Today, let's talk about the step of "admiring the soup color."

Since the tea polyphenols in the tea soup oxidize quickly upon contact with air, causing the soup color to change easily, it is important to admire the color promptly. This mainly involves distinguishing the depth and normality of the color, the brightness or darkness, and the clarity or turbidity of the soup from aspects such as hue, brightness, and clarity.

Why is some tea soup green and some red, some bright and some dark?

Answer: The color of tea soup can also be judged by its hue, brightness, and chroma.

Hue refers to the type of color. The color of tea soup mainly varies between green and red, which is related to the degree of tea fermentation. The less fermented, the greener the soup color; the more fermented, the redder the soup color, with non-linear variations like yellow-green, golden yellow, and orange-red in between.

Brightness refers to how light or dark the color is, which is related to the degree of tea roasting. Tea that is lightly roasted appears bright in color. As the roasting degree increases, the soup color becomes progressively darker.

Chroma refers to the saturation of the color, which is related to the amount of soluble substances in the tea soup. The more soluble substances are released, the thicker the tea soup becomes, manifested as high chroma in the soup color. Conversely, the fewer soluble substances, the more watery the tea soup becomes, and the lower the chroma of the soup color.

Common terms for evaluating tea soup color:

Green and Bright: Clear, vivid, light green, and fresh.

Yellow-Green: Green with a hint of yellow, resembling the color of a semi-ripe orange, hence also called orange-green.

Green-Yellow: Soup color that is green with more yellow.

Light Yellow: Soup color that is yellow and light, also called pale yellow.

Orange-Yellow: Soup color that is yellow with a slight red tinge, resembling orange or tangerine.

Orange: Soup color that is red with a yellow tinge, resembling tangerine red.

Deep Yellow: Dark yellow, soup is yellow and deep without luster.

Blue-Dark: Soup color tinged with blue, lacking luster.

Turbid and Dark: Soup color is turbid and dark, synonymous with "cloudy"; many sediments in the soup, murky and unclear, difficult to see the bottom of the cup.

Red Soup: Commonly seen in aged tea or tea over-roasted, its soup color is light red or dark red.

Clear Yellow: Tea soup is yellow and clear.

Golden Yellow: Tea soup is clear, predominantly yellow with an orange hue.

Red and Brilliant: Soup color resembling amber with a golden rim, characteristic of high-grade black tea.

Red and Bright, Red and Clear: Soup color not very strong, but red, transparent, and lustrous, called "red and bright"; transparent but slightly less lustrous, called "red and clear".

Deep Red, Deep and Strong: Red and deep, lacking vivid luster.

Pale Red: Soup color is red but light and pale.

Deep and Dark: Soup color is deep and dark, slightly blackish, also called red-dark. Often seen in black tea that is over-fermented or stored for too long, indicating aged quality.

Red and Turbid: Regardless of depth, the soup contains many sediments and is turbid, making the bottom difficult to see.

Cooling Turbidity, Creaming Down: When concentrated black tea soup cools and forms a light brown or orange milky turbidity, it is called cooling turbidity or creaming down. This phenomenon occurs in good quality black tea.

Ginger Yellow: After adding milk to broken black tea soup, the color becomes ginger yellow, bright, rich, and full. This is a sign of strong soup quality and good tea.

Strong and Bright: Tea soup is strong and transparent. Although not as lustrous as a strong and brilliant halo, it still has some brightness.

Fresh and Bright: Fresh and bright, slightly lustrous, not very strong but also not weak.

Clear, Bright: Tea soup that is clean and transparent is called "bright". Bright and lustrous, with a clear view to the bottom, no sediment or suspended matter, is called "clear".

Clear and Clean: The substances in the soup are not very abundant, but it is still clear and bright.

Turbid: The tea soup contains a large amount of suspended matter, poor transparency, making it difficult to see the bottom of the cup.

Dull: Soup color is not bright, but has no suspended matter, slightly different from turbid.