Discerning a tea's aging potential isn't something that can be accurately determined in a short period of time. It requires not only foundational knowledge but also experience gained through tasting, discussions, and perhaps even a bit of luck. You need to find a Pu'er tea that suits your taste and use it as a benchmark for assessing the aging potential of other teas, making it easier to judge their maturation capabilities.
How to Assess the Aging Potential of Pu'er Tea
1. Quality of the Tea Product
The three main factors that influence the quality of Pu'er tea are: raw materials, processing techniques, and storage conditions. The inherent differences in the raw materials (in terms of their intrinsic substances) largely determine the differences in the tea's quality over time. Processing techniques and storage conditions determine the tea's ability to age well. Often, tea enthusiasts debate whether ancient tree teas or younger tree teas age better. As mentioned in previous articles, everyone has different standards for what constitutes good taste in Pu'er tea, so direct comparisons are difficult.
2. Timeframe
Many people overlook the importance of the timeframe when assessing a Pu'er tea's aging potential. This often leads them to do things they consider impressive but which others might view as foolish. Even if the processing techniques are suboptimal, newly produced teas still have aging potential within the first five years. This is because the steaming and pressing process imparts Water flavors, smoky flavors, and other tastes. After five years, these extraneous flavors should have dissipated (flavors absorbed during storage are an exception). This timeframe is crucial for deciding whether to continue storing the tea. For Pu'er teas aged over ten years, if the quality hasn't declined, they can naturally be stored indefinitely. However, if there is a decline, further storage is unnecessary since we Drink tea for its flavor, not for wateriness.
3. Expected Outcome
Why is the expected outcome relevant when assessing a tea's aging potential? Many people evaluate a tea with the goal of achieving their desired outcome. Achieving this outcome brings satisfaction, while falling short leads to disappointment. However, few people have the capability to set realistic expectations, as this requires a deep understanding of many aspects of tea.
Does Aged Pu'er Need Further Aging?
While Pu'er ripe tea undergoes artificial pile fermentation, it still requires a period of aging for its quality to reach its peak, albeit a much shorter time compared to raw Pu'er. To put it more directly, Pu'er tea is an art of transformation, fundamentally different from the changes that occur in Green Tea.
For example, at the beginning of production, the content of chlorophyll in Pu'er tea (raw tea) is as high as that in green tea. During the aging process, the original chlorophyll in the tea leaves is hydrolyzed by chlorophyllase into phytol and pheophorbide, which then undergo enzymatic oxidation catalyzed by Polyphenol oxidase to form unstable ortho-quinone compounds. These compounds then undergo non-enzymatic oxidation reactions, polymerizing into melanins.
When green tea changes, it is accompanied by the growth of harmful substances, ultimately leading to mold formation – essentially, it becomes spoiled. Pu'er tea also changes, but its transformation is a result of enzymatic reactions, producing numerous derivative substances and resulting in a rare brownish transformation.
This is possible because during the aging process of Pu'er tea, oxygen from the air can penetrate the damaged tea Leaf tissues (the repeated kneading during the sun-drying process and later compression into shape cause damage to the tea leaf tissues), allowing polyphenol oxidase to come into contact with the phenolic substrates and initiate enzymatic reactions. The main substrates involved are flavonoids, such as phlorizin, catechins, epicatechins, and a series of anthocyanidin oligomers based on the epicatechin skeleton structure.
This situation results in a peculiar phenomenon in Pu'er tea, where the content of tea polyphenols is high before fermentation but rapidly decreases after fermentation. Despite the decrease in polyphenols, Pu'er tea does not spoil but instead undergoes degradation and transformation of its polyphenols under the catalytic action of microorganisms and enzymes, leading to the appearance of numerous nutritionally valuable derivatives.
Another key aspect is mastering multiple aspects of Pu'er tea, from production to brewing and tasting. When assessing the aging potential of a Pu'er tea, we need to work backward, from the product (brewed and tasted) to the storage conditions, the production process, and the raw materials. In other words, by tasting the tea, we can deduce any issues present in the tea and thus judge its potential for positive development in the future. This ability cannot be achieved without a solid foundation of knowledge and experience.