The annual 3.15 has passed a few days ago, and the various problems exposed by CCTV are still fermenting on the Internet. Among them, the most disgusting is not "pit sauerkraut", many old sauerkraut instant noodles, using this sauerkraut. I love eating instant noodles, and I feel like I won't love it anymore (crying)!
Although 315 this year did not expose the problem of counterfeiting in tea, everyone in its implementation knows that the phenomenon of counterfeiting and inferiority in the tea market also exists. For example, adding pigments, flavors and talcum powder to tea leaves, such as direct aging tea renovation, new tea aging and so on. These are the "garbage" in tea, consumers should pay attention to the distinction when purchasing, beware of deception.
1. Pigment tea
Among the 6 major tea categories in China, the most important tea color is green tea. Many people buy green tea, first of all, from the dry tea color to judge. If the color is gray and dull, there is no luster, and it will not be purchased. If the tea color is tender green, yellow, green and green, it can stimulate consumers' desire to buy.
Green tea processing is not complicated, under normal circumstances, the finished new tea color is better. However, because the level of technology is not at home, the tea leaves are broken, or stored for a long time, after oxidation and discoloration, the color of the tea leaves is very ugly, affecting sales.
Some black-hearted merchants deliberately add pigments for profit to change the color of dried tea, making it look greener and brighter, with high gloss and improving the appearance. Most commonly used as a pigment is a chemical called lead-chromium green, which was originally a paint and has strong toxicity. If excessive intake, it will cause significant damage to the central nervous system of the person.
When identifying, you can check the dry tea tea millimeter, added pigment, the tea milli and the tea color, are green tea, and normal tea milli is usually gray-white. In addition, soaking water with tea leaves and sprinkling on paper towels indicates that a stain has been added if there are significant greenery blocks.
2. Flavor tea
Many tea friends have asked me, Tieguanyin smells so fragrant, is it added flavor?
My answer is that the authentic Tieguanyin does not add fragrance, and its orchid aroma is entirely derived from the production process and the tea plant variety itself, without any other exotic fragrance.
However, in the market, there are indeed many fake and shoddy Tieguanyin, as long as 9 pieces of 9, but also packaged gifts, the price is low to the point of frightening people. Such a Tieguanyin is certainly not authentic, and it is possible to add flavor.
This problem also exists in other teas, especially in low-grade green teas. In order to enhance the aroma of tea leaves and cover up the odor of inferior products, black heart merchants may add flavors.
Flavor tea is easier to judge, as long as it smells particularly strong, even with a pungent aroma, generally not a normal tea aroma. The aroma of normal tea is very natural, fresh and long-lasting, but not too intense. Moreover, the normal tea aroma, brewed with low temperature water, does not smell the obvious aroma, but flavor tea can.
In addition, the aroma of flavor tea can not last, at first very fragrant, but after repeated brewing, the aroma quickly dissipated, showing a cliff-like downward trend, and the real tea aroma will slowly decline with the increase in the number of brewing.
3. Make old tea
In recent years, the old tea market has become more and more popular, and many people are keen to buy and store old tea, on the one hand, they feel that the taste of old tea is better, on the other hand, they feel that the value of old tea is higher.
Once, a tea friend showed off to me that she bought old white tea that had been stored for more than 20 years.
However, you know, white tea has really caught fire in recent years. Ten years ago, except for Fujian and surrounding provinces and cities, almost no one in other parts of the country knew about white tea, let alone drank it.
Before 2005, most of Fuding white tea was loose tea, and there was no local habit of storing tea in large quantities. It was in those years that the tight-pressing tea process spread to Fuding, and the white tea began to press the cake, and only then did it have the concept of hyping up old white tea.
It can be said that there are almost no authentic white teas that are more than 10 years old on the market, let alone more than 20 years old white tea. These are those black-hearted merchants, in order to excess profits, desperately take risks, take various methods, new tea is old, as old tea sold to consumers.
There are many means of making old tea counterfeiting, mainly through kneading, wodui fermentation, high temperature and high humidity, old tea noodles, new tea cores, old tea bags and new teas.
Want to identify, mainly by looking at the inner and outer structure of the pressed tea, to see whether the bottom of the leaf is miscellaneous, smell the aroma of the tea is Chen Xiang or huogong incense, see the change in soup color, if it is from shallow to dark to shallow, it is normal, if the more shallow the bubble, there is no change in depth, it may be old tea.
In addition to the above several kinds of fake and shoddy "garbage tea", there are talc tea, saccharin tea and so on. These teas are not only difficult to drink, but also may hurt the body, we must pay attention. Of course, in addition to the old tea, several other teas mostly appear in low-grade inferior tea, as long as you do not covet cheap, to buy 9 pieces of 9 packs of tea, generally will not encounter.