Recently, a lot of fans for teas ask that there are some insects on the tea leaves, can they still drink the tea? Also, some people might have similar questions when they are purchasing the tea. Can you still drink it if there are so many insects’ bite marks on the tea leaves? Firstly, abut “tea insects”, we should be divided them into two categories. What we see the most are the white worms, which are the “tea insects” that do not eat tea leaves for real. They are the “paper bugs”, who likes to eat the packaging papers. The other kind of the grey and black bugs are the real “tea insects”. According to the research, this “tea insects” only eat tea leaves. Unfortunately, there are few people who have seen such insects.
The Insects on the paper: the packaging paper for the old Pu-erh tea, especially the one filled with holes on the back of the package. These holes are bitten by the insects, what we called “paper insects”. They only like eating paper, and do not post any real threat to the quality of the Pu-erh tea. The method to solve this kind of “paper insects” problem is relatively easy. You can simply use the brush to clean up the tea leaves and store them in a places, where is well ventilated and dry.
The Insects inside the tea: the real “tea insects” are grey and black. They will only appear in the good quality Pu-erh tea. They only tea leaves, especially good tea. But you should not hold anything against them just because of this. They are not someone who eat without payment. Even though they have relatively short life cycles, during which they born in the tea and die within it, they eventually integrated into the part of the tea. The insects of this kind make the tea taste better. In additional, the poop excreted by the insects can be made into “Dragon Ball Tea” after special processing. The nutritious value is far higher than the regular tea leaves.
No matter what we say, insects on the leaves will always make people feel uncomfortable. Therefore, we must take precautions on the storage of the tea leaves. We need also check regularly at the same time to prevent the breeding of insects. Of course, if your Pu-erh tea has grown with real “tea insects”. It is definitely not a bad thing.