Pu'er Tea has the unique quality of becoming more fragrant with age, which is why many tea enthusiasts love it. However, faced with the vast array of Pu'er teas on the market, many newcomers to Pu'er tea may not know how to select it. Afraid of buying poor-quality tea? Don't worry, today we'll introduce the five key elements for identifying Pu'er tea: leaf shape, tea liquor, aroma, taste, and infused leaves.
1. Leaf Shape
The leaf shape refers to the appearance of the dry tea leaves. Generally, the dry tea should be neat and uniform, free from stems, broken pieces, and other impurities. It should have a lustrous and fresh appearance with a glossy sheen and a fresh, pure aroma without any off-flavors.
New Pu'er tea has a greenish appearance with white down and a strong flavor, while aged Pu'er tea, after prolonged post-fermentation, has a jujube red appearance, and the white down turns yellow-brown.
2. Tea Liquor
The tea liquor refers to the infusion produced by steeping the dry tea. High-quality tea produces an appealing, clear, bright, and transparent tea liquor.
When assessing the quality of tea, the first thing to do after brewing is to observe the color of the tea liquor. In most cases, clear and bright tea liquor indicates high-quality tea, while murky and dull tea liquor suggests inferior quality.
Common colors of Pu'er tea liquor include: yellow and bright, Orange-yellow and bright, deep red and bright, yellow with an orange hue, red with an orange hue, red but lacking brightness, dark red, red with a brown hue, yellow with a brown hue, yellow and bright, brown with a dark hue, brown with a brown hue, brown with a reddish hue, etc. Of course, Pu'er tea has far more than these 13 types of liquor colors.
After long-term continuous fermentation, aged Pu'er tea has a glossy, dark red and bright liquor. The color of the tea liquor is deeper, but it is never pitch black.
The tea liquor of new Pu'er tea is lighter in color. This can only be used as a reference, as even newly made Pu'er tea can sometimes have a very dark liquor.
Poor-quality Pu'er tea has a dark brown and dull appearance with no luster. The liquor is red but not concentrated, lacking brightness. Some are even black or dark, commonly referred to as “soy sauce liquor.”
3. Aroma
Regardless of the type of tea, good tea should have a pure, rich, fresh, and lasting aroma. It should not have grassy, waterlogged, smoky, sour, musty, or other off-flavors.
Different tea trees have different root depths, which means they absorb very different nutrients, resulting in vastly different aromas. Terrace-grown tea, due to insufficient nutrients and poorer internal quality, relies on blending to enhance its flavor. Additionally, the practice of cultivation and fertilization results in a light fragrance that disappears after one to two years of storage, gradually turning into an aged aroma.
Old tree tea can obtain minerals from deep within the soil, allowing it to present the unique characteristics of each mountain in its optimal state with rich internal qualities.
For example, Yi Wu tea has a dense aroma and a delicate, smooth soup, while Nan Nuo Mountain tea has a fruity, sweet aroma and a perfect balance of strength and gentleness. When choosing aroma, it is important to select tea with a rich and lasting aroma that has a unique aroma and a stable character.
A stable aroma can be detected when brewing tea; after pouring out the first infusion, you can smell the aroma in the fair cup. It should be rich and deep. Terrace-grown tea rarely exhibits this kind of aroma in the fair cup. The more stable the aroma, the richer the internal qualities and the older the tree age.
4. Taste of the Tea
The taste of the tea mainly refers to the taste of the tea liquor. High-quality tea has a rich, fresh, and sweet aftertaste. Dull, coarse, Astringent, burnt, musty, and other off-flavors are indicators of low-grade or spoiled tea.
Pu'er tea is made from large-leaf Yunnan Green Tea through aging and fermentation. Years of storage cause the components in Pu'er tea to continuously transform. The content of Caffeine and catechins decreases, while theaflavins and thearubigins undergo oxidation and polymerization. As a result, Pu'er tea has a mild nature, with a smooth, sweet, thick, and aged aroma in its taste.
Taste is a combination of flavors. When talking about taste, it usually involves several flavors combined together, creating a rich and balanced taste experience, just right.
For example, saying that the tea has good taste or excellent taste means that the tea has a balance of sweetness and bitterness, a rich taste, and a sweet aftertaste and salivation, giving a very pleasant and delicious feeling.
High-quality Pu'er tea must possess abundant internal qualities, a rich taste, and various tastes that harmonize and balance well. Good taste is one of the signs of high-quality tea.
5. Infused Leaves (Leaf Bottom)
The infused leaves refer to the tea residue after brewing. By observing the shape of the infused leaves, you can judge the tenderness and completeness of the fresh leaves, which are generally tender and intact. The color of the infused leaves displays the quality characteristics of different teas, such as the degree of fermentation.
In general, high-grade tea has more uniform and beautiful, finer infused leaves. As the degree of fermentation increases, the color of the infused leaves becomes deeper.
Arbor tea is generally coarser, with a darker green color, thicker buds, and thicker leaves that are not easily crushed. On the other hand, small arbor and terrace-grown tea has leaves that tend to be creamy yellow, thinner buds, and thinner leaves that are easily broken.
Below are the characteristics of the infused leaves of high-quality Pu'er tea for your reference:
Contains many buds and young leaves; long, short, thick, and thin are uniformly distributed; few broken pieces, no fragments; the color is tender yellow with a creamy white or yellow-green hue, and there are no “mottled leaves”; the leaves are soft, not hard or stiff; there should be no non-tea substances mixed in.
It's important to remind all tea enthusiasts that when observing the infused leaves, pour the brewed tea leaves into a special leaf tray, making sure to mix them evenly, spread them out flat, and avoid any creases. If you still can't see clearly, you can rinse the infused leaves with clear water and let them float in the water for closer inspection.
Source: Toutiao – Shengcha Zhang Ancient Tree Pu'er. Information is valuable for sharing. If there are copyright issues, please contact us to remove it.