Pu Erh Tea Appreciation (Part One )

Since people ask me some questions about how to tell the quality of Pu Erh Tea, I am going to write a series of blogs to share some of my opinions about Pu Erh Tea appreciation. However, it might not be agreed by everyone. More than welcome to discuss with me.

There are four ways to make the judgment of Pu Erh tea, Color of tea soup, Smell, Taste and Look tea leaves.

The whole process of tea taste is more likes to amuse your body from vision to olfactory, then gustation and back to vision. Personally I really enjoy it.

Let’s start from color of tea soup.

Because of tea polyphenols can be oxygenated in the air, the color of tea soup might change. Plus, color also affect by temperature. So the judgment should be made in 10 min after brewing.

There are many color of tea soup depends on the age of tea cake. Normally, the color turns from light and greenish to bright dark red with its age goes up.  Such as, new fresh Pu Erh cake which is 1-2 years are yellowish green, and it goes to golden yellow after 3 years and turns to orange around 5 years. Then it is going to alcoholizated stage which is 5 to 30 years. During this period, color turns from orange red (5-8 years) to pomegranate (8-15years) and then reach ruby red at 15-30years. Any tea after 30 years, we will call it aged tea and its color is more like wine red. But whatever the color is, it should be clear and bright. If the tea soup is turbid, this tea might be peroxided, which is occurred by improper storage, such as high moisture or bright environment.