Ripened Tea is gentle on the Stomach, helps reduce fat and cut through grease, has a stable flavor, and is loved by many tea enthusiasts. So let's take a look at which aspects we should consider when identifying ripened tea.
From its appearance, high-quality Pu'er tea typically displays prominent golden tips, tightly bound and heavy strands, with a brownish-red, lustrous color. If the color appears black or mixed with green leaves, or if the strands appear withered and dull, it indicates poor processing or improper storage, suggesting an inferior quality ripened tea. In compressed ripened teas, using Cake tea as an example, the focus should be on whether the strands are clearly visible and uniformly arranged, without any missing edges or corners, consistently thick and thin, neither too loose nor too tight, and neatly tied. The normal colors include dark brown, chestnut brown, and reddish-brown. If there are signs of mold or mold spots on the surface of the Pu'er ripened tea, it is considered a low-quality product.
From the liquor color, Pu'er ripened tea requires a bright red and deep color. A deep red is normal. Yellow, Orange-yellow, or dark and murky colors indicate inferior quality tea products. An orange-yellow or dark color usually results from poor control of the “Fermentation” process, either due to insufficient fermentation or over-fermentation.
From the aroma, one cannot talk about Pu'er ripened tea without mentioning its aged scent and “pile-fermentation” smell. The aged scent is the most basic aroma of ripened tea; the “pile-fermentation” smell results from the pile-fermentation technology used in Pu'er ripened tea production, which is unavoidable. However, the “pile-fermentation” smell can be reduced or even avoided to some extent, and after two to three years of transformation, the pile-fermentation smell will fade away. High-quality Pu'er ripened tea may exhibit fragrances such as camphor, medicinal herbs, dates, aged scent, etc., and good raw materials and processing techniques give rise to pleasant aromas in Pu'er ripened tea.
From the taste and mouthfeel of the tea liquor, high-quality Pu'er ripened tea has a rich, smooth, soothing, and sweet taste; conversely, low-quality Pu'er ripened tea tastes bland, lacks smoothness, and may even produce a “numbing astringency” that is noticeably uncomfortable when tasting.
After fermentation, the leaf base of ripened tea turns brown or reddish-brown. Good quality Pu'er ripened tea leaves have fewer broken leaves and no foreign objects. Low-quality Pu'er tea has incomplete leaves and may contain some foreign objects. After fermentation, the integrity of the leaf base of Pu'er ripened tea may be somewhat fragmented, so when distinguishing the quality of Pu'er ripened tea based on the leaf base, the main focus should be on whether there are foreign objects present.
The above methods for identifying ripened tea are generally applicable but not absolute. For example, some ripened teas may look very ordinary or even unappealing, but they can be quite captivating when tasted. Therefore, we should comprehensively evaluate the quality of a tea rather than make hasty judgments based on one or a few factors.