Solar terms and hot tea
Winter solstice is one of the traditional 24 solar terms in China. Astronomically speaking, the solstice of winter is the beginning of winter, which means that the real "freezing" has just begun.
Therefore, in order to spend the cold winter better, intelligent human beings eat and drink on the solstice of winter, which is called "supplementing winter"!
After eating greasy food and drinking a cup of hot tea, it feels like walking in the desert and suddenly encountering an oasis, which makes people feel refreshed!
Drinking tea can not only relieve the greasy of winter solstice tonic, but also be a good way to keep fit in winter. You can drink more rock tea Dahongpao, black tea, Pu 'er tea and old white tea all winter.
And at this time, Wuyi Rock Tea Dahongpao has reached the best time of the year.
However, if your Dahongpao has these five flavors, no matter how much you spend, you'd better not drink it!
1, Dahongpao smells like smoke.
In the process of baking Dahongpao, if there is smoke, it will make the tea give off smoke.
Tea will smell of smoke at this time. That feeling is like lighting a blank sheet of paper, then throwing the burnt paper into the water and finally drinking the water.
Dahongpao smells like smoke, but the taste has changed. It's better not to drink it.
2. burnt dahongpao
Smoke smell and burnt smell are two different tastes. A smoked dahongpao doesn't necessarily smell burnt, but a burnt dahongpao basically smells of smoke.
The reason for the burnt smell of tea leaves is that the baking time is too long or the baking temperature is too high, which makes the tea leaves close to "carbonization".
Dahongpao at this time, even the smell of dry tea, can feel a strong burning smell, and the color of the rope is too dark.
The brewed tea soup is dark red like traditional Chinese medicine, with a bitter taste in the mouth and a charcoal smell.
Some tea shop owners will interpret this taste as "fire smell" and say that it is the unique taste of rock tea, which is completely confusing!
The "fire taste" and "burnt taste" of rock tea are completely different. The smell of fire has a familiar fragrance, light and not pungent.
But the burnt smell is obviously the smell of something burnt by fire or the smell of charcoal.
Burned Dahongpao can basically be sentenced to death, so don't drink it!
3. Green Dahongpao
Green flavor is also the flavor of rock tea, especially rock tea with medium and light firepower.
Dahongpao, which is medium and light fire, can be listed at the end of July and the beginning of August. It's been over four months now. Tea leaves turn green easily if they are not properly preserved.
Once the tea leaves turn green, it will have a green taste, similar to the taste of grass and mung beans.
This green smell will appear in dry tea and tea soup.
When it first turned green, you could only smell the faint green smell in the tea soup, which lasted for a short time and was fleeting. Dahongpao is still in the drinkable range at this time, but you should finish it as soon as possible.
In the middle and late period, dry tea and tea soup will have a strong green flavor, which will cover up the original flavor of Dahongpao, so it is not suitable for drinking at this time.
Either throw it away or bake it again.
4. Mildew Dahongpao
A musty smell is a musty smell.
I like the smell of old books in bookstores, and I like the musty smell of damp rotten wood, so I don't want to smell them twice once.
Although Dahongpao also has aged tea, and there is a saying that "three years old, five years used as medicine, and ten years of Dan", well-preserved aged tea does have high drinking value, but don't equate "aged taste" with "musty taste"!
Normal aged tea, the color of tea is compact, the aroma of drinking is overflowing, and there is a faint woody and aged fragrance. The soup is red and bright as old red wine, and the entrance is smooth and tender, mellow and sweet. After drinking, it is lubricated and produces fluid, with obvious throat rhyme and spewing on the tip of the tongue, which is extremely comfortable.
This feeling is completely different from the musty smell. The musty smell is an irritating and unpleasant gas. It can be said that if there is too much "stale smell", it will begin to turn into musty smell.
Dahongpao with musty smell is not only inedible, but also harmful to health, so it can only be thrown away!
5. Sour Dahongpao
There are two kinds of "sour taste" of rock tea, one is the natural "Wuyi acid" of rock tea, and the other is the "problem acid" caused by mistakes in the production process or improper preservation.
So how to distinguish the so-called "Wuyi acid" from "problem acid"?
Wuyi acid
Wuyi acid contained in rock tea is mainly a mixture of gallic acid, oxalic acid, tannin and quercitrin.
The acid content of each variety is different. Some rock teas are obviously sour, while others are not. This acid will not affect the original taste of tea.
In a certain aging period, the contents of aged rock tea will also produce sour taste during the transformation process. Once that period has passed, the sour taste will disappear, which is a normal phenomenon.
Problem acid
Problem acids are usually produced in the production process.
For example, the temperature in the early stage of green leaves was too high, the fermentation was too heavy, the leaves were not spread in time after green leaves were made, and the leaves were sealed directly before the baking temperature dropped, resulting in excessive accumulation of water content in tea leaves, forming a "stuffy sour taste".
This kind of acid gives people the feeling of being like a dish of green vegetables. It was not put into the refrigerator in time in hot Xiamen, resulting in sour taste, which made people smell uncomfortable and difficult to swallow.
Moreover, the "greening" of rock tea will also form a "problem sour taste".
Rock tea has strong hygroscopicity and poor storage conditions. After absorbing water, it is easy to produce odor substances such as acetic acid, which becomes a problematic sour taste.
So, if the dahongpao you drink has this sour taste, you can't drink it!
When drinking tea on the solstice in winter, you should not only choose the right one, but also drink the right one.
Dahongpao tastes like this, which not only can't keep healthy, but also has a bad influence on the body.
Therefore, if you feel that your tea has these "problem symptoms", you should pay attention to it, and you would rather throw it away than be reluctant!