We often say that a prosperous age promotes tea. With the development of the social economy and the improvement of living standards, people are increasingly focusing on healthy diets and cultural life. As tea possesses numerous health benefits, more and more people enjoy drinking and collecting tea. In recent years, a trend of appreciating aged tea has quietly emerged in Fujian, discussed, drunk, tasted, and collected among the public.
Currently, opinions on "aged tea" vary. How to define "aged tea"? Based on storage years: some say three to five years, others ten to twenty years. The advertising slogan for Fuding White Tea, "One year is tea, three years is medicine, seven years is treasure," seems to have become one basis for defining aged white tea. Exactly how many years qualify as "aged tea" remains without a unified standard for now.
Tea has been widely used as a medicinal plant in China since ancient times. However, past understanding of tea's health benefits was largely experiential. With the advancement of science and technology, biochemical and pharmacological research on tea has deepened, leading to further understanding of the health effects and mechanisms of tea (including aged tea).
Taiwan's "Apple Daily" reported that a survey by Cheng Kung University Hospital in Tianliao District, Kaohsiung, on osteoporosis among women over 65 found that those who did not drink tea had a higher incidence of osteoporosis. Taiwanese scholar Dr. Zhao Cha wrote that gout is a disease caused by excessive uric acid in the blood. Aged tea has effects such as diuresis to prevent stones, antibacterial and antiviral properties, anti-cancer and antioxidant effects, radiation resistance, removing greasiness, aiding fat reduction, lowering blood pressure and lipids, making it an excellent beverage for friends suffering from gout.
Medical research on aged oolong tea was also published in the international journal "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry." This six-year study was jointly conducted by the Institute of Biotechnology at National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan and other units. Professor Zeng Zhizheng from the institute said that while many benefits of drinking aged oolong tea are流传 in folklore, there was no文献证实, hence the six-year study on its value. After multiple experiments, they obtained aged oolong tea with stable components and compared it with general oolong tea.
The research results showed that the concentration of antioxidant catechins in aged oolong tea decreased because catechins decompose during the aging process. However, this decomposition simultaneously produced a large amount of "gallic acid," a phenolic compound commonly found in green plants and fruits. Moreover, aged oolong tea contains more other types of antioxidant polyphenols than general oolong tea and almost no caffeine. "Gallic acid" is a key element in protecting cardiovascular health.
In recent years, some tea companies have launched tea products with eight or ten years of storage, which are quite popular in the market,足以说明 the market potential of "aged tea." Professor Sun Weijiang from the College of Horticulture at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University analyzed the main biochemical components of white tea of different years. The results showed that during tea storage, in shorter periods, the contents of tea polyphenols, caffeine, free amino acids, and soluble sugars did not change much, but after longer storage, they all showed a declining trend. After two years of storage, the total catechin content decreased significantly. In tea aged 20 years, the contents of biochemical components such as tea polyphenols, total catechins and their components, caffeine, and amino acids were very low, while the total flavonoid content was high. The reason may be that the structure of polyphenols in tea transforms during storage, promoting the formation of flavonoids.
Flavonoids in tea are natural antioxidants that achieve antioxidant effects by scavenging hydroxyl radicals. Tea has strong antioxidant effects because its flavonoids can清除自由基. New tea, rich in amino acids, polyphenols, and other effective components, has both nutritional value and health benefits. Aged tea, due to the aging process, sees a reduction in its internal substances through oxidation, condensation, decomposition, etc., but it衍生出 health benefits different from those of new tea.
As mentioned earlier, aged oolong tea has higher gallic acid content, and aged white tea has higher flavonoid content. Therefore, as long as it is recognized that "aged tea" has its special health benefits, then "aged tea" has饮用价值.