For Pu'er Tea, many tea enthusiasts have the concept of “Drink old tea, store new tea.” So, how can we determine if a new tea has collection value? First, making a good tea requires many factors. The most critical are the following three aspects:
What kind of new tea has the greatest collection value?
I. Raw Materials
Without good raw materials,
no matter how skillful the process is or how correctly it's stored later,
the tea cannot develop a good taste during its transformation later on.
1. Tea Variety
A good tea is cultivated by people and is also the result of natural selection over thousands of years. Among various tea varieties, the sexual reproduction-based large-leaf type native to Yunnan is best suited for making Pu'er tea.
2. Growing Environment
A suitable environment for growing tea trees. This includes appropriate altitude, proper sunlight duration and intensity, well-spaced planting, appropriate Intercropping, no need for pesticides due to biodiversity that prevents the occurrence and development of diseases and pests, etc.
3. Picking Parts and Time
Different parts of the tea leaves such as the bud tip, leaf, stalk, and yellow leaf play different roles in the post-Fermentation process and have different effects on the transformation. For Pu'er tea, it's not necessarily true that the more tender, the better. The time of picking is also important. Spring tea is undoubtedly the best, but from the perspective of blending effects, taste, aroma, and richness of flavor, autumn tea also has certain storage value.
II. Processing
In addition to the necessity of high-quality raw materials,
processing is also key.
With reasonable raw material blending, good processing is one of the key factors. Although the later transformation of Pu'er tea involves oxidation, it is the combined effect of two different types of oxidation: biological oxidation (commonly referred to as fermentation) and conventional natural oxidation.
The pan-frying and sun-Drying processes in Pu'er tea production have a significant impact on its later transformation. If the pan-frying is too intense, it can destroy the activity of oxidases and other active substances in the Pu'er tea, causing the biological oxidation to stop and only allowing natural oxidation to occur. Pure natural oxidation has limited effects and reduces the potential for later storage and transformation. If the Pu'er tea is baked instead of naturally sun-dried, it can also cause significant damage or loss of activity to the oxidases and active substances within the tea, resulting in poor transformation potential during later storage.
III. Taste
Taste is the most direct manifestation.
You know whether a tea is worth collecting after tasting it.
1. Smoothness
Smoothness refers to the state where the tea soup makes the mouth feel comfortable after being ingested. The smoothness of water is a major characteristic of Pu'er tea, especially now-produced new Pu'er teas, which often exhibit rich smoothness due to their manufacturing process. As the tea ages, this quality becomes even more pronounced.
2. Layering
Layering, in simple terms, means that when the tea soup enters the mouth, it tastes one way on the tip of the tongue, another way on the palate, and yet another way at the back of the tongue. As the number of infusions increases, the taste of the tea soup will also change. If it tastes the same from the tip of the tongue to the throat, then this new tea won't perform particularly well later on.
For example, upon entry, there is a light bitterness on the tip of the tongue; after a moment, there is a slight bitterness on the palate; after swallowing the tea, there is a sweetness at the back of the tongue, and a fresh and fragrant breath can be felt in the throat. Tea enthusiasts can recall if the new tea they have tastes like this.
3. Smooth and Lively Mouthfeel
A lively mouthfeel, an essential quality valued by connoisseurs of all tea types, generates a feeling of liveliness in the mouth. A lively mouthfeel, much like aged flavor, is something that one gradually understands over time. A simple understanding of liveliness is that there is change – for example, although the tea may have bitterness, this bitterness will eventually turn into sweetness.
Storing new tea and drinking old tea is certainly correct, but before storing, you need to choose new tea of good quality and then use an appropriate storage method to achieve twice the result with half the effort.