Taste, that is, the comprehensive sensory taste brought to tea drinkers by the entrance of tea products. The taste of tea is a comprehensive reflection of the taste substances contained in the tea. It mainly includes the comprehensive experience of the four major aspects of taste, sweet aftertaste, body fluid and aftertaste. From my more than ten years of experience, the more high-quality ancient tree tea, the more balanced, harmonious and rich the taste.
The taste of tea is its most important expression. Use thick and light to make a comprehensive evaluation. It mainly includes the following indicators:
1. Bitter taste
mainly formed by theophylline substances in tea. Bitterness can greatly improve the thickness of tea soup. A good tea can not bite the mouth from bitterness, and can turn bitterness into sweetness, which is a good expression of taste. The opposite is poor performance.
2. Sweetness
mainly formed by sugar substances in tea leaves. It is the common excellent performance of high-quality tea products. Its sweetness and persistence are the key indicators to evaluate whether it is good or not.
3. Umami taste
mainly formed by amino acids in tea leaves. New tea is more obvious, especially Mao tea. The umami taste rapidly weakens with the aging time of tea products. Tea leaves with good umami taste when new tea is made, the umami taste will quickly weaken after being made into finished products. As a result, there is a big difference in the taste of the tea. That’s why many people drink Maocha very well. One of the main reasons why the finished product feels obviously not as good as Maocha after receiving it. This is its normal variation. After the tea product is alcoholized in the later stage, the tea property is stabilized. The taste of tea products is naturally transformed and returned to pure.
4. Astringency
It is mainly formed by polyphenols (also called tea tannins) in tea. Strictly speaking, astringency does not belong to taste. It is a tactile response. It is the astringent feeling produced by the tea soup stimulating the taste buds. When drinking tea, feel the astringency. The astringent feeling is produced by the interaction of polyphenols such as tannins in tea with salivary proteins and glycoproteins. Astringency does not appear on the taste buds. It is produced by the interaction between tea and protein, which stimulates the tactile nerve endings. Astringent taste is evaluated by lightness, heavyness and astringency. A good tea: light astringency, can produce body fluid, quick transformation, good astringency.
5. Miscellaneous taste
It is an unpleasant taste produced due to poor production. It mainly includes sour, rancid, salty, mildew, paste, smoke, burnt and other strange smells.
6. Level changes
the different and rich changes brought about by the tea after being imported, which is a good performance of a tea. It is mainly evaluated by whether it is rich or not. A high-quality good tea will form different levels of performance in the front, middle and back stages. Therefore, we often emphasize with tea lovers: to evaluate a tea product, you need to drink it thoroughly and taste it many times in order to have a relatively objective evaluation.
Returning sweetness and promoting body fluid belong to the comprehensive experience of tea products. It is mainly evaluated by speed, strength, and persistence. Some teas have a good aftertaste but no sweetness, and some teas have a good aftertaste but no aftertaste. A high-quality tea with a good taste performance: rapid and continuous production of body fluids, accompanied by an obvious sweet aftertaste, resulting in a pleasant taste that is lingering and endless. There is no aftertaste for tea products without saliva and sweetness. This is an important indicator of a tea.
Bitter and astringent teas don’t necessarily have to be sweet to produce body fluids. And the tea that has no bitterness, no astringency and can return to sweetness and promote body fluid is definitely a high-quality tea. Relatively speaking, most cooked teas are not as strong as raw teas in promoting body fluids and sweetness. There are even fewer cooked teas that can have a sweet aftertaste. The Laobanzhang cooked tea refined by Longtea is a rare top-level cooked tea with an obvious aftertaste. One of the most important differences is why raw tea has higher taste and flavor than cooked tea.
