Understand the nature of tea: Generally speaking, Pu 'er tea should be brewed with boiling water at 100 degrees Celsius. Brick tea-crushed and boiled, tender Tuo tea-fine water, high quality-is brewed from green tea.
Preparation of tea set: three kinds of tea sets can be used to brew Pu 'er tea: teapot, porcelain bowl and porcelain pot.
Teapots: aged Pu 'er tea, cooked Pu 'er tea, tender Pu 'er tea, Yun Jian: porcelain teapots, Pu 'er tea under five years: porcelain covers bowls in recent years.
Tea water: It is best to brew Pu 'er tea with pure water or mountain spring water. No matter what water you choose, don't let it boil all the time, so there is too little oxygen in the water and the brewed tea soup lacks activity.
Tea quantity: the tea quantity varies with different teas. Qizi cake tea: 65438+ 0.5 of the pot capacity; Tuocha: About a little less than cake tea; Pu 'er loose tea: pot 1/4 or 1/3.
Taste Pu 'er tea: Generally speaking, you should drink fresh tea, but Pu 'er tea is called "drinkable antique" and is the only one with vitality. Fermentation can continue in the air, and the longer the storage time, the more mellow the tea is. In the process of "post-fermentation", with the participation of nature, the taste of Pu 'er tea will change magically, prompting many Pu 'er tea lovers to put it in Tibetan containers and take out a little brew every once in a while, and the taste will gradually become stronger, and feelings will arise. This accumulation of history and time is also the main reason why aged Pu 'er tea is highly respected. What an old Pu 'er! There is a layer of smoke floating in the soup in the cup. With soup and tea in your mouth, you will feel vicissitudes. In the lost historical memory, you can taste it slowly, and a good cup of tea can be tasted more than 20 times. With the ethereal fragrance of tea, the fragrance and quality of tea penetrate into the heart, which makes people feel moved instantly.
Properties of Pu 'er tea: As one of the oldest tea varieties in China, Pu 'er tea not only has a very long history, but also has rich natural flavor and unique natural conditions. The nature of Pu 'er tea is also reflected in that it is a "drinkable antique".
Taste of Pu 'er tea: It has the same bitter and astringent taste as tea, but from another perspective, proper bitterness is the premise of returning sweetness and moistening throat. Catechin, the main substance causing bitter taste, not only has bactericidal effect, but also can resist cancer, reduce the content of cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in blood and resist food allergy.
Aroma of Pu 'er tea: The most representative and common aroma is camphor, lotus, ginseng and plum, and others are jujube, mung bean and orchid. These smells sometimes appear in a certain tea, and sometimes accompany them. Between the nose and mouth, the fragrance lingers, making people ecstatic and excited.
Taste and body fluid of Pu 'er tea: The mellow and aged Pu 'er tea soup is smooth. Compared with the astringency of Pu 'er tea cakes eaten by freshmen, the smooth soup tea makes people feel very comfortable. Tea soup is so smooth that it can reach the realm of "melting"
Spring at the root of the tongue: the so-called "tea tasting" requires skill. The general principle is: sip slowly, swirl in your mouth and swallow slowly. At the entrance of tea soup, the mouth should be as empty as possible, the lips should be closed, and the teeth should be separated up and down, so as to increase the space in the mouth, relax the muscles in the mouth, form a large gap between the tongue and the upper jaw, and make the tea soup soak into the lower gum and the bottom of the tongue. When swallowing, the mouth narrows, and the tea soup is pressed into the throat to swallow.
How to brew a pot of Yunnan Pu 'er tea? It is not only a skill and skill, but also the accumulation of tea drinkers' experience. Through correct brewing, the tea quality, beauty and customs of Pu 'er tea are fully displayed, so that drinkers can achieve the purpose of cultivating sentiment, being happy physically and mentally, and preserving health and prolonging life.
Brewing Pu 'er tea is still an art, full of diversity, individuality and creativity, rather than a fixed "formula". This paper talks about the "tricks" that should be paid attention to in brewing Pu 'er tea, and talks about my own views and methods to communicate with readers.
Preparation before drinking tea
Choosing water: The ancients had many incisive views on the relationship between water and tea. For example, "tea can't be discussed without water", "tea must be born in water, and 8% tea is also good when it meets 10% water; Eight points of water, ten percent of tea, eight points of tea "and so on.
Yunnan is rich in tea drinking water, and there are many mountain springs. There are also many good mountain springs near Kunming, such as Miaogao Temple and Xishan Mountain in the western suburbs, Humboldt Temple in Yiliang and Xilongtang in Chengjiang, all of which are good tea and good water. Mountain spring water has its own characteristics in expressing tea properties: fragrant, mellow, sweet and active; There are also several characteristics. Generally, sweet, clean, fresh and clear water is the first choice, which is not astringent when making tea, and the color of tea soup is stable. Nowadays, many tea people or tea lovers in Yunnan are fashionable to fetch water from the wild to make tea for a living and realize the ideal of fragrant tea and beautiful spring. Fresh mountain springs have a positive effect on improving the activity and aroma of tea, but as far as Pu 'er tea is concerned, especially aged tea, if the mountain springs are "raised" in clay pots and then put back to make tea, the "Chen Yun" of Pu 'er tea can be better displayed.
Choose tableware:
1, teapot Yixing teapot is the first choice for making Pu 'er tea. The teapot has good air permeability and adsorption, which is beneficial to improve the alcoholicity of Pu 'er tea and the brightness of tea soup. Generally, it is ideal to choose casserole with vermicelli and purple mud to adjust sand, which can improve air permeability.
The volume of teapot is relatively loose, which is convenient for the relaxation of tea strips and the leaching of taste. This is just the opposite of the "smallest and most expensive" oolong teapot. Two or three people drink Pu 'er tea together, usually in a 250 ml teapot, and many people can brew it in a 300-400 ml teapot. The new pot you just bought should be boiled with tea, and the "kiln flavor" and earthy flavor should be removed. After using it for a period of time (commonly known as "raising a pot"), you can make tea, achieving the effect of "the pot is ripe and the tea is fragrant". In addition, Pu 'er tea can also be brewed with porcelain pots, porcelain bowls and tea sets.
2. Boilers often use "hand bubble" to boil water, which is more convenient. If you brew some better Pu 'er tea, you should use a copper pot or a sand pot to boil water with an open flame to keep the activity of the spring water and raise the water temperature.
Generally, white porcelain or celadon is suitable for making teacups, so as to enjoy the soup color of Pu 'er tea. The teacup is bigger than the cup used for Kung Fu tea (oolong tea). Drinking tea in a thick-walled mug is not only suitable for the mellow and sweet characteristics of Pu 'er tea, but also close to the rough drinking customs of Yunnan people.
4. Fair pot is the first choice with good quality transparent glassware. Pu 'er tea is famous for its clear and bright tea soup and changeable colors. People often compare the soup color of Yunnan Pu 'er tea to "aged red wine", "amber", "pomegranate red" and "ruby red" and so on. Viewing color has become a unique landscape in the art of Pu 'er tea. The color and texture of Pu 'er tea soup show different changes due to the origin, production technology, materials, storage environment, aging years and other factors of tea. Watching soup is not only aesthetic, but also an important link in evaluating tea quality.
5. Peeling tea leaves looks like a screwdriver and is made of hardwood or hard bamboo, which is used for pressing tea. By pulling tea layer by layer, it can not only keep the integrity of tea strips, reduce broken tea, but also facilitate the collocation of surface tea and inner tea, and accurately reflect the quality of pressed tea.
Tea is made of Pu 'er pressed tea, and the properties of tea can be divided into two types: internal and external. Even if it is a pressed tea with the same internal and external materials, with the continuation of storage time, the tea properties of surface tea and internal tea are different. Therefore, before drinking, the pressed tea leaves should be dissolved, put into a clay pot and dispersed, and the flour tea and tea leaves should be mixed evenly. For small packaged loose tea with strict sealing, it should also be ventilated before drinking. After this treatment, the quality of the beverage is better than that of instant block, instant opening and instant brewing. It's a bit like tasting red wine. Generally, you should avoid drinking it now, and leave it for a while after opening the bottle to "kill" the wine.
Familiar with tea
Yunnan Pu 'er tea can be divided into loose tea and tight tea, new and old tea, green tea and cooked tea. Fermented tea includes mild fermentation, moderate fermentation and heavy fermentation. And tea has different properties. Every Pu 'er tea has its own personality. Only when you are familiar with the personality of the brewed tea, and then through skillful brewing, can you show the beauty of the personality of tea. The nature of tea determines the choice of tea set, the amount of tea, the level of water temperature, the rhythm of brewing, and even what water to choose. There are many subtle relationships between the properties of tea and the brewing methods. As far as the brewing techniques of Yunnan Pu 'er tea are concerned, coarse old tea is different from delicate tea, green cake is different from cooked cake, old tea is different from new tea, light fermented tea is different from heavy fermented tea, and "bitter" tea is different from "sweet" tea. Therefore, a Pu 'er tea must be soaked thoroughly and pass the customs.