For a long time, black tea has won a number of fans with its red soup, sweet taste, mild tea nature and versatile style, and has become the most popular tea item in the international market.

With such a large consumption, we seldom hear about black tea stored for more than ten or twenty years. Why?

can black tea be stored for such a long time? What will happen to the quality of black tea if it can be stored for such a long time? Like Pu 'er tea, will it have the characteristics of "the older it is, the more fragrant it will be"? ......

In reality, you may have drunk the old Pu 'er tea for more than ten years, or even more than twenty years, but this year's black tea is really rare.

however, being rare doesn't mean not having it.

Especially before 25, before many black teas became "big red and purple", many tea people and farmers conveniently placed some, and over time, they became old black teas. Of course, the number of these teas would not be too much.

generally speaking, the normal shelf life of black tea processed and refined according to modern technology is about 1-3 years after being dried at high temperature. If stored properly, the best drinking period of general black tea is about one to two years, especially the black tea within half a year, which tastes sweet, moist and refreshing.

In the past, it was also an unwritten general rule for black tea to drink new and not old.

We know that tea storage is closely related to the external environment, and the changes of light, temperature, humidity, air and other factors will directly affect the original quality of tea. Well-stored, it is not a problem to put it for seven or eight years or more; If it is not stored well, the quality may decline in the second year without three years.

When we talk about Fang Chen of tea, whether it will be better as it ages mainly depends on the activity of tea and whether there are microorganisms and enzymes involved in the storage process, which leads to the slow re-fermentation of tea. For example, the post-fermented black tea is slowly fermented in the process of Fang Chen, thus forming a unique aged fragrance.

while black tea is a kind of fully fermented tea, the basic quality characteristics of tea, such as the thickness of string, aroma and taste, are gradually solidified and confirmed in the processes of withering and twisting, and after high-temperature drying, the basic quality characteristics of this batch of tea are formed.

As it is a fully fermented tea, the drying of black tea is the key technology. The activity of tea will not be as variable as that of unfermented green tea and semi-fermented oolong tea, and with the passage of time, the aromatic substances in tea will gradually evaporate and dissipate, and slowly oxidize.

Therefore, the aroma performance of black tea that has been in Fang Chen for a long time is definitely not as good as that of new tea. However, if the tenderness of raw black tea is moderate and it is dried in the sun as much as possible, it is still worth looking forward to for later storage.

in addition, Fang Chen with different kinds of black tea will have different performances. Yi Fangjun has seen Dianhong in Fang Chen for about ten years, and its quality performance is obviously higher than that of Minhong in Fang Chen in 1978. Excluding storage, technology and other factors, it is mainly the difference of tea raw materials. But really, the older the better? That's not necessarily true.

Therefore, it is not impossible for black tea to be consumed in Fang Chen, but the quality after Fang Chen depends on the freshness of raw materials, the mastery of processing technology and the control of storage environment. However, generally speaking, if it is not necessary, black tea is recommended to be consumed in the best drinking period. After all, at present, Fang Chen with black tea can't see the market base and space similar to black tea and white tea.

note: the above pictures are only examples, and they are not for physical display.