Ripened Tea is gentle on the stomach, helps reduce lipids and cuts through greasiness, with a stable taste that many tea enthusiasts love. So let's take a look at the aspects from which we can identify the quality of ripened tea.
From the appearance, high-quality Pu'er tea generally displays prominent golden tips, tightly bound and heavy leaves, with a lustrous brown-red color. If the color is black or uneven, with green patches or withered and dull appearances, it indicates poor processing or improper storage, and is generally not good ripened tea. In compressed ripened teas, using Cake tea as an example, the focus should be on whether the leaves are clearly visible and uniformly arranged, without missing edges or corners, consistently thick, neither too tight nor too loose, and neatly and tightly bound; normal colors include dark brown, chestnut brown, and brownish red. If there are mold flowers or spots on the surface of the ripened Pu'er tea, it is considered inferior.
From the liquor color, Pu'er ripened tea requires a bright, deep red color. A deep red is normal. Yellow, Orange-yellow, or dark and murky liquor colors are all indicative of inferior quality teas. An orange-yellow or dark liquor typically results from poor control of the “Fermentation” process, either insufficient fermentation or over-fermentation.
From the aroma, a characteristic of Pu'er ripened tea is its aged scent and “wet-pile flavor.” The aged scent is the basic aroma of ripened tea; “wet-pile flavor” arises from the wet-piling fermentation technique used in ripened Pu'er tea, which is unavoidable. However, the “wet-pile flavor” can be reduced or even minimized to some extent, and after two to three years of aging, the wet-pile flavor will fade. High-quality ripened Pu'er tea may exhibit fragrances such as camphor, medicinal, jujube, and aged scents, with good raw materials and skilled processing leading to pleasing aromas.
From the taste and mouthfeel of the tea liquor, high-quality ripened Pu'er tea has a rich, smooth, soothing, and sweet taste; conversely, low-quality ripened Pu'er tea has a bland taste, low smoothness, and may produce a “numbing bitterness” sensation that is distinctly uncomfortable when sipped.
After fermentation, the leaf base of ripened tea turns brown or brownish red. Good quality ripened Pu'er tea has few broken leaves and no foreign matter; low-quality Pu'er tea has incomplete leaf bases and may be mixed with various impurities. After fermentation, the completeness of the leaf base of ripened Pu'er tea may be somewhat compromised, so when evaluating the quality of ripened Pu'er tea based on the leaf base, the primary consideration should be whether there is any foreign matter present.
The above methods for identifying ripened tea generally apply, but they are not absolute. For example, some ripened teas may look very ordinary or even unappealing, but their taste can indeed be captivating. Therefore, we should comprehensively evaluate the quality of a tea rather than making a hasty judgment based on one or a few factors.