丨 This article was originally produced by Xiao Chen Tea
丨 First published in the headline number: Xiao Chen Tea Affair
丨Author: Village Gu Chen
《1》
In the early years, some people have been bad at tea cakes.
The reason is that teas such as green tea and black tea are loose teas.
I have never seen anyone sell green tea cakes and black tea cakes on the market, right? Therefore, the cake tea itself is an outlier.
A similar view once spread in the tea circle, and some people even proposed that good tea does not press the cake.
However, I did not dare to agree.
Presumably, those who agree with these words must not know much about history.
Tea guests who understand the history of tea a little will know that before Zhu Yuanzhang's "Xingshan tea and waste group tea" in the early Ming Dynasty, the mainstream form of tea in China was cake tea, that is, tuan tea.
It is recorded in Lu Yu's "Tea Classic":
"Clear, pick, steam, pound, shoot, bake, wear, seal, tea dry."
This means that the tea green is picked on a sunny day, steamed and mashed, photographed into a ball, and then worn one by one with a rope for baking.
According to the perspective of modern craftsmanship, the dragon and phoenix tuan tea of the Tang and Song dynasties is very similar to the modern steaming and pressing process.
It can be seen that the tea press cake is not only not an outlier, but once as the mainstream, it flourished.
However, with the continuous development of history, green tea and black tea have become what they are today.
No longer pressing the cake, but maintaining the state of loose tea, is well known to people.
But even so, we should respect history and respect reality.
《2》
When it comes to pressing cakes, the first thing that many people think of is white tea cakes.
In the tea circle, the appearance of white tea can be described as diverse.
There are white silver needles with full buds and one flag and one shot, white peonies with beautiful bodies and leaves like thin willows, and shoumei with thick branches and large leaves.
All three of them can be pressed into cakes from the form of loose tea.
The production of white tea cakes is different from ancient times, and in modern times, it is pressed on the basis of loose tea.
Moreover, the white tea loose tea that has just been made is not suitable for pressing the cake.
Because at that time, the drying had just been completed, and the tea was like going through a marathon, and there was not enough physical strength to cope with the next cake pressing process.
If you are in a hurry to take it to the cake, the nutrients have not yet gathered, the performance of aroma and taste is not good, and the quality is naturally not good.
So, be patient.
Wait until it is stored for about half a year, and then press the cake after the endoplasm is re-gathered, which is the best time.
Cake tea and loose tea can be described as the unique double pride of the white tea industry.
The former is plump and mellow, the latter is pure and lovely, each with its own characteristics and advantages.
At the same time, it also gives tea friends more room to choose.
Another person said, "Good tea does not press the cake, because it will destroy the nutrients in the tea." ”
It is undeniable that the process of pressing the cake will cause a small part of the material inside the tea to be lost.
But for a good tea with rich endoplasm, it is not enough to hang teeth.
What is usually said about "flaws are not hidden" is such a truth.
Good cake pressing technique, is superb, is just right.
With minimal wear and tear, batches of well-crafted, elastic and suitable white tea cakes are produced.
Not only are they easy to pry up, but they also have good aging space in the future, and it is easy to convert good flavors.
It can be seen that the quality of white tea has nothing to do with the form, and loose tea and cake tea are the mainstream.
《3》
The benefits of white tea pressed cakes are mainly two points.
First, the flavor is unique.
Second, it is convenient for storage.
Many people like to buy white tea cakes because they expect it to age in two or three years.
This jujube fragrance is warm and pleasant, and the taste is similar to the sweet smell of steamed red date cake.
Jujube is a kind of fruity fragrance.
Under normal circumstances, if you want white tea to produce a fruity aroma, it must be fermented.
In fact, whether it is white tea or rock tea, black tea, this is the case.
When white tea changes from loose tea to cake tea, it needs to be steamed, kneaded, pressed and dried.
During this process, the cell wall of the tea leaves ruptures, and the cell fluid flows out in large quantities and attaches to the leaf surface.
It not only becomes a natural binder between leaves, but also increases the opportunity for tea to come into contact with oxygen molecules, laying favorable conditions for the formation of jujube fragrance.
In other words, there is a broken wall, and only then can there be a jujube fragrance.
The loose tea, which remains intact in appearance, will age in the future to produce medicinal incense, rice incense, chen incense, bamboo leaf incense, bamboo leaf incense...
But only, it will not produce jujube fragrance.
Therefore, this is also a valuable place for white tea cakes.
After all, jujube fragrance is unique to cake tea, while loose tea does not, so it is particularly special.
However, not all white tea cakes have jujube fragrance, one is good production area, good craftsmanship, good storage, and the other is Shoumei.
Because the leaves and tea stems of Shoumei contain a large amount of pectin substances and soluble sugars, which are the specific conditions required for the formation of jujube fragrance.
From experience, in the alpine old shoumei cake, we often drink a rich, warm, delightful jujube fragrance.
Clear and non-replaceable.
As for the convenience of storage, this is better understood.
Compared with the fluffy loose tea, the white tea cake after pressing the cake is more rounded and well-behaved.
The footprint has been greatly reduced, so the space required for storage has also been reduced.
For tea lovers with limited family storage space, you can safely choose to start with white tea cakes, and a large number of collections are not a problem.
Or, reasonably arrange the ratio of loose tea to cake tea, you can choose to collect cake tea as the mainstay, supplemented by loose tea.
It can be said that the emergence of white tea cakes has further lowered the threshold for storing tea.
There is no need for a lot of space, and there is no need for a special large villa for storage, everyone has the opportunity to harvest the old white tea they have saved.
《4》
Can the newly purchased white tea cake be completely split into loose tea for storage?
At this time, Li Mahua said in a word: Isn't this a superfluous move?
Yes, wasting time doing meaningless things is not redundant?
You know, the purpose of buying white tea cake is to enjoy the mellow soup after aging, which is completely different from the plump taste of loose tea.
By the way, reduce the pressure of space for storing your own tea.
And all the white tea cakes were broken up, and once they returned to the pre-liberation period, all efforts were in vain.
If you really like loose tea, you can buy loose tea directly, so why go around such a big circle?
In a way, a complete piece of white tea cake is like a small group.
They breathe together, progress with each other, and are also a small-scale team aging.
Hugging the group can make the endoplasm transformation of the tea more uniform, and the aroma and taste are more intense.
But if you take apart all the white tea cakes, you become several independent individuals, some large and some small, some thick and some thin.
Although it may still be in the same space, it is no longer the state of intimacy it was in the past.
The process of their aging has also slowly opened up the gap.
It can be seen that doing so will ruin the whole white tea cake.
Especially the white tea cake that has just been made, it is precisely when it is necessary to be quiet, slowly gather the endoplasm, and strive to age.
At this time, breaking it apart is undoubtedly worse.
Therefore, the best way should be how much to drink and how much to pry.
The remaining white tea cakes, after being wrapped up as they are, continue to seal to ensure good storage.
In this way, the life of white tea can be extended as long as possible, and the contained substances are not destroyed.
《5》
For the white tea cake, everyone's evaluation is mixed.
Those who like it are very fond of it, regard it as a treasure, and those who are dissatisfied with it will simply turn a deaf ear.
In short, the polarization is extremely severe.
But when I saw the moment of white tea cake, I suddenly remembered the sentence on the Internet, "The trend is a circle."
Everything has a cyclical, cyclical trend that we call retro.
For example, tea cakes have appeared as early as the Tang and Song dynasties, and were later discarded for various reasons.
Until now, it has returned to our sights again.
In fact, it should not have been hostile to it, because it existed.
White tea cake is a strange flower in the tea circle.
Strange, originally meant to mean a strange and beautiful flower, is a kind of praise.
It can also be used to describe white tea cakes, not worldly, full of personality.
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Xiao chen tea village gu Chen, columnist, tea industry original new media "Xiao Chen tea matter" chief writer, has published a white tea monograph "White Tea Tasting Notes", 2016-2020 has written more than 4,000 original articles.