Lastea - Know more about tea: January 2021

Monday, January 18, 2021

Why Fuzhuan Brick Tea With Many Golden Flowers In?

By the Pu-erh tea trend in recent years, dark tea is known by more and more people. Dark tea belongs to post-fermented tea, and it needs aging to increase the flavor. After a long-time store, some leaves may develop tiny little golden flowers; It is regarded as the symbol of high-quality tea. And a kind of dark tea named Fuzhuan Brick Tea is famous for its large amount of golden flowers. This feature of Fuzhuan brick tea is from its unique processing.

What Is Fuzhuan Brick Tea

Fuzhuan Brick Tea (or Fuzhuan Cha) was originated in Jingyang City, China, so it is also called Jingyang Fuzhuan Cha. “Fu” in Chinese means the hot summer because it is the season tea produced. Another saying is, this leaves’ scent and benefits are close to Glabrous Greenbrier Rhizome(A Chinese Medicine.)

Jingyang is located in the midland of China, an important post of the ancient Silk Roads. The tea produced in the south must pass Jingyang and sell to the west regions like Tibetan, Xinjiang, and Nepal.

Interestingly, due to the local climate not being comfortable planting tea, Jingyang city only does the tea-processing job. Similarly, only the dark tea processed in Jingyang can develop golden flowers because of the climate.

There is a story about Fuzhuan brick tea. A long time ago, a trade caravan was transporting a batch of Anhua Dark Tea to Xinjiang. When they pass by Jingyang, they were careless and fell the goods into the river. It was a rainy season, the caravan cannot keep going, and the teas cannot dry. A dozen days passed, they smelled a unique and charming scent from the damp teas.

After they open the tea package, and they got shocked. Many tiny golden flowers appeared on the leaves, with a little warmth; the tea went moldy. Merchants felt down and made a decision. Rather than lose all the goods, it’s better to keep going west, see if they can sell these moldy-teas out.

They passed a village and found the folks were suffering from dysentery. They gave half the teas to the folks from goodwill, then kept moving. A few days later, several folks on horses caught up with the caravan. They told the merchants that all the patients were getting well after drinking their tea, and dysentery had under control; these leaves must be a gift from god. So they hope to buy the all left at a high price.

The emperor heard the story, then sent the professional tea masters to Jingyang for research, and appointed Fuzhuan brick tea as a tribute. Every year later, the tea masters in Jingyang will purchase the dark rough tea from Sichuan and Hunan and further process it into Fuzhuan brick tea. About 30%-50% yield turn over to the emperor as tax, and the left only allows for sale at the appointed regions.

You may ask why to make the supply chain such complicated. In case the local environment not suitable for tea planting, why not process in the other regions with this method?

In fact, after New China was built, the Chinese gov also tried this way.

People established a tea factory in Hunan and tried to produce Fu Zhuan Cha in this method. The plan failed because the golden flowers could not reach an ideal quality. The experts studied and found that to let the leaves develop golden flowers, three things are necessary: the Jingyang river water, climate, and traditional methods.

Truth About The Fuzhuan Brick Tea Golden Flowers

As compressed tea, why Fuzhuan easier to develop golden flowers than Anhua dark tea and Liu Bao tea? First, we should understand what these golden flowers are.

According to the studies, these golden flowers that develop on Fuzhuan brick tea during the post-fermented time are a type of fungus. They are mainly composed of Eurotium and Aspergillus. These fungi have a similar morphological structure and physiological feature, and the Eurotium Cristatum is the main kind of them. It can secres vast enzymes and activate them to help Fuzhuan tea create more soluble sugar compounds during aging.

These compounds are considered by the medical field to balance glucose metabolism, boost gastrointestinal immunity, and excellent effects on reducing blood fat and pressure.

And during these golden flowers growing, they will also resolve the leaves’ coarser fibers and elder component, increasing Fuzhuan Cha’s flavor. After brewing, they will make the tea distribute a special floral; tea lovers typically called it fungus-flowers fragrance.

Of course, not only the Fuzhuan brick tea can develop golden flowers; all the dark teas can. But the Fuzhuan that from Jingyang got a higher probability. Is it other tea-producing regions that really can’t achieve this? The largest factor is the unique Fuzhuan brick tea processing.

Just like the other dark teas, Fuzhuan is made from dark rough tea. It must go through piling, compressing, and drying. But to Fuzhuan, there is one more step before drying called creat flowers.

After compressing the dark rough tea into a brick, tea masters will heat it with steam for sterilization and make it keep a certain water content. Then send the bricks into a baking house, let the golden flowers develop slowly under a suitable moderate temperature and humidity.

We know that low-fermented tea, like green tea, the leaves picking standard is the tender the better. Dark tea is different; it prefers the elder leaves, even the tea stem. And the Fuzhuan brick tea even contains more tea stems. It is not saying the quality is terrible; instead, the tea stem means a lot to the post-fermented tea.

Due to the different types of tea trees, the one that offers leaves to make dark tea contains more sugar in the stem. In the following aging process, these sugar will become easier to dissolve after fermentation. So the aged dark tea typically tastes sweet. Besides, the ingredients of the tea stem are the crucial nutrition for the golden flowers.

One thing is more important. To let the tea brick develop golden flowers successfully, enough space is also essential besides the proper temperature and humidity.

A moderate tea stem content can make more interspace, and the tea masters also will not compress the brick too tight. This inner ventilated environment is what the golden flowers need.

Once you got a Fuzhuan brick tea, you will found that the golden flowers only appear inside but not on the surface. To standardize products’ quality, the Chinese government standard stipulated that the stem content of Fuzhuan must be at about 15%-18%, and golden flowers must be developed before it sells. That is the reason make people feel Fuzhuan got golden flowers easier than other dark teas.

Typically, the traditional creating flowers job should take 25-30 days. Some tea factories will add tea leaves juice during piling to create more golden flowers and let them grow faster. In this way, the time-cost can short into half a month.

This method got a disadvantage, the final product will only get floral but no tea fragrance, the flavor is not balanced. Because in the traditional creating flowers way, the naturally-grown golden flowers can also resolve and transform the nutrition ingredient and crude fiber of leaves and stem, balancing and improving the brick tea flavor with the leaves-fermentation together.

Worthing knowing, even though Fuzhuan brick tea also suitable for aging, but the golden flowers are a fungus, and they got a shorter life. So the longer the aging time, the golden flower content will reduce; they will wither gradually.

How To Brew Fuzhuan Brick Tea

To let the golden flowers develop better, even though Fu Cha had compressed into a brick, it is not as tight as other dark tea. It’s easy to pry it.

Different from ripe Pu-erh tea, which needs pry from the center. To take Fuzhuan tea, you need to stand the brick up first and pry it gently from the side with a knife. Some more looser brick also can be forced apart with hands. Remember to pry gently and not make the leaves broken.

To brew Fuzhuan brick tea, a set of white porcelain teaware is a good choice. Remember to pre-heat the teaware before brewing.

Put moderate Fuzhuan bricks into a teapot, add 100℃ hot water, steep for about 3-5 seconds, then pour the wastewater away;
Rewashing the leaves one more time;
Refill hot water, steep for about 10-20 seconds, then pour the infusion into a fair cup for equal the concentration;
Enjoy;
Fuzhuan brick tea usually can be brewed over 10 rounds. After the fifth, consider to longer the steep time;

Besides, Fuzhuan tea also suitable for cooking. It’s a common drinking way in western China, and Tibetan loves to use Fuzhuan to make butter tea.

Prepare moderate leaves;
Heat the water in the pot, put the leaves in when the water nearly boils;
Cooking with mild fire for 5-10 mins;
Pour out and filter the infusion, then serving;

Some people may ask, will the high temperature kills the golden flowers? No need to worry. The studies showed that these fungi could keep active for 20 mins under 120℃. The water boiling point just 100℃, and the brewing time is much shorter than that.

Aging

Aging refers to store the dark tea in a ventilated, dark, and with suitable temperature and humidity environment to let it keep fermenting slowly. Unless you live in an extreme climate, one simple proper way to do this is just storing the brick tea in a scentless carton.

One thing about Fuzhuan brick tea is different from other dark teas. Just like what we talked about before, the golden flowers are the primary value of Fuzhuan Cha; and they will wither. Even though the golden flowers still develop during aging, the total amount will reduce by a long time store.

The Fuzhuan brick tea also got a charming flavor when it still fresh. Its infusion shows orange, with full flowers aroma, a slightly sweet and little astringency. After been aging, the floral reduce or gone, the mature grain aroma getting more distinct, and the taste turns mellow.

Sunday, January 10, 2021

Why Chinese Love Pu-erh Tea Deeply & How To Choose Proper One

Most of the countries with tea culture almost take green or black tea as the mainstream. But in China, the place tea was born, a kind of tea named Pu’er(also called Pu-erh tea) is the most popular.

Even though culture and dietary habits are different, the delicious taste of aged food seems to be loved by people worldwide. Just like wine and cheese, Pu-erh tea also gets a deeper level of flavor by aging. The longer it aging, the taste will be better, and the cost higher.

But Pu-erh is a special leaf; even the Chinese can not understand it completely. Why? Because of its broad definition. The most we know is the compressed dark tea in the tea store. But in fact, Pu-erh tea refers to all the teas originated in Yunnan, China, including all the tea types such as green and black.

There is no denying that Pu-erh tea’s market is huge. The enormous benefit brings chaos; some tea lovers may feel confused when buying.

This article will help you with a simple understanding of Pu-erh tea. About the serious and official studies, give them to the more professional scholar.

Pu-erh Tea Brief Introductions

History

The recognized earliest Pu-erh tea record was in the Tang Dynasty, an ancient document told that there already had tea-cultivate and drinking habits at that time. This type of tea tree was called Yunnan large-leaf tea tree later(Pu-erh type.) What is worth knowing, this plant is the same as the Assam Camellia Sinensis.

The most ancient Pu-erh processing is similar to green tea, which has to been fixated, rolling, and drying into rough tea. It is also called raw tea, can be brew directly and sold in loose-leaf tea style. Yunnan was one of the Ancient Tea Horse Road starting points; the tea trading is the most important thing.

Raw tea was not suitable for a long journey because the traffic was terrible in the old-time. So the tea masters will steam the leaves soft again and compress them into a bowl or cake shape, then drying again and packing for sale. This intelligent method extends the Pu-erh tea shelf life a lot and can save more shipping space.

Of course, the steam and compress work will not stop the tea from going bad wholly. During the long journey, most leaves were gone bad by the hostile environment. Fortunately, people found some tea cakes even looks already bad, but the brews become more attractive. It tastes more mellow and less grassy smell.

Tea merchants feedback this information to the Yunnan tea masters. After some research, they found that the Pu-erh tea will get dark and a significant change of flavor after aging in a proper environment for a long time. The longer it aging, the more dramatic the change. Therefore, people started aging Pu-erh tea designedly, for 5 years, 10 years, even dozens. It is the so-called Aged Raw Pu-erh Tea.

And this process is also called post-fermentation, which is the most different between dark tea and others. As society and science developing, people know more about microbial activities, the consumer demand for Pu-erh tea was also growing. In 1973, a new tea processing method was invented by the Chinese tea masters, which is called Pile Fermentation(Piling, Wo Dui.)

During the piling process, tea masters pile the leaves into a heap on the ground, add microorganisms artificially and keep watering to speed up the fermentation. Besides, it can also help unify the tea quality and reduce the long-time aging work’s uncertainty. The tea which had been piling fermentation is called Ripe Pu-erh Tea.

Dispute. What Is Pu-erh Tea Belongs To?

The recognized tea classified way is according to the processing. That makes Pu-erh tea in a dispute situation.

First, there is no doubt ripe Pu-erh belongs to post-fermented dark tea because it had been piling. What is disputed is about the raw Pu-erh, which is processed from the sun-drying rough tea. This rough tea’s processing, looks, and infusion color all close to green tea; the steaming and compressing job will change nothing but the shape. So people also called it sun-drying green tea.

However, the rough tea will be withering for a while before they fixation; that leads to a slight fermentation. So it can not be classified as green, strictly speaking. Also, the Pu-erh rough tea’s picking standard is one bud and multiple leaves, not like green tea prefer the tender buds. And about the flavor, the fresh raw Pu-erh taste a strong grassy, astringency, and stimulating, even some spicy. That is much different from the green tea’s slight sweetness.

You may say that seems not to be a big problem. In fact, the dispute mainly from the tea merchants. Pu-erh tea is too prevalent in China; it cracks down on the market of other types of tea a lot.

Especially the dark tea market. When people are talking about buying dark tea, they mostly mean the ripe Pu-erh. Even though Liu Bao tea and Anhua dark tea also good.

The same condition happened on the Moonlight White tea, which origin in Yunnan too. Because its leaves are from a large-leaf tea tree and look much different from ordinary white tea, many tea merchants are not regarded it as white but Pu-erh.

Besides, Yunnan tea masters produce all the other tea types with large leaves, and they also have good quality. Most other tea merchants and Yunnan themselves both hope to let Pu-erh independent from the 6 tea types classification. But it will cause many relevant problems and are not carried out till now.

Chaotic Market

In fact, the hot trend of Pu-erh tea was hyped up by the merchants to a certain extent. About 10 years ago, the excellent weight loss benefits and the aging value were the primary promotion means of Pu-erh tea. It is said that some have been aging for over decades raw Pu-erh teas were under the hammer with a sky-high price.

The great demand made the market into chaos. At first, only the tea origin from Yunnan and made from large-leaf tea trees ability to be called Pu-erh. However, many illegal merchants produce tea cakes with the leaves from other places, brand it Pu-erh, and cheating selling.

Due to the complex Pu-erh types, customers are easily buying fake products. Besides, the quality and pricing of aged Pu-erh tea only can be judge by a personal feeling; it also leads to a high premium.

Fortunately, with the craze fever gone, the Pu-erh tea price tends to be stabilized gradually. At the same time, customers knowing Pu-erh deeper, many illegal merchants and fake products lost their market.

Besides, to satisfy more people’s taste, tea masters also keep developing Pu-erh tea processing and types. My favorite is a kind of ripe Pu-erh, which is put the leaves in a dried tangerine and let them aging together; we called it Tangerine Pu-erh. Both of them are famous Chinese aging food. After a long time of interaction, leaves will get charming fruity.

Pu-erh Tea Varieties And Characteristics

The flavors of various Pu-erh tea sold on the market are very different. If you buy without any preliminary knowledge, you may get the taste you do not like and make a bad impression. It’s necessary to know more about the common Pu-erh teas’ varieties and characteristics.

Classified By The Processing

To classify Pu-erh tea by their processing ways is the most primary and easy. That is what we said Raw Pu-erh and Ripe Pu-erh.

Raw Pu-erh Tea

Raw Pu-erh tea is also called Sun-drying tea. After the picking job, leaves will be withering under the sun for a while, then sent to fixation and rolling. Finally, put them under the sun for drying again, to make rough tea. The rough tea is loose leaf this moment; tea farmers will sell them to the tea factories for further processing, less part for sold directly.

After purchasing rough tea, tea factories will steam them soft, then compressing them into various shapes by the machine. These final products are Raw Pu-erh tea. You can store it to let it aging or drink it directly, but the fresh raw Pu-erh taste very spicy.

Typically raw Pu-erh tea looks dark green, and the infusion is yellow-green. You may be confusing it with green tea if the leaves are not such big. Even though its pressing is similar to green tea, its flavor is more intense. The fresh raw Pu-erh tastes an intense grassy and astringency. After the infusion slips down your throat, it will leave a cool feeling behind your oral.

The raw Pu-erh tea, which after aging, both the infusion and leaves color will get darker. And the taste will change into mild gradually, just like the ripe grain, and the grassy gone. The longer it aging, the much change. About the specific flavor, it depends on how you aging, the methods, and so on. So there are many possibilities for the flavor changes, and this is the charm of aged Pu-erh.

Ripe Pu-erh Tea

Ripe Pu-erh takes the raw one as the basic, plus a step called piling in the processing. Tea masters will place the rough tea on the ground indoors, keep adding water and microorganism to them for a period of time. Piling is for simulating the aging environment to speed up the fermentation.

At the first time, ripe Pu-erh is not acceptable to tea lovers; they thought it is a cheat. Later, ripe Pu-erh won their respect for its excellent quality and taste. The biggest pro of it is to reduce the aging work much, makes the tea lovers avoid the loss from a wrong aging way. And the quality also easy to uniformly control.

Ripe Pu-erh looks dark brown, and the infusion shows coffee. It tastes much different from the raw one. Without any pungent, tastes smooth and mellow, with a little sweetness, sending a ripe grain aroma. What is worth knowing, even though ripe Pu-erh’s fermentation similar to the aged raw Pu-erh, they still taste different. And ripe Pu-erh also can get deeper flavor by aging.

Classified By The Aging Way

Whether raw or ripe, most tea factories will do a certain aging job before selling, typically for 1 year or more. And some tea merchants, for enhancing the quality and price, also aging them for a time and graded them by the time cost. Take care of the note on the product package; it will show how long it has been aging, 3, 5, 10 years, or more. Of course, it also may be a cheat. And according to the aging way, Pu-erh is also classified into Dry-aging and Wet-aging.

Dry-aging Pu-erh

It means to follow the traditional aging way, store the Pu-erh at a dark, ventilated, and dry warehouse, to let it ferment naturally.

Wet-aging Pu-erh

It means to store the Pu-erh in a moist place, such as a cellar, to speed up the fermentation. But if not control the temperature and humidity well, it will lead to moldy.

Classified By The Shapes

Except for the different fermentation way, various shapes of Pu-erh tea also confuse factors to tea lovers. Even though the shapes look strange, they have reasonable and are the primary way of classifying.

Tea Cakes

Pu-erh tea cakes are the most common. Traditionally, each cake weighs 357g, equal to 7 Liang in the old Chinese unit of measurement. Then 7 cakes for a package. 7×7=49, which means the family’s prosperity in Chinese culture. And this packing specification also makes the measure job more effortless in the old-time.

Tuo Cha

Tuo Cha also is a typical Pu-erh shape. It looks like a bowl with a thick wall, most weight 100g or 250g. This shape may come from the reason that it’s easier to compress-shaping and package them into a set by a straw rope.

Gold Melon

Gold Melon(Jingua), also called block tea or head tea, a rare Pu-erh shape. It got some stripes on the surface and looked like a pumpkin. In the old-time, this type of Pu-erh only served the emperor. So it was made from the leaves and buds with the highest quality. After aging, the color will turn to gold; that is why it is called Gold Melon.

Tea Brick

Most other dark tea like to be compressed into a tea brick, square, or rectangle. The Chinese invented ancient printing technology, and the tea masters love to use it on compressing tea brick. So you can often see some Chinese characters about the leaves specification or blessing on the brick.

Mushroom Cha

Mushroom Cha is also called tight tea. It looks like a mushroom and usually for the Tibetan for making butter tea.

Old Tea Block

It’s a Pu-erh tea style which becomes popular in recent years. It comes from the piling step of ripe Pu-erh processing. The rough tea, which it takes as the basic, contains some tender buds and leaves, with a high pectin content. During the microbial fermentation, they will intertwine and form a block. Tea masters will pick them up and sent them to be further processing, to make the old tea block. It’s a kind of high-quality ripe Pu-erh but looks ugly.

Popular Factors Except For Lose Weight Benefit

About the Pu-erh tea benefits, most famous is about the losing weight. Related research suggested that Pu-erh tea is doing better at losing weight than other types of tea. The most obvious is if you have a cup of Pu-erh after a greasy diet, raw or ripe is OK, you will find your oral fresh again.

But the merchants overstates the loss weight benefit of Pu-erh; in fact, you can not make the belly gone only by drinking it. And on the treatment of obesity, Pu-erh tea only can offer the auxiliary effect.

So why Pu-erh tea regarded as the Chinese most favorite?

First, Pu-erh tea flavor is more suitable for the Chinese taste than green tea and black; they just like it. Then, Pu-erh is more resistant to brew than other tea types. It makes the tea party for friendship easier; you don’t need to replace the leaves frequently. And, compared with the loss weight benefit, Chinese people prefer its helping digestion and stomach nourishing effects.

One thing I think is the most important is the love of aging stuff’s value by people. Like wine, many of them worldwide will be priced by the vintage; the older, the more expensive. In China, except for the Pu-erh and wine, many foods also can appreciate through aging. The most common is the dried tangerine peel, which is good for the throat and the best seasoning for Pu-erh brewing.

People believe that the longer the Pu-erh aging, the more benefits it will get from the microbial fermentation, even though it has not exact scientific proof. But when a Chinese serving you with a Pu-erh tea, which he has been aging at home for more than 10 years, it means you are a cherished friend to him.

And analyze from the commercial view, the Pu-erh trends also consistent with the characteristic of suitable for aging. Take green tea as an example; the more tender, the better, and it cost more. But it got a short shelf-life; if you don’t finish consuming it in time, it will go bad and make waste. It has limited the green tea market to some extent because the human appetite has a limit. And the Pu-erh is suitable for long time storage, it doesn’t have this problem.

Proper Aging Way

A proper store way, or you can say the aging way, is significant after buying a Pu-erh tea. After all, aging is the soul of Pu-erh. A proper method can let you got different feelings from the same cake every time you brew it. And there is some difference between Pu-erh and other teas on storing job, mainly are the followings:

Air Circulation

This is an essential point in Pu-erh storing. Different from green and black tea, which need a nearly sealed space. An air circulation environment means a lot to Pu-erh. Because during the aging, the fermentation is mainly proceeded by the microorganism, and these little things need enough air to survive.

An air circulation environment can offer enough oxygen to the microorganisms who live in the Pu-erh tea, help them doing the fermenting job continuously. But one thing that needs to be paid attention to is not letting the air circulate too fast, like a strong wind, making the tea lose its fragrance. The best way is to put the tea in an incomplete-sealed, smell-less box or cabinet; a cardboard box is the most tea lovers’ choice.

Humidity

The level of air humidity will affect the Pu-erh fermenting speed. During the piling of ripe Pu-erh processing, tea masters speed the fermenting up by keep adding water into the leaves. But never try to imitate them, they are professional and with strict date support. To store Pu-erh tea in a too wet environment will make the microorganisms breeding too fast. The most common side effect is the leaves will go moldy.

The humidity of the Pu-erh storing place should be control under 75%. Typically, people who live in a humid region will buy a container with a humidity controller for aging Pu-erh tea. If you live in a dry area, a small tip is to place a cup of water around the leaves, but take care of it and not let it down.

Temperature

The temperature of the Pu-erh tea storing environment should not be too high or low. Except you live in a place with an extreme climate, the normal temperature is just fit. And the best is to control it between 20 to 30℃. Too cold will not affect the leaves much but fermenting slower; Too hot will speed it up and make the leaves taste sour.

Light

Light is often an overlooked factor. Direct sunlight not only heat the leaves, and the UV also make the photochemical reaction. A long time under sunlight will make the Pu-erh color and flavor go bad. So remember to store it in a dark place.

How To Make Pu-erh Tea

It’s a little challenging to make Pu-erh tea. First, most of them are compressed tea, and you gonna need a small knife to take the leaves. Pry the leaves you need on the cracked place; usually, it is the center. Then packing the Pu-erh cake well again to pretend it from damp(typically, there will be a rice-paper package.)

About the teaware choice, a set of purple clay teaware is a senior tea lover’s favorite. Because Pu-erh tea is resistant to brew, and purple clay teapot got an excellent insulation performance, which can extract the taste from leaves better. But it is hard to clean. So to most people, porcelain teawares may be an excellent choice. And remember to pre-heat them before brewing.

Due to it been a long time aging, Pu-erh will catch some dust inevitably. So after you put the leaves into the teapot, add hot water, steep for 3-5 seconds, then pour the wastewater out. Pu-erh tea usually needs to clean twice. And it can help the leaves spreading, make the taste become easier dissolving in the coming brewing.

After washing the leaves, add 95℃ or boiling water in, cover, and steep for 7-10 seconds. Pour the infusion into the fair cup to equalize the concentration. Then pour it into the teacup for serving. Pay attention to the infusion color; Pu-erh is resistant to brew, so after 4 brews, you can consider suitably extend the steeping time.

For raw Pu-erh tea, most of the time is just brewing alone. And for the ripe one, most people prefer to add other seasonings for flavoring. The most common is dried chrysanthemums and tangerine peel.

Brewing with dried chrysanthemums, Pu-erh becomes full of floral, astringent will be gone, and tastes smoother. If with dried tangerine peel, it will get fruity, lightly sweet, and sour. Some tea masters will put the ripe Pu-erh into a dried tangerine for sale to get more fruity.

Even though ripe Pu-erh tea has a stomach nourishing benefit, and it also tastes awesome. Personally, I thought its taste would be addictive. There was a time I like to make a pot of strong ripe Pu-erh in the morning; it is really an enjoyable thing. But after some days, I got a stomachache and felt the acid reflux. So please do not drink it too much at once or make the infusion too strong.

Is Adding Milk Into Darjeeling Tea A Great Idea?

India is a large black tea production country; the total yield was over 1.35 billion kg in 2019. Even though the proportion is not as large as Assam, each tea brand is rushed to snap up the Darjeeling tea once the harvest seasons come, which is praised as “Champagne of Teas.” What charm does Darjeeling tea has and make it so popular? Let’s see.

About Darjeeling Tea

History – Transplanted From China

Maybe some people didn’t know Darjeeling tea’s truth to this day; it originated in China.

The story happened about 200 years ago, when the British Empire was mighty, India was one of the colonies of it. British had a big demand for black tea. The Camellia sinensis found in Assam make tea plantations building becomes a possibility, and they did it.

Related Reading: How Assam Black Tea Rising.

However, Assam black tea does not seem to satisfy the vast British market; they want more. 1841, A man named Archibald Campbell from the British East India Company cultivated the tea trees successfully in Darjeeling, a little village in West Bengal, where is located around the Himalayas. Yes, with the seeds from Chines Camellia sinensis.

Due to the different types of tea trees and the growing environment, the black tea made from these leaves seems more satisfied with the British taste. Thus, the British East India Company sent a Scotch botanist Robert Fortune to China and “bring” more seeds back to expand production.

It is generally recognized those seeds were from the Wuyi Mountain, Fujian, China. The tea trees may be the same as the ones which made Lapsang Souchong. Until today, Darjeeling tea’s shape and taste still remained some feeling of Chinese South Fujian tea, even though after many years of iteration.

The climate around the Himalayas is cold. Most tea plantations are distributed in the hillside over 1800, even 2000 meter altitude high. Unlike other tea producing countries, most tea plantations are face to the north but not the south. Due to the lesser sunshine duration, the Darjeeling tea tastes unique and delicate, just like the cold-wind blown from the Himalayas. And the grade and price of Darjeeling tea also grow by the higher altitude.

Development – From Black To Green

Although India won independence from the British colonial rule later, most of the tea plantations were saved and growing into one of the Indian economy’s pillars. The gov has a high focus on Darjeeling’s brand; only the tea plantation that passes the audit can take the Darjeeling brand. Now there are over 80 Darjeeling tea plantations are registered. Well, that seems like a lot.

However, except for some reliable tea plantations, most Darjeeling tea brand products maybe not really from Darjeeling. Due to the demand exceeds supply reason, many tea merchants will mix the leaves from other regions. Some of them even are not harvested in the same season, but they never indicate it on the package.

A meaningful change needs to pay more attention. Still, western countries are the primary customer of Darjeeling tea. At the very beginning, black tea was a trend, and the British also took it as a purpose to build the tea plantations in India. Most of the time, when we talking about Darjeeling tea, we are talking about the black one.

But in recent years, the taste of western people seems to have a change. They begin to fall in love with the tender leaves, especially the steaming green tea from Japan. So, to satisfy the customer, the Darjeeling tea plantations gradually reduce the fermentation degree in the processing.

Besides that, the local type Assam and the ones from China in that year are also planted less. A kind of hybridization tea tree named Clonal replaces them. Its leaves are tinier, taste flesher, and briskness.

Plus, the leaves had harder to ferment enough in such a high altitude and cold climate. So the Darjeeling tea gradually turns into something similar to the past-fermented oolong tea from completed-fermented black tea. Some Chinese tea lovers are joking that taste like the Wuyi Oolong when drinking the First Flush Darjeeling.

Recent – A Big Challenge

Darjeeling tea seems in big trouble this year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the local tea farmers missed the rarest first flush tea harvest, which can sell at a good price. Even though some tea plantations finished the picking job, leaves can not be transposed out because the traffic is lockdown; they can only leave the leaves to rot.

In early June, the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) said that Darjeeling tea’s yield was expected to reduce by 1.5 million kg and lost about 2 billion rupees. Although the production and international trade begin recovery, the pandemic makes the prospect of tea plantations seems a little dim.

Darjeeling Tea Grades & Characteristic

Typically, black tea will be classified into Orthodox and CTC according to the processing method.

Orthodox Darjeeling

Orthodox refers to the processing method, which got with the seeds together from China in those years. That is the most traditional black tea processing method. Leaves will be withering, rolling, fermenting, and drying to produce raw tea. Then been further processing with the steps like screening to made the whole-leaf tea products. Due to the main customers are western people, Orthodox Darjeeling yield less, only about 1/10 of the CTC.

However, the Orthodox is the best of the Darjeeling tea. Tea masters typically pick the best leaves and buds to make the orthodox tea, the left for CTC. Some tea factories even only to process whole-leaf Darjeeling tea.

CTC Darjeeling

CTC is the primary processing method of Indian black tea, which refers to Crushing, Tearing, and Curling. This is a method invented by Indians themselves in the past century, mainly to satisfy western customers’ tastes. CTC Darjeeling can make an infusion in a shorter time but not resistant to brew. Typically used in the tea bags, something for canned selling. It is worth knowing that CTC black tea will bring more caffeine than other types of black tea.

Related Reading: Factors Influence Caffeine In Tea.

In fact, to Darjeeling tea, people are more used to classified it according to the harvest seasons; they called it FLUSH. Different flush Darjeeling tea has obvious different taste, also the prices.

First Flush

The first flush happens from March to April each year, also called “Spring Flush.” That is like the grading of Chinese green tea(such as Mingqian Longjing.) The leaves and buds are the tenderest during this period. Under the rain and fog’s moisten, the leaves got a slightly floral, taste more muted.

Besides that, tea masters typically process Darjeeling’s first flush through the Orthodox way and only let it be slightly fermented. That makes the first flush Darjeeling still with some green color, the infusion also light and show golden. You might mistake it for oolong if it was not in a totally different processing method.

The first flush tea is the rarest in the year, so you can picture how seriously lost the tea farmers by the pandemic.

Second Flush

The second flush happens from May to June, the hot summertime. The leaves are fat and big during this period, and more mature. The tea infusion is deep-amber, tastes strong. The tea connoisseurs described this flavor as muscatel aroma and praised the tea as “Champagne of Teas.”

Although the second flush Darjeeling tea is not the rarest, it is the most popular. The strong, mellow, and astringent taste make it be regarded as the most authentic Darjeeling black tea.

Autumnal Flush

The autumnal flush is the last harvest in the year, typically happens from September to October after the raining season past. The flavor of autumnal flush Darjeeling is closed to the second ones, but not so strong.

People usually thought the autumnal flush is not as good as the first and the second, so the price is relatively low. But the quality still awesome, that makes it has a high-cost performance and got lots of fans.

One thing worth knowing, some tea plantations will harvest between the time of summer and autumnal, the so-called”Monsoon Flush.” This tea batch is worst at both taste and quality, usually used in the blended and iced tea bags, which are mass-produced.

Should I Add Milk In The Darjeeling Tea?

Most people have a habit of adding milk when drinking black tea. Some milk proteins can counteract the bitter taste that the tea tannin brings and make the charming milk aroma.

Related Reading: How To Make Milk Tea Tastes More Excellent.

But some people got a disappointing taste after they adding milk to the Darjeeling tea. So they wonder to know whether suitable to add milk in Darjeeling.

It depends on what type of Darjeeling tea you bought.

Just like we talk about before. To most Orthodox Darjeeling, especially the first flush, their fermented degree and taste more close to the oolong tea, even though it processing in the black tea methods. The light and delicate taste seem better for just-brewing. Nothing wrong to you add milk in, but it may waste the tea’s quality.

And to CTC Darjeeling, especially the second flush, it will be awesome to drink it with milk.

When you just-brewing it, you can feel the full musky aroma and the astringency, striking your taste buds. After adding milk, the magical chemical reaction makes it change into a strong milk aroma and smooth. Picturing that the milk fragrance wrapping your tongue. There is no need for sugar, which seems redundant.