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"Tea is good when it's new, and wine is fragrant when it's old", this widely spread proverb profoundly reflects the universal laws of life.
However, Pu'er tea is unique, and its "the older it gets, the more fragrant" it subverts this traditional concept and leads a trend of innovation and development.
Is this a historical misunderstanding, or is it an inevitable consequence of technological progress?
Pu-erh tea is known for its excellent shelf-stable properties, and the flavor of old Pu-erh tea that has been carefully stored often surpasses that of new tea, and is more mellow and luscious.
The investment value of Pu'er tea storage is an indisputable consensus in today's society.
The reputation of Pu'er tea as "the older it gets, the more fragrant it is" comes from a long tradition of folk practice and experience, which has lasted for nearly 30 years.
So, does the "aging and fragrant" characteristics of Pu'er tea have a solid scientific basis as support?
Or is it just a subjective induction and refinement based on people's long-term life experience?
According to scientific experimental comparative studies, we divide the high quality comparison between Pu'er new tea and aged tea into three main aspects:
1. The contrast, brightness and clarity of the color of the tea soup;
2. Contrast of the aromas of the two;
3. Taste focuses on three main factors: coordination, thickness and sweetness.
The refinement of the contrast factors is divided into: appearance, aroma, soup color, taste, and leaf bottom. Each has a different weight.
In the end, we came to the conclusion that the aged tea showed superior quality in all respects compared to the two teas.
We have to admit that in the long process of aging and fragrant, the precipitation of time has indeed given Pu'er tea a new transformation, and its quality has indeed been significantly improved.
We took a closer look at the detailed comparative laboratory data, and found that in the same vintage, the content of tea polyphenols in raw tea was significantly higher than that in ripe tea.
The content of tea polyphenols in both raw and cooked tea showed a downward trend with the increase of storage years, and the decrease reached 24.5%.
It is worth noting that the decline in the ripe tea group was smaller than that in the raw tea group.
As the core component of tea, tea polyphenols are particularly abundant in large-leaf tea, which is the key to endow new tea with a unique flavor such as bitterness.
Therefore, with the natural reduction of tea polyphenol content, the bitter taste of Pu-erh tea can be alleviated, and then it will show a more fresh and sweet flavor, which is the secret of the taste transformation of Pu-erh tea after aging.
Since the Tang Dynasty, the most economically developed period of all dynasties, it is also the most prosperous period of tea culture and tea economy.
The Chinese civilization is a civilization infiltrated with tea culture, and the Chinese nation has continuously developed the art of tea tasting in the leisure time of enjoying coloring, fragrance and taste.
Famous teas in various forms, while satisfying the enjoyment of taste buds, also create a leisure and healthy poetic lifestyle for people, and they have become a bridge for people's social interaction, career success and building a harmonious society.
Among the many famous teas, Pu'er tea stands out in the tea industry with its unique charm and has won the love and pursuit of the world.
Its health benefits are remarkable, it is resistant to storage, and it is full of flavor without losing its peace and variability, which is fascinating.
In addition, Pu'er tea also has good storage investment appreciation potential, which together promote the vigorous development of the Pu'er tea market, showing a rising trend.
In addition, after our long-term life practice and scientific research, we have clearly found that from the perspective of flavor quality, Pu'er tea does show the unique charm of "aging and fragrant" during storage.
This phenomenon of "aging and fragrant" and the trend of aging and value-added led by it are based on scientific and rational observation, rather than subjective assumptions.
"Aging and fragrant" does not mean that the total amount of aroma of Pu'er tea increases simply during the aging process, but that its aroma and fragrance gradually become more elegant and soft, both plump and fresh, avoiding the feeling of enchantment;
The taste is more and more slippery, the aftertaste is significantly enhanced, full but not irritating; At the same time, the color of the soup is also evolving in the direction of brighter and deeper chromaticity.
In addition, the aging effect of Pu'er tea is best for cooked tea, followed by raw tea.
The reason behind this change is inseparable from the changes in the content of key components such as tea polyphenols, amino acids, soluble sugars and purine base compounds during the fermentation process of Pu'er tea.
Tea polyphenols, as the core flavor element of tea, are especially abundant in large-leaf tea, and are the key components that give new tea its unique bitter taste.
Therefore, during the fermentation process of Pu'er tea, a moderate reduction in the content of tea polyphenols helps to alleviate its bitterness.
Amino acids, the creators of this fresh taste, occupy an important place in tea, especially in new tea.
The comparison of the data revealed a trend: the amino acid content of both raw and cooked tea decreased with the extension of storage time, and the loss rate of amino acids in raw tea was significantly faster than that of cooked tea.
Soluble sugar, as an important source of sweetness and aroma of tea soup, has a significant harmonizing effect on the bitterness and astringency of tea.
It is worth noting that the fermentation process of ripe tea effectively slows down the loss of soluble sugars, thus retaining more of the sweet components.
As for purine base heterocyclic compounds, their stable cyclic structure makes it difficult for microorganisms to utilize, so their content does not change much during fermentation.
At the same time, during storage, due to the degradation of theaflavin, the complex of caffeine and theaflavins decomposes, releasing part of the free caffeine.
Thus, the content of caffeine was supplemented to a certain extent, so that its change during storage was relatively stable.
Therefore, there was a significant difference between the longest and shortest storage years of raw and cooked tea, while the difference between the tea samples of the middle four years was relatively small. Overall, the differences between raw teas are more prominent than those between ripe teas.
In terms of the clarity of the tea soup, whether it is raw tea or cooked tea, it shows a trend of becoming clearer and brighter with the increase of storage time.
In terms of taste, the newly made raw tea cakes are often thicker and astringent, but whether it is raw tea or cooked tea, with the extension of storage time, the harmony of its taste has been improved, and it has become more mellow.
As for the aroma of the tea soup, it has undergone a transformation from the fresh fragrance (raw tea) or sweet fragrance (ripe tea) of the new tea to the pleasant old aroma.
However, we also need to be wary that ageing is not static.
The processing process of Pu'er tea must strictly follow the gold standard of tea-making technology of "looking at tea to make tea, depending on the tea" to ensure the accuracy and optimal aging of the tea.
Similarly, the aging and fermentation time depends on the specific situation and cannot be generalized.
The results show that the aging technology of Pu'er tea plays a decisive role in the transformation of three key qualities.
In order to ensure the health and safety of Pu'er tea during aging and storage, it has become the most basic and vital condition to prevent it from being contaminated by harmful microorganisms and toxic substances.
Starting from the benign development needs of promoting the sensory flavor quality and nutritional and health functional quality of Pu'er tea after aging.
The aging process of Pu'er tea must be regarded as a professional processing process, carefully carried out by a qualified manufacturer, and not left to be collected and placed by non-professionals.
After deeply inheriting and refining the unique aging and fermentation techniques of Pu'er tea, and thoroughly understanding the essence of its craftsmanship, we can taste the mellow fragrance and extraordinary charm given by time in Pu'er tea.
(Reprinted in WeChat public account: Lao Shan's tea)
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