This article is originally written by White Tea Classroom and may not be reproduced by anyone and the media without permission
《1》
Browsing through the topic of white tea, I found an interesting post.
The original post is "2021 Shoumei cake, pressed very tightly, very tightly, the tea knife is leveraged, please taste." ”
There are also several pictures, in which the tea cakes are pried, and there are many broken teas around.
The last one is a curved tea knife, which shows the firmness of this tea cake.
Click on the comments, you can see from the higher popularity of a few, many people are "tea cake pie".
"Tightly pressed tea cake is good, Shoumei loose tea takes up too much space, after storing Shoumei old tea, 10 pounds of Shoumei has a large box."
"Tea cakes are good, take up small places, and cake tea ages faster than loose tea."
"Although Shoumei is pressed for the cake, will this cake be pressed too tightly?" Even the tea knife was bent, which is exaggerated. ”
A slip of comments to see down, most of the shoumei is suitable for tightly pressed tea, not suitable for loose tea, the volume is too large, for storing tea too much to occupy the place.
So, should the loose tea form of Shoumei be eliminated?
《2》
First let's take a look at the Shoumei press cake, is not the tighter the better.
The pressed cake pays attention to a moderate elasticity, usually the situation, will not be too tight to press the tea cake.
Too tight tea cakes Are easy to pry too tight when prying cakes.
The national standard stipulates that the water content of white tea shall not exceed 8.5%.
Therefore, white tea with a water content of the standard is dry and fragile, and in the process of prying, it will be more or less broken tea.
However, in the process of prying, the amount of broken tea will generally be more than usual.
Because the pressure is too tight, more force is required when prying the cake, otherwise, it is difficult to pry out a piece of tea cake.
In this way, it may lead to the production of a large number of broken teas.
I believe that most tea lovers should not like to drink crushed tea.
It is not easy to brew, which increases the difficulty of brewing. It is necessary to accurately grasp the size of the outlet to avoid it falling into the fair cup.
Because it falls into the fair cup, it disguises the contact time between the tea leaves and the water, resulting in bitter tea soup.
Moreover, if the tea cake is pressed too tightly, it is recommended to use a tea needle.
Otherwise, there will be a situation of tea friends in the post, and the tea knives are all bent.
The breakthrough power of the tea needle is stronger and more suitable for this type of tea cake.
But not everyone can skillfully use pry tools, sharp tea needles, which is dangerous to such tea friends.
And white tea with moderate elasticity can be easily done with a tea knife.
There's no need to do everything.
Like shoumei cake, you can find a place with tea stems on the side, and as a starting point, you can easily insert a tea knife.
Then gently shake it from side to side, and finally with just a gentle lift, a complete piece of tea cake is pried.
《3》
Must the aging speed of pressed tea be faster than loose tea?
not necessarily.
If the tea master does not have the skill to go home, the white tea is pressed into a hard discus.
The cake pressing process that is not in place will deplete the endoplasm of white tea and reduce the quality of white tea.
The tea cakes squeeze each other, leaving no gap, the overly intimate tea leaves are about to suffocate, and how to age?
The aging of white tea requires the participation of trace amounts of oxygen.
Tightly sewn tea cakes, breathing is difficult, it is difficult to carry out material conversion.
Just like a vacuum space, the material activity of white tea is static, and it is easy to have inconsistencies in internal and external aging.
Inside the "discus", oxygen is difficult to enter, resulting in a slow or even stopped aging rate of white tea.
However, the surface layer of "lucky ones" has sufficient oxygen supply, and the aging rate is relatively normal.
What is the point of aging with inconsistent pace?
Finally, the same tea cake presents a different flavor inside and outside, what a strange situation.
Not tight and loose, layer by layer, is the appearance of the tea cake, in order to make the tea cake inside and outside the aging speed consistent.
Shoumei cake tea ages faster than loose tea, not fake.
The shoumei of the correct pressing of the cake, the elasticity is moderate, on the basis of loose tea, it is steamed, kneaded, and pressed, and finally the form of the tea cake is obtained.
During this process, the cell wall of the tea leaves ruptures and the cell fluid spills out with the leaf surface.
This means that more matter is communicated with oxygen and substances are exchanged.
Over time, the white tea cake ages slightly faster than loose tea.
《4》
Does slow loose tea have no value?
In the fast-paced 21st century, taking your time is not a romance.
Loose tea, under the simple process, retains a large number of flavor substances, and there are also irreplaceable places for cake tea.
The biggest advantage of loose tea is its original taste.
Without any processing, the "pure natural, pollution-free" has been achieved to the extreme, and the aroma and taste are extremely natural.
For example, in the autumn of 2018, its aroma is based on floral fragrance, accompanied by floral and herbal fragrances.
Aged for many years, after brewing, the overall aroma is somber, more stable than the aroma of the new tea period.
Maybe it's just that the edges and corners have been smoothed out by the years.
Smell the incense while it is hot, it is a rich medicinal fragrance, slightly cooled, and the fresh bamboo leaf incense is used as the tail note.
Smell the tea, then taste the tea soup.
Even the old white tea is not flexible, clean, and gives people a refreshing feeling.
After soaking until 3 or 4 strokes, the consistency of the soup continues to deepen, and the mouth is full of pulp.
It can be seen that loose tea does not lose its charm, and when the quality is the same, it is not worse than cake tea.
Moreover, the brewing of loose tea is more convenient.
Directly open the package to take the tea, brew according to the appropriate proportion of tea, so that you can get a cup of pure taste of tea soup, how convenient.
No need to pry tea, do not worry about the tea pry technique is not skilled, master the angle, strength, resulting in pry out of the broken tea, affecting the flavor of tea soup.
Loose tea is the gospel of tea pry novices and lazy people.
《5》
Loose tea and cake tea, both forms are suitable for Shoumei, there is no high or low distinction.
The two are equally divided into autumn colors and do not distinguish between each other.
You can choose according to your personal preferences and tastes.
If you don't want to pry tea and want to drink a refreshing, refreshing tea soup, you can consider loose tea.
If you want to taste the plump and mellow soup, mellow and plump tea soup, you can try cake tea.
However, "rain and dew are evenly dipped", tasting the flavor of each tea and enriching the tea drinking experience is the best approach.
A tea, the form is secondary, the quality is the key.
Instead of focusing on choosing loose tea or cake tea, it is better to focus on the pursuit of quality.
The aroma and taste of good tea is valuable.
Welcome to pay attention to the [White Tea Classroom] to learn more about white tea knowledge!
Copyright notice: This article is originally written by taimumagu in the white tea classroom, and shall not be reproduced by any media without permission, and tea friends are welcome to forward to the circle of friends!