When brewing black tea, have you ever encountered such a situation: the freshly brewed tea soup will turn black after a short while, or the color of the tea soup will be dark and cloudy when brewing.
Why is this happening? Is the tea broken or unhygienic? Or is the quality not up to par or there is a problem with the water? Today, let's talk about this topic.
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Black tea production requires withering, kneading and fermentation, and the process is relatively complex. In the whole production process, it has undergone multiple processes, involving a large number of production scenarios and participants. If it is a large factory that meets the cleanliness standards, the management standards for tea hygiene are relatively strict, and there will generally not be too many health problems.
However, it has to be said that most of the black tea on the market is made by small processing plants. Many private small workshops, neither standard cleaning production lines, nor sanitary production management norms, that is, a few people in their own homes or two masters to help, while collecting fresh leaves, while making, after the completion of the tea market transaction.
This kind of production process is difficult to meet the health standards, such as when the tea leaves are cold, directly on the ground, the tea master smokes when kneading, etc., resulting in poor hygiene, and the tea leaves are mixed with dust. This situation is most obvious when brewing, and it is easy to make the tea soup cloudy.
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The black tea withering fermentation process is particularly critical. Whether a black tea is good or not depends mainly on these two items. The main substance that makes tea leaves colorable is tea pigment, and tea pigment is mainly concentrated in tea polyphenols.
The fermentation process of black tea is that the oxidizing enzymatic reaction of tea polyphenols with the participation of oxygen is produced to produce substances such as theaflavin, thearubicin and theaflavin.
The reason why black tea can show red soup is closely related to these three pigments. Theaflavins mainly affect the brightness of the tea soup, thearubicin mainly affects the color of the tea soup, and theababine affects the shade of the color of the tea soup.
The order in which these three pigments are produced is that tea polyphenols are first oxidized into theaflavins, then oxidized into thearubrin, and finally oxidized into theaflavins. If the degree of fermentation is not enough, the color of the black tea soup will appear bright and golden, and if the degree of fermentation is too high, it will appear dark and cloudy. Only if the fermentation is just right, there will be a mellow and translucent soup color.
If a black tea soup is dark in color and other factors are excluded, it is too high fermentation and quality problems.
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Generally speaking, tea is suitable for using soft water, because soft water contains less mineral ions such as magnesium, iron, and calcium, and will not have much impact on tea soup.
But in our daily life, we often use mineral water, tap water and even well water to make tea, and these waters may cause the tea soup to darken.
First of all, mineral water contains a variety of mineral ions, especially magnesium oxide and iron ions, which are most likely to cause the tea soup to be dull in color and even blackened. Because they will participate in the oxidation reaction of tea leaves, prompting a further increase in theaflamin.
Secondly, the tap water is disinfected by the water plant and has a strong smell of bleaching powder. If it is not filtered and precipitated, if it is directly brewed, the color of the tea soup will be dull and the taste will be even less mellow.
Well water is not to mention, the mineral content is high, the pH is more or less alkaline, the water quality is hard, and it is not suitable for making tea. If you use well water to make tea, it is easy to have a dark color of the tea soup. This is because the acid and base are too high, which affects the color of the tea soup.
Therefore, we can choose pure water to brew. If you suspect that there is a problem with water quality, it is the easiest way to compare it with pure water. The tea brewed in pure water has the purest soup color, which generally reflects the base color of the tea soup better. If brewed with other water quality, the change of tea soup is more obvious, indicating that the probability of water problem is higher.
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The above three problems, the first two kinds of tea drinkers are difficult to change, the water used to make tea can be changed, and there is a problem of the way to brew tea, which is the easiest to change.
Some tea lovers do not make tea in the right way, resulting in dark red and dark tea soup.
For example, it is not brewed according to the normal amount of tea. In general, the proportion of black tea should be controlled at 1:50, up to 1:40, 150 ml of lid bowl, only 3 to 4 grams of black tea. However, if you calculate according to the proportion of oolong tea, six or seven grams of tea leaves are placed in a 150 ml lid bowl, it is easy to have a situation where the tea soup is too strong, resulting in a thick red or even dark soup.
There is also a situation, when brewing, the separation time of tea soup is not grasped well, and the smouldering time is too long, which will also make the tea soup thick, and the soup color will appear dark red, or even dark red.
Under normal circumstances, black tea is brewed within 10 seconds, and the soup must be produced. After brewing four or five bubbles, the brewing time can be appropriately extended, and the interval between 3 to 5 seconds each time can be. In this way, it can ensure that the color of the tea soup is red and transparent, and the taste is mellow and sweet.
All in all, the reason for the black tea soup blackening is mainly the above 4 situations, as long as it is not a quality and hygiene problem, it is easy to do, change the water, change the brewing method, you can get a cup of delicious black tea again. If you encounter such a situation, you may wish to look for the reason. Feel free to leave a comment below about the situation you are experiencing.