Dark Tea: 6 Key Points To Identify Its Quality

Having a cup of dark tea in summer to cool down your body

Dark tea, a kind of post-fermented tea. To aging the tea for several months or years, let the bacteria fermentation enough. The tea steeped shows a dark color, so-called“dark tea” And it has about over 400 years of history.
When in hot summer, to drink a cup of dark tea, can both quench thirst and relieve the heat. But how can we choose a high-quality dark tea?

To identify the quality of dark tea, mainly pay attention to 6 points:

Thickness

When the tea slips into your mouth and stimulates your taste buds, stir the tea with the tip of your tongue, you will feel the thick feeling of the dark tea from the tongue.
The thick feeling is not like the concentration, will not make the tea getting bitter. But when tea getting a level of concentration, the feeling of thick will get strong. Because of more substances of tea dissolved in water, thicker will be.

Smooth

The smooth degrees means the “oil feeling” of dark tea, just like the feeling of having chicken soup. Usually, the very smooth tea has a “left behind a layer of oil” feeling after drinking, this feeling distinguished from the “no bitterness so it is easy to swallow“.
The smooth degrees have a great relationship with the thick degrees of tea, the thicker the tea, the smoother the taste. The tea enters the mouth for a moment, flows through the throat to the stomach very smooth and natural, gives the drinker a wonderful feeling. And the low-quality of tea will have a “Throat Lock” feeling.

Sweetness

Sweetness is one of the simplest and most intuitive aspects of identifying the quality of tea. High-quality dark tea can smell sweetness before tasted. Besides, dark tea has almost no bitter taste, so its sweetness is more obvious. The sweetness of the tea will be felt immediately after the contact with the tongue and will spread in the mouth lasting for a long time.

Moist

High-quality dark tea can be moistened the throat, immediately remove the feeling of drying. Senior tea master attaches great importance to the characteristics of throat moist, after drinking high-quality dark tea, people will feel warm and moist, such as spring breeze blowing.
Drink 3-4 rounds dark tea, throat refreshing moisture, the mouth is not dry anymore, the whole belly feeling warm and comfortable, this is the sign of high-quality dark tea moisture.

Purity

The production environment and technology have a great influence on the quality of dark tea

Purity is an important indicator of the fermentation technology of dark tea. Whether the fermentation environment is sanitary, whether the method is correct, whether the fermentation degree is appropriate and whether the storage environment is ideal can be judged from the purity of tea. Especially the tea brick needs a long time for aging, poor storage environment is easy to waste.
Purity dark tea is very comfortable to drink, and even those who don’t prefer dark tea will not find it hard to accept. If it tastes smelly, it indicates that the sanitary conditions are not up to standard in the production process, or it is contaminated in the later storage.

Aroma

The aroma is one of the charms of dark tea

Different ingredients and blend modes bring different aroma, which is one of the charms of dark tea. The piling process will inevitably give the new tea some “piling smell,” but the sophisticated technology and strict production process will reduce this smell to some extent, and after two or three years of aging, the “piling smell” will fade, showing a richer and thicker taste.
The aging aroma is the most basic aroma of dark tea. If stored properly, the aging dark tea after more than five years will be further sublimated and present richer aroma such as camphor, ginseng, medicine, jujube, and wood.