Today, we will talk about the “slippery” and “thick” characteristics of cooked tea.
“slip”
“Slippery” is opposite to “astringent”, and “slippery” is close to delicate and smooth, which is a commonly used vocabulary for tasting.
Whenever the word “slippery” is used, it is entirely commendatory.
How do you feel “slippery”? In the simplest example, soft water is “slipperier” than hard water.
What is the microscopic essence of “slippery”?
In tea soup, some substances produce “astringent” feeling, such as tea polyphenols, especially the catechins; there are also some substances that balance the “astringent” feeling and produce lubricating effect, such as amino acids and some sugars .
Amino acids play a great role in balancing the “astringent” feeling. The ratio of amino acids to tea polyphenols is called the amino-phenol ratio.
The higher the aminophenol ratio of tea, the more “slippery” the tea will be.
Some people may have doubts, “slippery” should be a common advantage of all good teas, why should it be said to be a feature of cooked Pu-erh tea?
Because there is no “smoothness” of any kind of tea that can compare with Pu’er cooked tea.
This is related to the processing of cooked tea.
How is “slippery” formed?
Throughout the fermentation process of cooked tea, tea polyphenols are continuously reduced, catechins are almost exhausted, and substances that can cause astringency are reduced to an extremely low level;
In terms of amino acids, although the theanine in the raw materials has been greatly attenuated, the microorganisms have produced many new amino acids. One ebbs and another, the aminophenol ratio continues to increase.
The content of tea polyphenols is extremely low, and the ratio of aminophenols is extremely high, which is the “slippery” nature of cooked Pu-erh tea.
Raw materials have two levels of influence on “slippery”.
On the first level, the aminophenol ratio of good raw materials is higher than itself.
On the second layer, good raw materials have higher glycoside content, which is more conducive to entering the fermentation process, and is conducive to the reduction of catechins and the production of amino acids.
“thick”
What does “thick” mean?
“Thick” is opposite to “thin”. Tea drinkers often say “thick is not thick, light is not thin”.
For veterans in the circle, this sentence is very good, but on the other hand, it is a bit misleading for outsiders. Because although “thick” and “thick” are not the same thing, they do have a correlation.
The same goes for “light” and “thin”.
As the word “thick” is used as a review term, its connotation will be framed in a narrow range, which basically agrees with “thick” to a lesser degree.
Because the meaning of a term is to be precise, if the term also has multiple meanings, the term has no value.
In the actual process of tea affairs, not everyone is a tea appraiser. When it comes to “thickness”, the meaning is full, not the narrow sense compressed in the term.
We will dislike tea brewing that is too strong, but we will not dislike tea brewing that is too thick. A word that does not go to extremes, greatly retains the commendatory meaning of the word.
In a simple understanding, “thick” means that the tea soup is rich in inner quality, and “thick” means that the best tea soup is rich in inner quality.
If a tea is only rich in bitter substances, the tea can be very “strong”, but it is difficult to describe it as “thick”. There must be more nutritious things to be “thick”.
What does “thick” feel like?
It’s a bit like the difference between drinking soup and drinking water. For example, rice soup is “thick”, and tea drinkers often use the taste of rice soup to describe the “thickness” of tea.
What is the microscopic essence of “thickness”?
What substances in tea soup can make people feel “thick”, preferably substances with energy, at least substances that do not cause stimulation to the body.
Sugars, polysaccharides, water-soluble proteins, etc. all contribute to “thickness”.
In tea, the polysaccharide content is the highest, which is the main substance that causes “thickness”.
The processing of cooked Pu-erh tea is very conducive to the accumulation of polysaccharides. During the intense fermentation lasting dozens of days, water-soluble polysaccharides are continuously produced.
The polysaccharide content of cooked tea is the highest among all teas, so cooked Pu-erh tea is the thickest tea.
What are the factors that affect the formation of “thickness”? Two aspects, technology and raw materials.
Since “thickness” is the expression of high water-soluble polysaccharide content, what kind of processing can guarantee this?
During the fermentation of cooked tea, a large number of microorganisms will be produced, and some microorganisms will continuously decompose the fibers, allowing the originally insoluble fibers to be decomposed into soluble polysaccharides.
Microorganisms such as Aspergillus niger and yeast can help produce water-soluble polysaccharides; but some miscellaneous bacteria only consume nutrients and do not help produce polysaccharides.
During fermentation, if effective microorganisms such as Aspergillus niger and yeast grow in large quantities, a high yield of water-soluble polysaccharides can be ensured, and the thickness of the tea can be guaranteed.
On the contrary, the growth of miscellaneous bacteria is vigorous, the output of polysaccharide is insufficient, and the thickness cannot be produced.
A good process is to ensure the advantages of effective microorganisms.
The raw materials should not be too bad, because the microorganisms mainly use the glycosides in the raw materials as nutrients. If the nutrients are insufficient, they cannot enter the normal fermentation process, cannot grow so many effective bacteria, and the thickness cannot be produced.
The raw materials must be of sufficient quality to ensure effective fermentation and the thickness of the finished product.
After talking about the three words “live”, “smooth” and “thick”, the quality of cooked tea is formed, and the key points of tasting are finished.
