1973 was an important year for Pu'er Tea, marking the official entry of aged Pu'er into the history of Pu'er teas, enriching its varieties and culture alongside raw Pu'er. After more than forty years of development, aged Pu'er has gained a significant foothold in the tea market. When faced with so many aged teas, how should one judge their quality and make a choice?
What Makes Good Pu'er Tea?
1. High-Quality Raw Materials: The high quality of Pu'er tea's raw materials provides a rich material foundation for natural transformation during long-term storage. The quality of the raw materials used in an aged tea will manifest itself over time.
2. Hygiene Standards Met: Whether drinking it immediately or storing it for a few years, hygiene is a primary consideration for aged teas. Since this is a tea meant for consumption, if hygiene standards are not met, it is not recommended for drinking. During fermentation, the tea leaves are placed in a special fermentation area and wetted by hand, which triggers internal steaming and heating that rapidly ferments the tea. The fermentation area must be strictly inspected to prevent contamination. After wetting, the tea requires strict monitoring by the fermentation master, who decides when to re-wet the tea, when to open trenches, and when to turn the pile. All these activities must be carried out wearing specific work clothes after thorough disinfection. After fermentation, the tea undergoes manual sorting, electrostatic dust removal, and mechanical screening to remove impurities, ensuring the tea's hygiene and cleanliness.
3. Appropriate Fermentation: In addition to the quality of sun-dried Green Tea, the degree of fermentation also affects the quality of an aged tea. Traditionally, the fermentation level of aged tea is divided into three categories based on the maturity of the tea leaves: light fermentation, moderate fermentation, and heavy fermentation. Moderate fermentation is preferred, with some teas undergoing lighter fermentation. Moderately fermented aged teas offer suitable taste and potential for natural transformation. Heavy fermentation, however, is a situation to avoid in aged teas, as heavily fermented teas lose both taste and value for future storage and transformation.
4. Superior Taste Experience: After meeting hygiene standards and appropriate fermentation, the overall experience of the tea for the drinker must be considered. Drinking Tea seriously and understanding its nuances is not easy, and this can be even more challenging with aged teas.
How to Judge the Quality of Aged Tea
01. Observe the Dry Leaf Appearance
In general, good aged teas, whether loose or compressed, should have: tightly bound, heavy, whole leaves with minimal breakage, visible downy hair, uniform color, a certain level of moisture and brightness, no non-tea foreign matter, and good purity. Poor aged teas may have coarse, loose, and broken leaves due to inadequate fermentation or processing.
02. Examine the Liquor Color
The liquor color is the color produced by water-soluble pigments dissolved in water. To evaluate the quality of tea liquor, consider depth, clarity, and brightness. Generally, good aged teas have pure, bright, and transparent liquor colors, such as dark red and bright, bright red and clear, wine red and transparent. Poor aged teas have shallow or deep, dull, and unclear liquor colors, with poor visibility through the liquor layer, and may contain sediment or fine floating particles.
03. Smell the Aroma
To identify the aroma of aged tea, first determine if the aroma type is correct, then compare the aroma's purity, intensity, and longevity. Common aromas in aged teas include aged, sweet, sugary, ripe, jujube, ginseng, woody, etc. High-quality aged teas have rich, high, and lasting aromas, while low, rough, or short-lived aromas indicate inferior quality. If you detect smoky, burnt, sour, rancid, moldy, stale, or other unpleasant odors in aged tea, it is of poor quality.
04. Taste the Flavor
All teas are flavorful beverages, and a pleasant taste is a critical factor in determining tea quality. To judge the flavor of aged tea, first distinguish between pure and impure flavors. Pure flavors can be judged by their strength, smoothness, and harmony, whereas impure flavors may cause sourness, bitterness, or discomfort. Additionally, high-quality ancient tree aged teas should provide a pleasant aftertaste or lingering fragrance.
05. Examine the Leaf Base
After Steeping, the buds and leaves unfold, revealing the leaf's age, color, uniformity, and the reasonableness of processing. What should you look for when examining the leaf base to determine the quality of aged tea?
1. First, check the leaf base color for normalcy, then examine its brightness, dullness, and uniformity.
2. The tenderness of the leaf can be determined by its softness and elasticity. Leaves that are soft under finger pressure and do not spring back are tender. Hard leaves with elasticity that spring back indicate coarseness. Note that the size of the leaves does not correlate with tenderness, as many ancient tree tea leaves are large but tender. Uniformity does not necessarily mean tenderness.
3. Pay attention to the degree of leaf unfolding and any mixtures. Dark, old, thin, scorched, or decayed leaves indicate inferior tea.
In summary, evaluating the appearance and internal quality comprehensively determines the overall quality of the tea. Good aged teas have pure aromas, normal liquor colors and leaf bases, and a pure taste with a pleasant aroma.