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In fact, I believe many tea lovers must have many questions about Pu'er tea, including me. If I hadn't encountered it, I might not have known that there was such a problem. Pu'er tea is just one leaf, but there are so many stories that I can't finish them. Which Pu'er tea is better: Touchun tea or Zhengchun tea? How to tell if there is roasting material mixed in Pu'er tea? Let’s find out together:
Which Pu’er tea is better, Touchun tea or Zhengchun tea?
Pu'er spring spring tea is divided into two categories, first spring tea and second spring tea. The first spring tea in question should be second spring tea, also called spring tail tea.
Touchun tea
The tea picked during Qingming Festival every year is called Touchun tea. It is also the first batch of tea to sprout every year. This batch of tea has smaller leaves; larger and more bud heads; white color; good aroma; full and thick tea flavor; relatively light bitterness; it is the best tea of the year. The output should account for less than 1/4 of the annual output, and the price is also the most expensive in the whole year, usually more than twice as expensive as the tea produced in June to July.
Characteristics of Touchun tea
The high aroma, full tea flavor and good flavor mentioned above are based on its taste and appearance. Touchun tea has more fluff and the color of the tea leaves itself is lighter (that is, what we call whiter). The buds are full, the leaves are small, relatively thick, and the distance between the leaves is also short. The whole tea leaves look more fresh. There is also the Touchun tea from some production areas with water chestnuts. This has been mentioned in previous programs and will not be repeated here.
The brewing resistance of Touchun tea is also the best in the year. In the past, when tea production was very low, Touchun tea was rarely used as raw material alone to produce Pu'er tea. It is simply used as a condiment, blended into tea produced in other seasons to enhance the quality of the entire tea. Although Touchun tea is now produced separately as a raw material, the quantity is not too large. Most Touchun tea is still used as an ingredient to blend tea produced in other seasons.
Erchun Tea (Spring Tail Tea)
The second type of spring tea, we call it Second Spring Tea or Spring Tail Tea. Generally, tea leaves picked before May 10th can be classified as this type of tea.
Characteristics of Second Spring Tea (Spring Tail Tea)
The characteristics of Second Spring Tea (Spring Tail Tea) are that the aroma is slightly weaker than that of Touchun Tea, and the tea taste is slightly lighter, but it has no watery taste and is slightly bitter. The overall quality is not too different from Touchun tea, there is no essential difference. The price gap between it and Touchun Tea is not very big, about 20%. There is very little difference in appearance from Touchun tea, so it is difficult to distinguish. Therefore, tea in this season is also collectively referred to as spring tea in many places.
In fact, tea is the most popular this season, with low cost and relatively good quality. Most of the Chunjian, Touchun and the like on the market are made from this season’s tea plus a little Touchun. At the same time, some of it is also left as ingredients to be blended with summer tea, as a supplement to first spring tea.
How to tell if there is baking green material mixed in Pu'er tea?
Generally speaking, the mixed green ingredients in Pu'er tea are mainly in raw tea, and are very rare in cooked tea. Among raw teas, some require a small amount of roasting ingredients to be blended due to process requirements, and some simply mix some expired or unsalable roasting ingredients into Pu'er raw tea.
Let’s talk about the process requirements first. Some brands of Tuocha cake tea will have very little baking material mixed in the process. This is a process requirement. And the shelf life of 36 months is printed on the packaging because Pu'er Tuo tea contains a little baking material. The shelf life is mainly marked in order to comply with product specifications. In fact, the year it can be consumed is far beyond 36 months. Now we all have tea products that we have been drinking for more than ten or twenty years. There is no problem with it, no deterioration, no peculiar smell, etc. This is because very little is mixed in, just to enhance the flavor, and we don’t have to mind the shelf life.
If there is a large amount of mixing, for example, some unsaleable or expired green tea is mixed into raw Pu'er tea. This situation occurs in some unreliable manufacturers, but in the past seven or eight years, this situation is still rare. So how to identify it?
First of all, from the taste point of view, if there is roasted green material in Pu'er raw tea, its bean aroma will be very strong. Of course, we cannot be 100% sure based on the bean aroma alone. It is just a suspicion. Secondly, you can look at the tea base, that is, when you make one or two brews with the water first, you should pay attention to the color of the tea base. If there is green, green, yellow, or yellow in it, it probably contains baking ingredients. Because green tea is green in color at the beginning after boiling water is poured in. After the Pu'er raw tea is soaked in water for a year or two, the color of the tea itself turns to yellow-green or yellow. Through this, it is easy to see that the color of the tea base is uneven. The green tea is more likely to be green tea.
In terms of flavor, if you put green tea that has been in it for a long time, its layering and flavor will not be as good as pure Pu'er raw tea. The most important thing is that green tea that has been brewed for too long will have a less bitter taste and a sweet aftertaste, including the texture of the tea soup. The sweetness aftertaste is relatively poor, the texture of the tea soup will appear a bit thin, the bitterness is heavy, and the astringency is also present, which means it feels thin.
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Post time 2025-11-11 12:00:48