This article is only a guideline, it
is important to remember that the best tea is the tea that you like.
Pu-erh tea has a rich taste and offers a large variety of profiles
because there has been no standard in how it should taste like. Yet,
it can be useful to know what to notice in a cup of tea. While
reading, please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, it
is only the most common comments one can hear here and there while
drinking tea in China.
Nose
The flavor (Xiang Wei 香味)
is an important part of tea quality, first, you can smell the dry
leaves. In order to fully release their aroma, you can heat them up
with steam, either by putting them at the tip of the kettle, either
by smelling them in the pre-heated gaiwan/teapot. After the washing
(the first brew), the damp and warm leaves will release different
fragrances, it can be enjoyable to smell the leaves in the gaiwan at
different steps of the tea session.
The empty cup of tea is another point
of interest, the hot tea liquor on the cup walls slowly evaporates
and great scents can be noticed, those smells evolve as the aromatic
compounds evaporate, it can be worthwhile to smell your empty cup
regularly.
Finally, the tea liquor itself is full of
fragrances, you can notice them better if you only pour your cup
halfway. Nonetheless, the best way to enjoy those scents is to drink
up the tea and use retro-olfaction, which means you breath air out
through your nose while keeping your mouth shut, the air coming from
the lungs will be full of tea aroma and you will perceive more
complex flavours than by simply smelling tea in the cup.
Aroma is very volatile, it can change
very quickly and is somewhat hard to describe. Yet, you will notice
that some Pu-erh teas are more aromatic than others: Mengku, Nannuo,
Mengsong and Jingmai are examples of highly fragrant teas, bursting
in your mouth. Yiwu and Bulang teas have typically more contained
aromas, it does not mean they lack of complexity but they have a
different way to spread, they don't give everything in the first cup.
The aroma of a tea depends a lot on its
processing and aging, it is up to the tea farmer to build a complex
tea fragrance by adjusting the heaviness of Sha Qing and rolling
process to the right degree. Aged tea fragrance is mostly built up by
the storage environment. A common chinese saying tell: ''the more
aged, the more fragrant 越陈越香''.
In reality, it mostly depends on the aging conditions of the tea.
Mouth
What makes Pu-erh so different from
other teas is its complexity in the mouth feeling. Let's call it with
the chinese word: Kou Gan 口感.
Pu-erh tea flavor has sweetness,
bitterness and astringency.
a) Bitterness (Ku Wei 苦味)
There are three kinds of bitterness:
-Lingering bitterness: it feels a bit
puckery and is very present in some Bulang tea, especially those from
the varietal called ''Ku Cha 苦茶''.
-Bitterness that transforms into
astringency, it is often associated with young tea trees.
-Bitterness which transforms into
sweetness, it is characteristic of old trees in several areas (Lao
Man E, Banzhang, Jingmai...), this last one is often the most praised
of the bitterness.
In a tea cup, those three kinds of
bitterness are mixed, it is rare to find bitterness that only
transforms into astringency or sweetness. The duration of bitterness
is also a quality criteria, most amateurs prefer bitterness that
transforms quickly. For example, bitterness in Lao Banzhang tea
should transform faster than in Lao Man E tea, this is considered as
a major difference between those two villages' tea taste.
b) Astringency (Se Wei 涩味)
This is the feeling of having a rough
tongue, as astringency deploys, the taste buds contract and it can
feel a bit itchy. You can especially feel astringency when you touch
your palate with your tongue. Astringency on the tongue is present to
different extents on each tea. It is often heavier in young trees tea
and in some aged teas.
Astringency can also be felt on the
skin touching the upper teeth, it feels like the lips are hard to
detach from the teeth. This kind of astringency is often found in
plantation tea but is less common in old-growth tea.
The Chinese tea amateurs tend to
regroup bitterness and astringency under the term Ku Se Wei 苦涩味,
this term is used to describe the general aggresiveness of tea.
c) Sweetness (Tian Wei甜味)
is somewhat hard to describe, it is often what remains in the mouth
after you have swallowed the liquor, it deploys on the sides and on
the upper part of the mouth, when sweetness deploys into the mouth,
it can feel as if the skin slighlty expanded.
Throat
In many high quality Pu-erh teas, a
pleasant sweetness can be felt in the throat, it is called Hui Gan
回甘.
Deep and lingering Huigan are unique to old trees tea, this
refreshing feeling can remain for a long time after drinking. Bulang
Shan tea feature very nice Huigan, this is maybe what makes Lao
Banzhang tea so famous.
Body
If you pay attention, you can notice a
lot of things happening in your body while drinking Pu-erh tea. This
feeling can be called Chaqi 茶气,
it varies according to the people and it seems not everybody does
perceive it. Good tea can make you feel good, just like being drunk
but without the negative effects. When drinking tea from old trees,
one can feel more concentrated, relaxed and energized. If you drink
too much Pu-erh tea, you can feel tea drunk or Cha Zui 茶醉
in Chinese.
''I feel this article is largely incomplete, if you have things to add, you are welcome to post a comment!'' |
it is a very useful information.
ReplyDeletefrom my past experience, the age of the pu-erh tree and how long it has been stored factored the transformation.
Very informative as always. Thank you.
ReplyDelete"Good tea can make you feel good, just like being drunk but without the negative effects."
ReplyDeleteGood tea, good smile, good vibes :)
Thanks for putting all this information together in one blog post! When reading the different Pu-erh blogs, you always stumble upon words like kuwei and huigan and it took some time for me to get a hang of the pu vocabulary. It would have been much easier with this explanation!
ReplyDeleteThank you everybody for you comments, it's always a pleasure to read them.
ReplyDeleteDear Gero, I hope you will join the blog community one day, it would be great to have your opinions. Huigan and Kuwei are common words, but, even among the Chinese tea amateurs, the terms differ, why not create your owns for what you feel?
Best
William