Old Dark Tea
New Dark Tea
Some people think that old dark tea has a special taste, while new dark tea is astringent and bitter. Actually, this is not the case. So what are the differences between old dark tea and new dark tea? The following details this knowledge.
New dark tea has a sweet, fragrant, and soft taste. In terms of nutritional value, new dark tea contains more nutrients. Brewing new tea offers a unique flavor. As for the skyrocketing prices of old dark tea on the market, it is more a result of "rarity breeds value." Naturally, opinions vary on this matter.
The difference in drinking them is that old dark tea is more mellow, smooth, and soft, with a ruby-red tea liquor, a deep aroma, and a unique taste and aged character. New dark tea has a fresh and lively tea fragrance, a clear orange-yellow liquor, a quicker sweet aftertaste, and offers the best value for money. In terms of lipid-lowering and blood pressure-lowering functions, it even surpasses aged tea.
Drinking tea doesn't necessarily require pursuing the age of the tea. Old tea is not common, and good old tea is even rarer. If one truly understands the health value of dark tea, then new dark tea deserves more attention.
Of course, if you find the taste of new tea not soft enough, you can store it for a year or two before drinking. Hunan dark tea, after a relative period of aging, will also have a distinctive flavor. Under normal conditions, storing it for three to five years is sufficient.
Historically, due to relatively backward transportation, Fu Brick Tea had to undergo long and arduous journeys to reach ethnic minority areas in the northwest. During this process, the tea bricks were exposed to sun, dew, wind, and rain. Some products underwent microbial chemical changes internally, producing "Golden Flower," i.e., Eurotium cristatum. For thousands of years, people in the border regions have become accustomed to this taste, believing that brick tea with this "Golden Flower" has a more mellow flavor and superior efficacy, making this standard an important basis for factory production and consumer selection.
Visiting two major tea factories and related dark tea experts, we learned that the development of "Golden Flower" in dark tea is not exclusive to old Qianliang tea and Fu Brick tea. In fact, relying on modern technology, new Qianliang tea and Fu Brick tea can also have extensive Golden Flower. Even through a method called "fungus implantation," Golden Flower can be seen in Hei Brick tea.
For the market, the old dark tea seen in the domestic market, without certain professional knowledge of dark tea and an understanding of that period of history, can easily be deceived by the external packaging, which is not worth the loss. Nowadays, even old dark tea factories have little old tea left. In remote areas like the northwest, due to increased purchasing of old tea in recent years, old tea is also nearly depleted. Regarding tea drinking, one should maintain a calm and peaceful attitude and not overly pursue old tea.