How to learn to choose a good "fine tea"？

 If you want to taste the aroma and rhythm of tea, you must first learn how to choose and buy good tea leaves, otherwise tea art will be just empty talk. Therefore, "fine tea" has become a key link in the tea art.

Most of the tea the ancients drank is pure tea, so the method of identification is re-latively simple. For example, Lu Yu said in the "Tea Classic": "The wild ones go to the gardens; the purple ones go to the green ones..." Nowadays, due to cultivation, With the development of picking and production technology, there are many kinds of tea, so it is more difficult to identify. Generally speaking, the best quality is the new tea.

Under normal circumstances, new tea refers to the tea made from the first few batches of fresh tea leaves picked from the tea trees in the spring of that year and processed. The institutions or departments that purchase tea refer to "grabbing the new", the institutions or departments that distribute tea refer to the "marketing of new tea", and the tea consumers refer to "tasting the new", which usually refer to the earliest picking and processing of tea each year. The first batches of tea leaves made.

In addition, new tea can also refer to tea leaves that were picked from tea trees and processed in the same year; old tea refers to tea leaves that were picked a year or more ago and processed and made, which is relative to new tea. .

As the saying goes, "drinking tea needs to be new, and drinking needs to be old", which is the experience summed up by people after long-term practice. For most tea varieties, new tea is indeed better than old tea. Tang Geng of the Song Dynasty once wrote in "The Story of Tea Fighting": "When I hear tea, I don't ask the group to carry it, but it is expensive and new, and the water does not ask the Jiangjing. From the point of view of taste and shape, it gives people a sense of freshness and is called "fresh and fragrant".

The old tea in the next year, whether it is the color of the tea or the taste of the tea, always gives people a feeling of "fragrant and dark".

Not all tea leaves are newer than older teas. West Lake Longjing, Qigun, Dongting Biluochun, Moganhuangya, Guzhu Zisun and other teas can remove the smell of grass if they can be stored in a quicklime vat for 1 to 2 months; Wuyi rock tea, which is rich in Fujian, and Hunan Black tea from Hubei, Hanzhuan tea from Hubei, Liubao tea from Guangxi, Pu'er tea from Yunnan, etc., the aged tea has a rich aroma and mellow taste the next year, so you should not stick to your choice of tea.

Generally speaking, when purchasing tea, you can refer to the following methods to identify the pros and cons of tea.

Observation

Observe the color

The tenderness and production process of tea raw materials are closely related to the color of tea leaves. Different types of tea have different requirements for color, such as green tea needs to be green and translucent, black tea needs to be black and moist, oolong tea needs to be blue-brown, black tea needs to be black and oily, etc. However, no matter what kind of tea it is, it is good tea with uniform color, moist and bright, oily and fresh.

In addition, the color of tea leaves is also very important to the origin and season of tea trees. For example, green tea from high mountains is green and slightly yellow in color, fresh and translucent; tea from low mountains or plains is dark green and shiny. In the process of making tea, if the processing technology is not appropriate, the color of the tea is often deteriorated.

When buying tea, you need to judge according to the type of tea you want to buy. For example, the best quality Shifeng Longjing, its "Mingqian tea" (the tea leaves picked before the Qingming Festival) is bright yellow, and has a natural brown beige color, not aquamarine. This is also an important feature of the color of Shifeng Longjing. 

Due to the extremely high selling price of Shifeng Longjing, some tea farmers will slightly overcook other tea leaves in the process of frying, so that the leaf color turns yellow, in order to create a color similar to Shifeng Longjing to pass the fake. The di-fference between the real and the fake is that the real Lion Peak is well-proportioned and smooth, light yellow and green; the fake Lion Peak is loose and empty, rough and yellowish. It is indeed not easy to judge without many comparisons, and people need to pay special attention to observation.

Observe the shape

As long as it is a famous tea, it pays attention to the shape of the tea. The "shape" mentioned here refers to the shape of the outer surface of the tea leaves, which are roughly oblong, curly, flat, needle, mosaic, bead, granule, flake, and brick. , cake-shaped and powder-shaped, etc. For example, the famous Longjing "Yuqiancha" (tea made from picking before the Grain Rain after the Qingming Festival) has long small leaves on the bud handle, shaped like a colorful flag; the tea bud is slightly longer, like a gun, so it is called "flag gun".

There are about 30,000 to 40,000 buds in a pound of dry tea. It is not easy to pick, and even more difficult to bake. The production process is very elegant. Each pot can only fry 2 taels at a time. Flat and light" standard.

It can be seen from this that the famous tea with perfect shape can be used as a work of art for people to appreciate and ponder. When selecting and purchasing tea leaves, it should be noted that the appearance of each type of tea has certain characteristics, such as silver needles, round beads, sparrow tongues, or melon seed slices. Some leaves are loose, some are loose. The leaves are tightly connected. Generally speaking, the quality of new tea with uniform size, thickness and length is superior; the quality of tea with irregular appearance and even mixed with tea stalks and tea seeds is inferior.

Discrimination

Identify aroma

The aroma mentioned here not only refers to the aroma of tea leaves after being brewed in boiling water, but also includes the aroma of dry tea. The aroma of tea is closely related to the aromatic substances contained in fresh leaves and the produc-tion method of tea. Ordinary fresh leaves contain about 50 kinds of aromatic subs-tances, green tea contains more than 100 kinds, and black tea contains more than 300 kinds. According to the type of aroma, tea leaves can be divided into tender aroma type, cent aroma type, floral aroma type, fresh aroma type, fruit aroma type and sweet aroma type.

For example, in ancient times, Wuyi Rock Tea, which is as famous as the West Lake Longjing, grows between the peaks and rocks with more clouds and fog, and receives less sunlight. Moreover, Fujian has a mild climate and a lot of rainfall, which produces a lot of tea aroma substances. It is no wonder that the ancients judged Wuyi rock tea by "the bell of the elites of the mountains and rivers, and the fragrance of rock bones and flowers". When choosing and buying new tea, it is very important to distinguish the aroma of the tea. The better the quality of the new tea, the stronger the aroma.

For another example, the new green tea smells fresh and refreshing. When chewing or brewing with boiling water, it produces a sweet fragrance. , burnt smell, it is not high-quality new tea; if the aroma is weak, or there is an old smell, it is old tea.

Identify the taste of tea

In the "Taste of Tea" written by Qi Yi of the Tang Dynasty, it is mentioned that "taste strikes the sleeping devil, and fragrance searches for sleep and thinks light". It can be seen that "taste" and "fragrance" are equally important in tea products. The so-called tea taste actually refers to the taste of the tea soup obtained after the tea leaves are brewed. The taste of tea is related to the odorous substances contained in tea leaves: polyphenols have a bitter taste, caffeine has a bitter taste, amino acids have a umami taste, sugars have a sweet taste, and pectin has a strong taste. According to the type of tea taste, tea leaves can be divided into thick type, strong fresh type, mellow type, mellow type, peaceful type, fresh sweet type, astringent type, bitter type and coarse and old type. The tea flavor types of tea leaves are so close that it is difficult to distinguish them by the subtle sensation of the tongue.

After the tea soup enters the mouth, it is mellow and fresh, rich and refreshing, and the tea leaves that leave a sweet taste in the mouth are of the best quality. For example, when selecting and purchasing green tea, a small sample is usually brewed with boiled water and tasted. A good-quality green tea has a bitter and astringent first taste, and a sweet and rich aftertaste, with a chestnut-like aroma.

Identify wet and dry

In addition to identifying the aroma and taste of tea, you should also pay attention to the dryness and humidity of the tea. Usually, by pinching the tea leaves with your fingers, you can judge the dryness and wetness of the new tea. Only fresh, dry tea can be stored longer. Damp tea contains a certain amount of water, not only the color, aroma, taste and shape will be greatly affected, but also easily moldy and deteriorated, so it is not suitable for purchase. When purchasing, take one or two pieces of tea leaves and place them between the thumb and index finger, and twist them slightly. If they can be twisted into powder, it means that the tea leaves are dry。

In addition, when purchasing, pay special attention to those inferior teas that are shoddy. To this end, we introduce the main characteristics of the two famous teas here for reference when distinguishing. The shape of the Meridian Xianhao is slightly flat and the bar is straight, like the petals of an orchid. . Meridian green tea is well-proportioned and tidy in shape, tight, thin, heavy, solid, with sharp sprouts, emerald green color, refreshing and lasting aroma, with aroma similar to chestnut, tea soup is tender green and clear, leaf bottom is light green and bright, tea taste is mellow, making People have endless aftertastes.

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