By observing the appearance, soup color and taste of Pu 'er tea, the quality and grade of Pu 'er tea can be distinguished. First of all, it depends on the appearance of Pu 'er tea, whether it is tea cake, Tuo tea, brick tea or other kinds of tea. First of all, it depends on whether the strips of tea are complete, whether the leaves are old or tender, whether the old leaves are big and whether the young leaves are thin. If you can't see obvious stripes (lines formed by tea fragments) on the outside of a tea cake, it looks broken and thin, which is a second-rate product. Second, it depends on the color of tea, whether it is dark or light, including how bright. Authentic is the color of pig liver, which is the color of Pu 'er tea that Chen Fang has been in for more than five years. Third, look at the color of the soup. Good Pu 'er tea, the tea soup is transparent and shiny, and there seems to be a film of oil beads on the soup. Not good, the tea soup is dark; Fourth, smell the smell. If you can't get the fragrance out, you can't get it back. Old tea depends on whether it has a unique old taste. It is a very sweet taste, not a "smelly servant taste". If you can try soaking, see if the bottom of the soaked leaves is complete and whether they remain soft. As far as tea cakes are concerned, we should also pay attention to whether the internal and external quality is consistent, rather than the kind of "covering tea" with tea dregs. To judge the basic quality of Pu 'er tea, the following conditions must be met: normal quality, no deterioration and no peculiar smell; Pu 'er tea must be clean and free of non-tea inclusions; Pu 'er tea shall not be colored and contains no additives; The shape of Pu 'er tea cake should be smooth, neat and symmetrical. In addition, judging the year of Pu 'er tea, there are not many aged teas on the market, which is difficult to judge. People should pay more attention when buying. In principle, the smell of Pu 'er tea cake can be used as one of the references to judge the year. There should be five to ten years of Chen Fang's sweet taste, three to five years of mediocre taste without miscellaneous taste, and all raw and miscellaneous tastes belong to new cakes. Finally, you can also look at the looseness of tea cakes, because tea cakes will be loose after long-term exposure to air. The older, the better —— The misunderstanding in the historical records of Pu 'er tea. Pu 'er tea originally refers to the tea produced and distributed in Pu 'er County, Yunnan Province. I used to sell it to Xifan for cattle, sheep and horses. Today, the Silk Road and the ancient tea-horse road remain quietly in the long river of history. In recent years, the consumption market of tea industry is changing quietly, and more and more people drink Pu 'er tea. Merchants of Tieguanyin, Shan Zong and green tea, which account for the majority in the wholesale market, also turned to Pu 'er tea. There are more and more shops opening Yunnan Pu 'er tea, and the scale is getting bigger and bigger. Tea lovers collect one or two tons or even several tons of Pu 'er tea at home. According to the survey, this trend is spreading all over the country, and a boom of Pu 'er tea has been set off in China. Firstly, it is related to its health care effects, such as reducing blood fat, cholesterol, fat and tiredness, sobering up and quenching thirst, promoting metabolism, beauty beauty, detoxicating and losing weight, nourishing stomach and diminishing inflammation. Secondly, it is related to its appreciation potential. A 357-gram tea cake preserved more than 80 years ago has a market value of about 38,000 yuan. In the market, you may not be able to buy it casually! It is for these reasons that many books about Pu 'er tea have appeared on the market. It is not difficult to see from the book that "the older Pu 'er tea is, the better". Tea lovers often say that "the older Pu 'er tea is, the better". What exactly is "the older the better"? Opinions vary. The following is my understanding of Pu 'er tea, hoping to communicate with tea friends and discuss it together. Pu 'er tea belongs to post-fermented tea. I think "the older the better" is a misunderstanding. Yes, generally speaking, the older Pu 'er tea is, the better, but there are certain preconditions. In other words, it depends on the storage environment, the authenticity of tea and Chen Fang's age. Here are five basic factors to judge Pu 'er tea for the reference of tea lovers: First, raw tea and cooked tea determine the quality. Raw tea and cooked tea are also called green cakes and cooked cakes. Before the 1970s, old tea was mainly green cake and raw tea. The collected tea leaves are withered, dried, autoclaved and molded without fermentation process to make cake tea and loose tea, which is called raw tea (green cake Pu 'er). Let it come into contact with air and ferment after natural changes occur. The longer the storage time, the more alcohol the tea quality changes. 1973, Kunming Tea Factory successfully studied the hot-pile fermentation technology, which accelerated the aging of tea and greatly shortened the fermentation time. This method of cooking tea leaves at a certain temperature and humidity is called cooked tea (cooked cake Pu 'er). The fermentation of cooked tea has been qualitative, and the storage time will not change the quality of tea itself. In recent years, some unscrupulous tea merchants only pay attention to immediate interests, using factories and warehouses with harsh and humid environment to make aged Pu 'er tea, recycling loose tea from various places at low prices, and adding high temperature and high humidity to make effluent Pu 'er tea. This old tea is basically fermented to death. The warm, humid and bad sanitary environment encourages the evil life of insects and bacteria. Is this tea still valuable? The difference between raw tea and cooked tea can be distinguished from the bottom of brewed tea and tea soup. After raw tea is brewed, the tea leaves are soft, fresh, elastic and energetic. Even antique tea that has been stored for a long time can make you feel its vitality and "real charm". The tea soup is clear and bright, the tea leaves are fresh and sweet, and the entrance is mellow and smooth. After the ripe tea is brewed, the leaves are as thin and black as sticks, lifeless and difficult to achieve. When strong water is used to make old tea, the tea leaves are moldy like cloth residue, and the tea soup is dark and even black, with strong cooked taste and peculiar smell. With the passage of time, although the cooked taste is expected to fade gradually, the taste is dry and there is no obvious effect of returning sweetness and promoting salivation. Second, explore the storage conditions of dry warehouse and wet warehouse. With a good tea base, we must carefully distinguish the storage location of Pu 'er tea. Dry storage means that tea leaves are fermented in an environment with moderate temperature and humidity, ventilation, freshness and no peculiar smell. It belongs to the natural aging process, retains the essence of Pu 'er tea and increases the value of tea tasting. Wet storage is an environment in which some tea merchants store fresh raw Pu 'er tea in poorly ventilated and humid cellars, bomb shelters and earthen houses in order to make fresh raw Pu 'er tea drink early and make profits immediately. Due to the increase of relative humidity in the air, it is easy to cause Aspergillus in tea and accelerate aging. This kind of Aspergillus oxidation is called fermentation after wet storage. Wet-stored Pu 'er tea completely destroyed tea fiber, changed the original essence of tea, and violated the law of natural oxidation and fermentation of tea endoplasm.