asia, Europe and America. Therefore, Hong Kong can be said to be the promotion place of old Pu 'er tea. In the past few years, newspapers and media have continuously reported the health benefits of Pu 'er tea, such as weight loss, anti-cancer, blood lipid reduction, uric acid excretion and cholesterol reduction. And it has also been proved by medical research.
Processing and Classification of Pu 'er Tea (Ⅱ)
Processing of Pu 'er tea:
Pu 'er tea is made from fresh leaves of Yunnan big-leaf tea plant, which can be divided into traditional and modern production processes.
1. Traditional Pu 'er tea production technology: deactivating enzymes (sun-drying, frying), kneading strips (kneading balls by hand) and sun-drying.
2. Modern Pu 'er tea production technology (artificial aging): deactivation (pan frying, roller), rolling (machining), drying (oven drying), humidification, heap fermentation (sprinkling water, tea fungus) and drying.
Formation process of Pu 'er tea:
Picking tea leaves, deactivating enzymes, kneading, drying, stacking, drying, screening, grading and compacting.
Classification of Pu 'er tea:
(1) classified by law
Raw tea: fermented in a natural way after picking, the taste of tea is more exciting, and it will fade after many years. Good old Pu 'er generally does this.
Cooked tea: through scientific artificial fermentation, tea becomes gentle and soft and delicious. The demarcation point is after 1973.
(2) Classification by storage method
Dry storage of Pu 'er refers to storage in a ventilated, dry and clean warehouse, so that tea leaves are naturally fermented and aged 10~20 years.
Wet-stored Pu 'er: Generally, it is placed in wet places, such as basements and cellars, to speed up its fermentation. Because the things in tea are destroyed more, and often have mud or musty smell. Although the aging speed of wet-stored Pu 'er is faster than that of dry-stored Pu 'er, it is easy to get moldy, which is not good for human health, so we do not advocate selling and drinking wet-stored Pu 'er.
(3) Classification by appearance
1. cake tea: flat disc shape, with a net weight of 375g for each piece of wolfberry cake, and every seven pieces are packed in a barrel, each barrel weighs 2500g, hence the name of wolfberry cake.
2. Tuocha: The shape is about the size of a rice bowl, each with a net weight of 100g and 250g, and now there are mini small Tuocha with a net weight of 2g-5g.
3, brick tea: rectangular or square, 250 grams-1000 grams, made this shape mainly to facilitate transportation.
4. Golden melon tribute tea: pressed into semi-melon shapes of different sizes, ranging from 100 grams to hundreds of kilograms.
5. Thousand taels of tea: pressed into compact strips of different sizes, each strip is relatively heavy (the smallest tea treaty 100 kg), hence the name: Thousand taels of tea.
6. Loose tea: Pu 'er tea, which is not pressed in the process of making tea, is loose tea, which can be divided into thick fat leaf tea made of whole tea and small strip bud tip tea made of bud tip.
7. The intermediate and advanced products of Pu 'er tea are mostly Tuo tea and cake tea.
The third lecture on the brewing and drinking of Pu 'er tea
1, Pu 'er tea should be brewed in a pot with a big belly, because the concentration of Pu 'er tea is high, and the pot with a big belly can prevent the tea soup from being too strong. Suggested materials should be clay pots and teapots.
2. Brewing amount of Pu 'er tea: When brewing Pu 'er tea, the amount of tea leaves accounts for about 20% of the pot body. After the tea bricks and cakes are separated, they are exposed in the air for 2 weeks, and then the taste is better.
3. Brewing Pu 'er tea: It is an essential process to brew Pu 'er tea with hot water first. Because good aged Pu 'er tea should be stored for at least ten years, it may contain some dust. The hot water for making tea for the first time can not only awaken the taste of tea, but also wash away the impurities in tea together. The first brewing speed should be fast, as long as the tea leaves can be washed clean, and it is not necessary to bubble out its taste; After the second time, you can decide the choice of shading according to your personal preference. Pu 'er tea is full of fragrance even if it is cold. It can be herbal tea in summer and can be drunk after being chilled.
4. When drinking Pu 'er tea, you must smell the fragrance while it is hot. Before raising a glass, you can feel the fragrance of the old flavor gushing from the nose like spring water, and its elegant and refreshing feeling is not under the orchid chrysanthemum.
5. Pu 'er tea needs to be tasted carefully to get its true charm. Although the entrance of the tea soup is a little bitter, when the tea soup stays in your throat for a while, you can feel the tea soup seeping through your teeth, seeping into your gums, being produced by the root of your tongue and being sent back to your tongue. At this time, the fragrance is overflowing, and the nectar "produces saliva", which is refreshing and the body fluid overflows. This is tea tasting.
The fourth lecture is about the age and distinguishing factors of Pu 'er tea.
Pu 'er tea is a kind of tea, the older the better. Therefore, some people are proud to flaunt the age of Pu 'er tea and pursue the long-standing Pu 'er tea. This involves how to identify the aging period of Pu 'er tea. The following methods are for reference only by Pu 'er tea lovers:
Before 1 and 1950, this period was called "antique tea", such as Bainian Songpin, Tongxing Gongbing, Tongqing, Tongchang Laohao and Songpinjing. There is usually a sticky rice paper with a name printed on it, which is "flying inside".
2. 1950 ~ 1968: The so-called "printing tea" means that the word "tea" is marked on the packaging paper in different colors, with red printing as the first batch, green printing as the second batch and yellow printing as the third batch.
3. After1968: At this time, the brand name of "China Tea Company" was no longer printed on the packaging of tea cakes, but were produced by tea factories themselves, collectively referred to as "Yunnan Seven Pieces of Cakes", such as: Xueyin Green Cake, 73 Green Cake, Big Mouth Small Green Seal and Small Yellow Seal.
In addition, we should pay attention to "four tips" and "six no policies" when tasting tea and identifying Pu 'er tea. This factor is based on the experience of many professionals and is only for the reference of Pu 'er tea lovers:
These four major decisions are:
First, clear: smell its taste; The taste should be clear, not musty.
Second, purity: distinguish its color; Brown as jujube, not black as paint.
Third, positive: keep its position; Store in a dry warehouse, not in a damp place.
Fourth, qi: taste its soup; The aftertaste is mild and can't be mixed.
Six no policies:
First, don't take the wrong year as a benchmark.
Secondly, it is not based on forged packaging.
Third, don't use the color of the soup as an excuse.
Fourth, don't take flavoring as an illusion.
Don't take bad luck as a call.
Six, regardless of the age of the leaves.
The fifth lecture on the aroma of Pu 'er tea
Good Pu 'er tea can contain many delicate aroma substances, mainly divided into orchid, jujube, lotus and camphor.
Cinnamomum camphora: There are tall camphor trees all over Yunnan, most of which are as high as ten or twenty feet. The space under the big camphor tree is most suitable for the planting and growth of Pu 'er tea. The big camphor tree can provide suitable shade opportunities for tea trees, and can reduce the occurrence of pests and diseases of tea trees in the camphor tree environment. What's more commendable is that the roots of Pu 'er tea tree and camphor tree grow alternately underground, giving tea a fragrance of camphor tree. At the same time, camphor tree branches and leaves will also emit camphor tree fragrance, and tea trees will directly absorb camphor tree fragrance and store it in the leaves.
Lotus fragrance: the tender bud tea of Yunnan Daye tea is properly aged and fermented after picking. Good bud tea removes the thick green leaf fragrance and naturally leaves a faint lotus fragrance, which belongs to the fragrance of floating soup tea.
Lan Xiang: Fresh Pu 'er tea is green and fragrant. After a long period of aging, it changed from green and fragrant to Qing Xiang. The tea trees planted under the camphor tree got the participation of camphor tree. Cinnamomum camphora is weak, and it merged with Qing Xiang to become Lan Xiang, which is the most precious tea fragrance in Pu 'er tea.
Jujube fragrance: this fragrance can only be produced by tea trees that grow in an environment where vegetation is very lush and there are often clouds and wild jujube trees. Because there are often fallen leaves, natural fertilizers are formed over time. The roots of tea trees absorb these fertilizers, and tea leaves absorb the fog, so tea leaves have formed a special jujube fragrance.
Sixth, the taste of Pu 'er tea.
A good Pu 'er tea has four essentials: first, it should be clear (the taste should be clear, not musty); second, it should be pure (the tea color should be red, not like ink); third, it should be straight (stored in a dry warehouse, not wet); and fourth, it should be angry (the taste should be mild, not mixed with five flavors). We emphasize that the quality of Pu 'er tea cannot be completely judged by age. Good Pu 'er tea, you won't know until you drink it.
Pu 'er tea often has several flavors, sweet, bitter, astringent, sour, water and tasteless. These flavors may exist alone in a certain kind of Pu 'er tea, or they may have multiple flavors at the same time.
Sweet fragrance is the dream of Pu 'er tea drinkers. After long-term aging, the bitter taste of Pu 'er tea is gradually weakened by oxidation, or even completely absent, while the sugar remains in the tea, and the sweetness is slowly released after brewing. The better Pu 'er tea, the more it is brewed in the back, the more obvious the sweetness. The bland sweetness of tea is elegant and harmless to health, which is different from the sweetness of strong sugar. Only Pu 'er tea, which is made of raw tea seeds, has pure and elegant sweetness in its tea soup, which can best represent the authenticity of Pu 'er tea, and is indifferent and carefree, and promotes the tasting of Pu 'er tea to the artistic realm.
Bitterness-Bitterness and astringency are the unique tastes of tea. In ancient times, tea was called "bitter tea". Bitterness is the original taste of tea. The bitter taste of Pu 'er tea is because it contains caffeine, which has an exciting effect on the human nervous system. The truly healthy tasting of Pu 'er tea is not to refresh yourself through bitterness, but to achieve the effect that the slightly bitter tea soup returns to the sweet throat rhyme. Pu 'er tea, made of tender tea seeds, has a bitter taste.
Astringent-it is often said that "neither bitter nor astringent is not tea". In fact, aged Pu 'er tea, after 60 or 70 years of aging, is no longer bitter. Tea that has no bitterness and can still show the taste of other teas is generally called good tea. Pu 'er tea has a strong "masculine" taste and a mild "feminine" taste. It is the most concrete way to distinguish the two by suffering.
Sour taste and water taste are both bad tastes of Pu 'er tea. Pu 'er tea should try to avoid the taste of acid and water. Poor production or storage of tea may lead to sour taste. These sour Pu 'er teas are often brewed three or five times, and some acidity will gradually decrease. Sour taste is a taste that tea tasters are unwilling to accept. Represents the inferiority of tea. Generally, if fresh tea leaves are not handled properly in the process of "flowing water", tea leaves will also have a faint taste, which will give people a feeling of weakness, corruption and stale.
Tasteless-the tasteless taste is full of Zen, and most Pu 'er tea tasters agree that it is tasteless and is the best in Pu 'er tea.
The seventh lecture on the nature of Pu 'er tea
The life course of Pu 'er tea, in a narrow sense, refers to the long aging process that began after the formation of Pu 'er tea. Pu 'er tea is different from many other teas, and it must have a historical process of storage (except Pu 'er green tea). Only the history that nature has experienced can show its authenticity. Pu 'er tea naturally has to come out of the historical years to show its authenticity. Its authenticity is natural and fresh. How to taste the freshness of Pu 'er tea? 1, distinguished by aroma.
Pu 'er cooked tea will taste like cooked tea because it is piled up. Generally, there are only ten years of dry-stored cooked tea (according to the traditional saying, tea without mildew is dry-stored tea), and a smell of cooked tea can be smelled from the surface of tea. In about ten to twenty years, the surface taste of cooked tea disappears, and the cooked taste can be felt from the tea soup. 1973, the first batch of cooked brick tea made from pressed tea was called "73 thick brick tea". It has been more than 20 years now. No matter whether it is tea or tea soup, it no longer feels cooked, but there is a kind of "agarwood". Aquilaria sinensis is the best aroma in cooked tea, which is transformed from cooked taste after a long period of dry aging. Cooked tea taste, cooked taste and agarwood are one of the most direct and effective ways to distinguish raw tea from cooked tea.
2. Distinguish from the color of the soup
Dried raw Pu 'er tea soup is chestnut red, close to the color of Dahuo oolong tea soup. Even old tea, such as Malong brand Tongqing old Pu 'er tea with a history of 890 years, is only slightly deeper than the tea soup of 50-year-old red-printed Pu 'er round tea. The color of the boiled tea soup is dark chestnut, even close to black. Therefore, in modern tea classification, Pu 'er tea is classified as black tea because of the soup color of Pu 'er cooked tea.
3. Distinguish from leaf bottom
The bottom of dried raw Pu 'er tea is maroon to dark maroon, which is very similar to the bottom color of Oriental Beauty Tea in Taiwan Province Province. The leaves are full and soft, full of freshness. A cup of tea celebrating the old Pu 'er tea can show the fresh vitality of a hundred years ago. The leaves of Pu 'er ripe tea are mostly dark chestnut or black, and the leaves are thin and hard. If it is fermented in large quantities, it will carbonize obviously, as if it had been roasted by fire. Some older leaves, the leaves are broken, and the veins are separated one by one, just like dead leaves soaked in water for a long time. However, if some cooked teas are not piled for a long time and the degree of fermentation is not heavy, the bottom of leaves will be very close to the bottom of raw tea. On the other hand, some raw teas, such as tea seeds, cannot be dried immediately after kneading, and the leaves will be dark brown at the bottom, and the soup will be thicker and deeper, which is the same as the cooked tea that has only been slightly fermented.
The eighth lecture on the health function of Pu 'er tea.
For thousands of years, Pu 'er tea has been favored by consumers because of its excellent quality. At the same time, the unique flavor of Pu 'er tea is also related to its natural transformation process. After the cooked Pu 'er tea is processed by a special processing program, it is broken into tea balls of different sizes and shapes, which are naturally dried in the shade. Then according to the transportation requirements, put them into baskets and transport them to other places. Yunnan is located in the frontier of the motherland, and Xishuangbanna is next to Yunnan. The mountain is high and dangerous. In ancient times, transportation was extremely difficult. Tea was transported by caravan and cattle gang, and it was delayed for a long time on the mountain road. In some sections, the caravan can only go twice a year, while the cattle gang can only go once a year. Tea leaves have been bumping on horses' backs and cows' backs for a long time, and the contents are slowly transformed, so that Pu 'er tea has its unique luster and mellow fragrance. The efficacy and function are doubled. The detoxification and therapeutic effects of Pu 'er tea are recorded in Brahma Record written by Chai Calyx in A.D. 1925, Compendium of Materia Medica, Interview with Simao, Tips of Physics, Herbal Mirror, News Record of Southern Yunnan and other ancient books collected in Qing Dynasty. In recent years, the physiological and pharmacological effects of Pu 'er tea have been further studied at home and abroad, and the functions of Pu 'er tea have been further developed.
Mi Le Carobbi, director of clinical teaching in the Department of Medicine of San Antonio, has proved through experiments that Pu 'er tea has an unexpected effect on fat metabolism and has different effects on reducing triglyceride, cholesterol and hematuria. In addition, drinking Pu 'er tea can cause vasodilation, cerebral blood flow reduction and other physiological effects, and it is also used to prevent and treat diseases such as the elderly, hypertension and arteriosclerosis. Professor Beenaert Giacoto of Henri Lundo Hospital in Paris said, "This kind of tea seems to contain one or more special ingredients, which play a role in lipid metabolism." . The book Pu 'er Tea with Unique Efficacy written by Nosuko and Ichiro Yishan in Japan even set off a Pu 'er tea craze in Japan. 199 1 At the International Symposium on Tea and Health held in Shizuoka, Japan on August 26-29, participants showed great interest in the paper "Antioxidant Activity of Tetramethoxybenzene and Its Inducer in Black Tea" by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which aroused strong repercussions. Compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao believe that Pu 'er tea can quench thirst, strengthen the spleen and relieve alcoholism, stimulate appetite and eliminate food stagnation, inhibit bacteria and lose weight. Others think that green tea is cold: black tea is hot; Pu 'er tea is neither cold nor hot, it is economical and practical, and it is generally addictive, so it is called "Bao Li tea".
Pu 'er tea is neutral and healthy, which is more suitable for the stomach of Hong Kong people. Most people like to drink it. Mr. You Yude, director of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Tea Merchants Association, summed up the reasons why Hong Kong people like to drink Pu 'er tea as "five points" (ten words): first, it is strong enough, second, it is resistant to impact, third, it is warm, fourth, it is healthy, and fifth, it is cheap. Pu 'er tea imported from Japan is processed into exquisite small packaged tea, which is called Guifei Tea, Beauty Tea, Bodybuilding Tea, Shu Qiao Tea and Yishou Tea.
Lecture 9 Pu 'er Tea Collection
Anyone who likes aged drinks and foods should know that whether it is storing red wine, soaking medicinal liquor or brewing aged beauty, materials and production are very important, but storage is the key. Different environments and containers cannot be ignored. Therefore, top-grade aged Pu 'er tea is by no means available in a ventilated place as long as tea material is superior and well-made. According to personal experience, five main points of tea storage are summarized: constant temperature, constant humidity, avoiding light, no odor and stimulation. Top-grade aged Pu 'er tea should not only pay attention to tea materials and production, but also have mild post-fermentation storage. So, the first three must be for this. People who preserve tea know the importance of proper temperature and humidity to tea, but they often ignore that stable temperature and humidity are more conducive to moderate post-fermentation, and illumination can not be ignored, which is the same as the first two.
Ten stories about Pu 'er tea
Six major tea mountains: Gordon Tea Mountain, Mangzhi Tea Mountain, Yibang Tea Mountain, Mansa Tea Mountain, Manzhuan Tea Mountain and Youle Tea Mountain are the six major tea mountains in ancient Yunnan.
Internal flying: Before 1950, there was usually a piece of sticky rice paper with the name "internal flying" printed on it.
Printing grade tea: namely, the word "tea" is marked with different colors on the packaging paper, with red printing as the first batch, green printing as the second batch and yellow printing as the third batch.
Dry warehouse: refers to the ventilated, dry and clean Pu 'er tea storage warehouse. The stored Pu 'er tea leaves naturally ferment, and the fermentation period is long.
Wet warehouse: usually refers to putting Pu 'er tea in a damp place, such as basement and cellar, to speed up its fermentation time and speed.
No. tea cake: used to identify the number of tea cake, tea age, tea grade and manufacturer, such as: 8582 cake (the first two are 85, the third is 8-grade tea, and the last one is 2, Menghai tea factory code), and the tea factory code is 1, Kunming tea factory, 2, Menghai tea factory and 3, Xiaguan tea factory.
Discus: The thick and hard pressed tea cake is called discus, which is the same as the corresponding "baked sesame cake" in technological process.
China Tea Brand: The front of the outer paper of tea cake is marked with eight Chinese characters around the word "tea", which is the trademark of Yunnan Tea Branch of China Native Animal Import and Export Corporation.
Dayi cake: the trademark of Menghai Tea Factory in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. There is an anti-white word "Yi" in the middle of the word "Da". According to different grades and years, trademarks have different colors, such as "red seal", "blue seal" and "yellow seal"
Basic identification of Pu 'er tea
Pu 'er tea is divided into loose tea and pressed tea. Loose tea is divided into premium tea and grade one to ten and premium tea. Compacted tea includes cake tea, brick tea, Tuo tea, column tea, melon tea and human head tea. At present, the quality of Pu 'er tea on the market is mixed, so consumers must pay attention to distinguish it when buying. How to identify the quality of Pu 'er tea? Generally speaking, there are the following types:
Check the shape
Good Pu 'er tea is brownish red in appearance (commonly known as pig liver color), tender in meat, tight in rope, and smells faint fragrance of longan, rose, camphor, jujube and lotus root, accompanied by special aged fragrance.
Pu 'er loose tea is graded according to tenderness. From super-class, ten-class to first-class and super-class, the tenderness is getting higher and higher. Generally speaking, the higher the tenderness, the better the quality. There are four main points to measure tenderness: first, look at the number of buds, and there are more buds with high tenderness; Second, look at the tightness of the rope, and the softness of the tightness is high; Third, look at the smoothness of the color, the color is smooth and moist, and the tenderness is high; Fourth, look at cleanliness, uniformity and neatness, less stalks and no impurities.
The appearance of Pu 'er pressed tea should be elastic and moderate, and the color should be blue-brown, brown and reddish brown. Take the green cake as an example. Generally 3-5 years, the tea cake is compact, the round edge is complete, and the tea stalk is lavender. 5-7 years, the tea cake is complete and the tea stems are all purple; In 7- 10, the edge of tea cake was shallow, the edge was broken and the tea stalk was dark purple; /kloc-more than 0/0 years, the edge of tea cake is loose and the edge between leaves is blurred.
Look at the color of the soup
As the saying goes: Oolong smells fragrant, Pu 'er appreciates color. Put 3-5g Pu 'er tea in a pot, brew with boiling water, pour the brewed tea soup into a crystal cup, and watch the color of the soup. The soup color of Pu 'er tea is red and bright. During the processing of Pu 'er tea, about 80% of theaflavins (TF) and thearubigins (TR) were oxidized and polymerized to form theabrownin (TB), which, together with high content of soluble sugar and water extract, formed the basis of Pu 'er tea's rich flavor and reddish brown soup color. Thearubigins is the main ingredient of red in soup. During the fermentation, the activity of peroxidase was enhanced, which promoted the oxidation of theaflavins into insoluble thearubigins complex. With the aging of Pu 'er tea and the increase of fermentation time, the insoluble thearubigins complex in Pu 'er tea gradually increased, and the soup color of tea became more and more red. The tea soup is yellow-green, brown, dark and turbid, and the suspended matter is deteriorated Pu 'er tea. Guandidi
After the soup is cooked, look at the bottom of the brewed leaves (tea residue), mainly looking at softness, color and uniformity. The leaves are soft, tender and elastic, and the color is brownish red and uniform. If the leaf bottom is inelastic, the flowers are uneven, black, rotten as mud, and the leaves are not unfolded, the quality is not good.
Pinziwei
It is mainly to taste Pu 'er tea soup, smell its aroma and taste its taste, which requires sweetness, lubrication, massiness and aging. This is because there are Aspergillus Niger, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Aspergillus viridis, yeast and so on. In the post-fermentation process of Pu 'er tea, especially Aspergillus Niger and yeast. The massiness here means that the tea is strong but not weak, and the taste at the entrance is strong but not weak. Chen Xiang refers to the unique mellow taste of Pu 'er tea, which is especially different from the musty taste. The tea with musty smell is the tea with failed fermentation, and it is the Pu 'er tea that can't be drunk. Old aroma is the aroma of Pu 'er tea, which is produced by various chemical components, mainly tea polyphenols, and some new substances under the action of microorganisms and enzymes. The aroma of Pu 'er tea is characterized by obvious old aroma.
Finally, the tasting of Pu 'er tea should be related to its connotation, that is, the "five virtues", "four qualities" and "three principles" of Pu 'er tea put forward by Dr. Wang Meijin, the tea culture studio of Yunnan University.
Five virtues: health, strangeness, generosity, harmony and truth.
Health: medical care; The values of life and health in Tian Xingjian are: strange: raw materials are processed in the place of origin, and the old year is fragrant; Strange national and cultural background; Amazing changes;
Thickness: the thickness of morphology; Strong charm; Contains different tea sets and tastes;
Harmony: nature is neither cold nor hot; Contains the sum of different cultures; The sum of people; The sum of people and tea;
Truth: the truth from nature; There are many kinds of elegance but pure and natural; From external great wisdom to internal colorful truth: taste, breath, rhyme and environment.
Three principles:
Local processing of raw materials of origin (authentic theory), that is, "three principles of good tea".
Pu' er loose tea: Pu' er tea is loose tea, and it has not been pressed in the process of making tea.
Qizi cake tea: flat disc shape, each piece of Qizi cake has a net weight of 357 grams, and every seven pieces are packed in a barrel, each barrel weighs 2500 grams, hence the name Qizi cake.
Brick tea: rectangular or square, mostly 250g- 1000g. This shape is mainly for the convenience of transportation.
Tuocha: The shape is about the size of a rice bowl, each with a net weight of 100g and 250g, and now there are mini small Tuocha with a net weight of 2g-5g.
Golden melon tribute tea: pressed into semi-melon shapes of different sizes, ranging from100g to hundreds of kilograms.
Liang Qiancha: pressed into compact strips of different sizes, each of which is relatively heavy (the smallest one treaty 100 kg), hence the name: Liang Qiancha.
Guang Yun tribute cake: In addition to Yunnan Province, Guangdong Province also produces a small amount of Pu 'er tea. Some of the tea green used is imported from Yunnan province, and some is produced in Guangdong province, also called "Guangdong cake". After the 1960s, Guangdong Pu 'er tea cakes were mostly made of Guangdong tea green or Yunnan tea green and Guangdong tea green, hence the name Guang Yun Palace.
Memorial cake (brick, lump): a small batch of tea specially made to commemorate an event, with corresponding number and certificate, such as the 50th anniversary tea of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
Dai bamboo tube tea: bamboo tube tea, which is called "pulling head" in Dai language. Sun-dried spring tea, or rough tea after primary processing, is put into fresh bamboo tubes, and the growth period is about one year.
Distinguish the year of Pu 'er tea
1, look at the appearance of tea.
The new Pu 'er tea is fresh in appearance, white and rich in flavor. Pu 'er tea is post-oxidized for a long time; The appearance of tea leaves will be purple-red, and the white hairs will turn yellow-brown.
Step 2 identify the color of the wrapping paper
Usually pressed aged Pu 'er tea, the white paper of its packaging has become obsolete with the passage of time, so the paper is slightly yellow. Therefore, you can start with the aging degree of paper hand-weaving and printing, which can only be used as a reference, not as an absolute basis, because some unscrupulous businessmen may use this psychology to replace inferior products with old yellow wrapping paper.
3. Know the tea year
Generally speaking, the years of Pu 'er tea are usually divided as follows:
1949 Pu 'er tea produced in this period before is called "antique tea", such as centennial pine products, centennial tongxing tribute, centennial tongqing, tongchanglao, and pine products. Usually there is a piece of sticky rice paper in the tea cake with a name printed on it, which is called "Fei Fei".
1949- 1967, China's tea industry produced "tea grading", that is, on the tea characters on the packaging paper, the red seal was the first batch, the green seal was the second batch, and the yellow seal was the third batch.
After 1968, the tea cakes produced at this time were no longer printed with the name of China Tea Company, but were produced by various tea factories, collectively referred to as "Yunnan Qizi Cake", including: Xueyin Green Cake 73 Green Cake, Big Mouth Small Green Seal, Small Yellow Seal and so on.