Wuyi Rock Tea was born in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and is the ancestor of Oolong Tea. In ancient times, it was loved by celebrities, and the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty wrote the famous sentence "On the best Wuyi products, smelling green and bone fish" to praise Wuyi rock tea.
Nowadays, there are many people who love Wuyi rock tea, but many people can't drink it, so only by knowing how to brew and how to taste it can they truly understand the wonder of rock tea.
Liang Zhangzhi of the Qing Dynasty for the tasting of Wuyi rock tea, once refined into "live, sweet, clear, fragrant" four words, of which live refers to lubrication, refreshing, not stagnant; gan, refers to refreshing and sweet; Qing, refers to clear alcohol without miscellaneous taste; incense, refers to the tooth cheek incense.
Guo Yaling, a national first-class tea evaluator, also summarized the quality characteristics of rock tea varieties.
For example, in the rock tea, the aroma of da hong pao is rich, long and distant, and the taste is strong and mellow; the daffodil orchid is fragrant, sweet and refreshing; the cinnamon is rich and long-lasting, the aroma is spicy, and there is a fragrance of cinnamon or peach.
So, for many of us ordinary tea lovers, when brewing and tasting, what factors should we pay attention to in order to truly appreciate the charm of Wuyi rock tea?
The first is water selection. No matter what kind of tea, it must be brewed with water, and the taste must also be reflected through the tea soup. Therefore, the choice of tea water is very important, in general, it is best not to choose tap water for tea brewing, and if you have the conditions, you can choose mountain spring water, or commercially available pure water.
This is followed by water temperature. Brewing rock tea, it is best to brew with 100 ° C boiling water, so as to be able to stimulate the aroma of tea, especially some high boiling point substances that can present flowers and fruits. In addition, it is best to blanch the cup with boiling water before brewing to ensure the temperature of the cup.
The tea-to-water ratio refers to the ratio of dried tea to water input. For most tea friends, if you use a 110ml lid bowl, it is more appropriate to put tea at 7 to 9g. Of course, the personal taste is different, and the amount of tea can be appropriately adjusted according to the needs.
In addition to the tea-to-water ratio, what affects the taste of tea soup is the time of soup. In general, the first bubble can be soaked for about 15 seconds, the second to third bubble can be soaked for 10 to 12 seconds, and then the brewing time is increased slightly per bubble. If you master it properly, you can brew more than 7 times, and some can brew more than 10 times.
After talking about brewing, it's time to talk about tasting.
The tasting of rock tea mainly includes color, aroma, taste and so on.
The dry tea of rock tea is generally green brown or brownless, and good rock tea, dry tea is moist and uniform, and there is less breaking.
The color of the tea soup has a lot to do with the weight of the fire. Lightly roasted rock tea, the soup color is golden yellow or dark yellow; the soup color of medium roasting is orange yellow or dark orange yellow; and the soup color of high fire is orange red or brownish red.
The shade of the color of the tea soup can help you judge the weight of the rock tea fire, but it does not represent the quality of the quality.
Only the clear brightness of the soup color can reflect the quality of rock tea, good rock tea is no matter what the color, tea soup should be clear and transparent, and turbid, dull soup color, are poor quality performance.
The aroma of rock tea, including dry tea aromas, aromas when brewed and bottom notes.
Smell dry tea is mainly to smell whether there are any miscellaneous smells, tides, stale tastes, etc., and its main aroma lies in the aroma of brewing, such as cup lid incense, water incense and cup bottom incense.
Cup lid incense, that is, when the lid bowl is opened, put it on the side of the nose to smell quickly, through the cup lid incense, you can smell whether the aroma is pure, what is the fragrance type, and whether the aroma is high or introverted. The first bubble smells the aroma of the high or low, whether there is a peculiar smell; the second bubble distinguishes the type and thickness of the aroma; the third bubble smells the durability of the aroma.
The fragrance in the water is the aroma that pervades the mouth after the tea soup is introduced; the bottom of the cup is the aroma that remains at the bottom of the cup after the tea soup is drunk, also known as hanging cup incense.
If the aroma of the lid, the water and the bottom of the cup are pure, long-lasting, and pleasant, it means that the quality of rock tea is excellent.
Tasting rock tea is inseparable from "rock rhyme", that is, "rock bone" in "rock bone flower fragrance".
Many people talk about rock rhymes are often more hanging, in fact, rock rhymes are not so difficult to understand.
The so-called rock rhyme is the aroma and taste of Wuyi rock tea formed by the combination of soil factors, tea plant varieties and excellent production technology.
Rock rhyme is mainly manifested as rich and elegant aroma, lingering fragrance and strength, full and mellow taste, lubricated and dry, after drinking the teeth and cheeks to leave incense, can stay in the mouth for a long time, the aftertaste is long.
However, the text is only about some small tips to help everyone brew and taste correctly, and the paper is finally shallow, if you want to improve the ability to taste rock tea, in addition to drinking more, or drink more, there is no other way.
Resources:
1. "Research on Brewing and Drinking Techniques of Wuyi Rock Tea", Wang Fang, Liu Baoshun, et al., "Fujian Tea";
2. "Characteristics and Tasting Methods of Wuyi Rock Tea", Yao Yueming, Agricultural Archaeology;
3. Sensory Review of Wuyi Rock Tea Quality, Guo Yaling, Fujian Tea.