There is extensive knowledge in the Chinese tea culture. Without learning for several years, it is hard to become expert. People that are learning tea may make some common mistake. Here, see if you have been made the same mistake for many years?
- only the ripped Pu-erh tea is the dark tea
The classification based on the process, the ripped Pu-erh tea is the dark tea. Pu-erh tea is the variety of fermented tea produced in Yunnan Province. It is made from specific process into pressed tea and loose tea after fermentation. The most important standard to tell if it’s dark tea is the last fermentation process. “Later fermentation” means put the already fermented tea in the hygienic warehouse to go through the Wodui (fermentation process). Then, the tea will get fermented under certain temperature, speeding the effect of fermentation. The process of ripped Pu-erh is very close to the dark tea. Therefore, normally, ripped Pu-erh tea is categorized as the dark tea.
- Anji White Tea is not white tea
Anji White Tea is not white tea, it is green tea. Anji White Tea is a famous tea, produced from Xilong County, Anji, Zhejiang. It is the famous hometown for bamboo. Anji White Tea is made from the process of the green tea, belonging to the green tea category. The color of the tea is white because the tea is made from the tea tree, whose buds are all white. To distinguish Anji White Tea and Fuding White Tea, the biggest difference is that the dry Anji White Tea is green with the white base. However, the real Fuding White Tea is white when it dry. The base is green.
- Junshan Yinzhen is the yellow tea
It is not green tea, but yellow tea. We all know the Baohao Yinzhen is white tea. Therefore, it is normal to assume that the Junshan Yinzhen is white tea. However, in fact the Junshan Yinzhen is yellow tea, which are produced from the Jun mountain in the Dongting Lake in Yueyang, Hunan. The shape of the tea is tiny as needle. That’s why it is called Junshan Yinzhen (silver needle). The buds of the finished product have even length and size. The inside of the buds is shown in golden. The outside of the Baihao is shown completely. The shape looks like needle, called “Jade surrounded by gold”. Yellow tea belongs to the light fermented tea. The making process is similar to green tea. The difference is that before or after the drying, it added a process of “smothering”, which make the tea color into yellow by partially oxidation its polyphenols and other substance. The tea soup brewed from yellow tea is yellow, which is the main characteristics of the yellow tea.
- Dongting Biluochun has nothing to do with Dongting Lake
Dongting Biluochun is not produced in Dongting Lake of Hunan but the Dongting Mountain in Jiangsu. Biluochun is a famous traditional tea, one of the Ten famous Chinese Tea. It belongs to the green tea with a history of over 1,000 years. Biluochun is produced in the East and West Dongting Mountain in Tai Lake, Jiangsu. Therefore, it is called Dongting Biluochun. In ancient time, it is called “Kungfu Tea” or “Effort Tea”.
- Matcha is not grinded green tea
Matcha is not grinded greet tea, but a tea powder made from special process. Matcha powder is made from the tea leaves, which are covered with shade cloths before harvesting. The high quality of Matcha powder focus on the green. The greener, the more valuable they are. Relatively, the difficulty of the process will increase. The requirements on the types of the green tea, method of planting, planting area, processing technique, and equipments are high. Matcha powder is invited in China, grinding with nature stone mill into tiny green powder. 10 to 30 days before the harvesting, the tree is covered with shade cloths. The process of making green powder is grind.
- Flower tea doesn’t mean the more flowers the better
Flower tea doesn’t mean the more flower the better because it is tea not flower. The good quality jasmine tea normally contains little flower. You can smell the flavor of the flower, but you might not see the dried flower. Sometimes the flower tea contains many flower, mostly are the mixed flower tea. During the selling, sometimes, it will mix an appropriate amount of flower according to the customer’s requirement. The last process of making the flower tea is picking the flower out. Nowadays, the machine winnowing is equipped in the process of removing the flower petals. If there are a large amount of flower petals, it means the process of picking the flower out is not doing well.
- Not all the tea is suitable for clay teapot
Not all the tea is suitable for clay teapot. Yixing teapot is the most famous among all the clay teapot. Yixing Clay Teapot will not take away the flavor of the tea, and can keep the color, flavor and taste of the tea. Therefore, many people think it is the best to use clay teapot to brew tea. However, the clay teapot is only suitable for dark tea and oolong tea. If you brew green tea or flower tea with clay teapot, the result is not very good. Not all the tea is suitable for clay teapot.
- Don’t drink tea immediately after eating
If you drink tea immediately after eating, it cannot help you digest and otherwise affect the digestion of food. Tea contains large amount of tannic acid. When you drink tea immediately after eating, the proteins in the stomach that haven’t been digested yet will combine with tannic acid into a non0digestible substance, which will affect the digestion of protein. Most importantly, tea will affect the body’s digestion or iron, reducing by 50%. In long term, it will affect the digestion of the body, causing iron deficiency anemia. Additionally, the tannic acid in the tea will become tannic acid protein after combined with the protein. This substance will slow the movement of the intestinal. Thus, it will prolong the residence time of the food residue, causing constipation. Therefore, it is suggested to drink tea an hour later after eating, which is better than health.
- If the black tea become cloudy after getting cold, that means it is good tea
If the black tea become cloudy after getting cold, that means it is good tea. Many people realize such phenomena that when the tea gets cold, it turns cloudy. This is become tea contains polyphenols. During the fermentation process, part of the polyphenols of will turn into theaflavin and theabrownin. In high temperature, they will be in a free state with caffeine. With the lowering of the temperature, they will associate together, exhibiting a characteristics of colloid. This is the phenomena of turning the clear tea into cloudy. The fresher the black tea, the cloudier the tea will get after getting cold. You can purchase the black tea based on such characteristic.
- Not all the tea is fresher the better
Not all the tea is fresher the better. Even for the green tea, it is better not to drink immediately. The fresh tea can be irritating to the stomach. If you have to drink fresh green tea, it is better to drink half month after the tea is produced. Besides green tea, other types tea is best to drink the next year. Some tea, such as dark tea, is the older the better. The older darker tea can help improve stomach diseases and gout.