In the vast river of tea culture, Pu'er tea stands out with its unique flavor, long history, and profound cultural heritage, becoming a shining gem in China and the world's tea community. Menghai is one of the original birthplaces and core production areas of Pu'er tea, where its unparalleled natural environment has nurtured countless premium teas that are highly sought after.
The “Menghai Tea Stories” column will provide insights into various aspects of Pu'er tea, including its historical and regional cultures, processing techniques, brand development, trade, ethnic tea culture, health benefits, tasting culture, spiritual significance, and Menghai's own tea culture construction. We will take you on a journey through the history of Pu'er tea, reveal the complex and meticulous tea-making process from fresh leaf picking to initial processing and final refinement, and analyze the flavor differences and collection value of Pu'er teas from different years and regions… helping you become an expert in the Pu'er tea field.
Let us embark together on a unique exploration of Pu'er tea.
## A. Smell the Aroma
### Basic Procedure for Smelling Aroma
To smell the aroma, hold the cup containing the tea liquor with one hand and lift the lid with the other. Bring your nose close to the rim of the cup and lightly inhale. Do not fully open the lid; instead, open it halfway near your nose and quickly sniff before closing it again.
To accurately identify the type, intensity, and duration of the aroma, repeat the smelling process once. However, do not prolong each sniff as the sense of smell can easily tire and lose sensitivity. Generally, a sniff should last about three seconds. Before the aroma evaluation is complete, do not open the lid. The evaluation should combine hot, warm, and cold smelling to assess the aroma comprehensively.
Hot smelling focuses on determining whether the aroma is normal and identifying its type and intensity. Warm smelling evaluates the quality of the aroma, while cold smelling primarily assesses the persistence of the aroma (i.e., its duration).
During aroma evaluation, arrange the cups according to the intensity of their aromas, placing those with stronger aromas in front and weaker ones behind. This operation is known as “aroma queueing.” Only evaluate teas of the same category together.
Avoid external factors that could interfere with the aroma evaluation, such as smoking, using scented lotions, or washing hands with fragrant soap.
### Pu'er Tea Aroma Characteristics
When smelling the aroma of Pu'er tea, focus on judging its purity and distinguishing between moldy and aged scents. Raw Pu'er tea often exhibits light sweet, honey, and floral aromas that gradually develop into aged scents over time. Aged Pu'er tea has a rich aroma, sometimes resembling betel nut, longan, lotus root, jujube, or sweetness. It is challenging to pinpoint exactly what the aroma resembles; it is a subtle and elusive scent that requires careful appreciation.
### Common Aroma Evaluation Terms
– **Purity**: Judged by the absence of foreign odors after rinsing the leaves.
– **Intensity**: The concentration of the aroma during the first and second infusions, assessed by sniffing the lid.
– **Duration**: The number of infusions during which the tea still retains its aroma.
– **Rich and Intense**: Describes a strong and persistent floral or fruity fragrance.
– **Refined and Intense**: More elegant than “rich and intense.”
– **Smooth and True**: Flavor is moderately strong and normal.
– **Pure and True**: The aroma is pure, neither too high nor too low, without any foreign odors.
– **Pure and Harmonious**: Slightly lower than “pure and true.”
– **Balanced**: The aroma is relatively low but without any foreign odors.
– **Fermented Odor**: An odor indicating improper storage or excessive fermentation.
– **Rough Odor**: Low aroma with a coarse and old character.
– **Stuffy Odor**: An unpleasant, stagnant odor that is heavy and uncomfortable.
– **Sour Odor**: An odor produced by excessive fermentation.
– **Moldy Odor**: An odor of mold.
– **Mild**: The aroma is relatively low but without any foreign odors.
– **Light**: A light and normal flavor.
## B. Observe the Liquor Color
### Basic Procedure for Observing Liquor Color
Liquor color is evaluated visually. After brewing, the color of the solution formed by the dissolved components of the tea leaves in boiling water is referred to as the liquor color, also known as water color or simply “the color.”
If the liquor in each bowl varies in quantity, adjust them to be consistent. If there are tea residues in the liquor, use a strainer to remove them. Stir the liquor gently with a spoon to gather sediment at the center of the bowl, then begin observing the color.
Evaluate the liquor color based on its depth, brightness, clarity, and uniformity.
After pouring out the liquor, carefully observe its color. The evaluation of liquor color mainly considers its hue (normal, inferior, or aged), brightness, and clarity.
Liquor color evaluation should be done quickly because polyphenols in the liquor can oxidize and darken when exposed to air. In the same temperature and time conditions, large-leaf varieties have darker colors than small-leaf varieties, young leaves have brighter colors than old leaves, and new teas have brighter colors than aged teas.
### Pu'er Tea Liquor Color Characteristics
The liquor color of raw Pu'er tea varies depending on the degree of aging, ranging from yellow-green, green-yellow, pale yellow, orange-yellow, deep yellow, and various shades of yellow, but good raw Pu'er tea always has a bright color. The liquor color of aged Pu'er tea includes ruby red, bright red, dark red, red and thick, red-brown, and brown, with red and thick and bright being considered the best. High-quality aged Pu'er tea has a liquor color that ranges from gemstone red, carnelian red, pomegranate red, aged wine red, to amber red, all of which are bright and vivid like roses and crystal clear like amber. If the liquor color is yellow, light orange, or dark and blackish, it is abnormal. If the liquor is cloudy and unclear, it indicates poor quality.
### Common Liquor Color Evaluation Terms
– **Brightness**: The reflectivity and transparency of the tea liquor. Bright and clear liquors are preferable.
– **Yellow-Green**: Green with a hint of yellow, more green than yellow.
– **Green-Yellow**: Green with more yellow.
– **Yellow-Brown**: Brown with a hint of yellow.
– **Dark Green**: Deep green with a bluish tint, lacking luster.
– **Orange-Yellow**: Yellow with a slight reddish tinge, similar to earth yellow or apricot yellow.
– **Orange-Red**: Orange-yellow with a reddish tinge, clear and bright.
– **Brown-Red**: Red with a brownish tint, like coffee.
– **Deep Red**: Red and deep, lacking luster.
– **Red-Brown**: Brown with a reddish tint.
– **Brownish-Brown**: Brown with a brownish tint.
– **Orange-Red**: Red with an orange tint.
– **Dark Red**: Red and deeply dark.
– **Black-Brown**: Brown with a blackish tint.
– **Clear**: Clean, transparent, bright, and free of sediment.
– **Cloudy**: The tea liquor contains many suspended particles and lacks transparency.
## C. Taste the Flavor
### Basic Procedure for Tasting Flavor
Taste evaluation should be performed immediately after observing the liquor color, ensuring the tea liquor is at an appropriate temperature, around 50°C, which is suitable for tasting. If the tea liquor is too hot or too cold, it may affect the taste evaluation. During flavor evaluation, take a shallow spoonful of tea liquor from the tasting bowl with a ceramic spoon and suck it into your mouth. Since different parts of the tongue perceive flavors differently, let the tea liquor roll around your tongue to correctly and comprehensively identify the flavors.
After tasting, spit the tea liquor into a spitting bucket. For the second tasting, empty any remaining tea liquid from the spoon or rinse it in boiling water to avoid cross-contamination.
Flavor evaluation primarily assesses the concentration, strength, freshness, astringency, freshness, and purity of the flavors. Different parts of the tongue have different sensitivities to different tastes. For example, the tip of the tongue is most sensitive to sweetness, the sides of the tongue are sensitive to saltiness, and the back of the tongue is sensitive to bitterness.
When tasting, let the tea liquor circulate around the tongue, making contact with all parts, to correctly identify the flavors. Flavor is a sensory reaction experienced by the taster. First, determine if the flavor is pure. Pure flavors can be distinguished based on