Pu 'er tea is a famous local tea unique to Yunnan. It consists of two series of sun-dried green tea with big leaves from Yunnan and its reprocessing: raw tea which is directly reprocessed into finished products and cooked tea which is reprocessed after artificial rapid fermentation, and scattered tea and pressed tea in shape; After finished products, the natural aging process continues, which has the unique quality that the older they are, the more fragrant they are.

More than 1 years ago, Pu 'er tea was exported to Tubo (Tibet) in small quantities, and gradually became a daily necessities for ethnic minorities who mainly used cheese and meat to get rid of greasy food. Therefore, it is better to have no food for three days than no tea for one day, and "no diarrhea in Chaze for one day and no Chaze's disease for three days." Said. In order to buy war horses cheaply, rulers of past dynasties strictly controlled the tea trade and indirectly controlled and governed the border areas by exchanging tea for horses. Therefore, tea has become a tight commodity, so the cultivation, processing and trade of Pu 'er tea have developed unprecedentedly. In the ninth year of Qing Qianlong, Pu 'er tea became famous all over the world because it was designated as "tribute tea", and even the famous works such as A Dream of Red Mansions, Compendium of Materia Medica, War and Peace also included the name of Pu 'er tea.

As the hometown of tea, Pu 'er not only has the most primitive wild tea trees, but more importantly, in the long historical years, Pu 'er has gradually formed a unique style in tea cultivation, processing and tea quality testing, and evolved a dazzling and varied tea culture.

After research and development in recent years, Pu 'er people have endowed Pu 'er tea with more and deeper connotations. Nowadays, Pu 'er tea is no longer a simple thirst-quenching drink. If you want to know more about Pu 'er tea today, its efficacy, or some ancient tea-horse roads full of tea rhyme, please go to Pu 'er!

1. Classification by tree species

arbor

shrub

2. Classification by making method

Raw tea

Cooked tea

3. Classification by storage method

1. Dry-stored Pu 'er tea: refers to the storage in a ventilated warehouse, so that the tea can be naturally fermented and aged for 1-2 years.

2. Wet-stored Pu 'er tea: It is usually placed in a place with strong moisture, such as the basement cellar, to speed up its fermentation. It has stale mud or musty smell, and the aging speed is faster than that of dried Pu 'er. It is better to put it for 5-1 years. Pu 'er tea is classified according to tree species

1. Trees: The leaves of trees are mainly used as tea cyanine, which is called Dashu tea in ancient times.

2. Shrub: Shrub leaves are mainly used as tea seeds, and the leaves are small, which is a common dwarf tea tree species, now called small leaf tea.

Introduction by shape

According to its different shapes, Pu 'er tea can be subdivided into the following categories-

1. Cake tea: steamed into a flat disc, a bit like pie or pizza. In ancient times, most of the six major tea mountains were pressed into one cake with 357g (that is, the old weight unit: 72), and seven cakes were packed in one bag, which was regarded as many children, many grandchildren and many blessings.

2. Tuocha: Its shape is about the size of a rice bowl. Most of the intermediate and superior products of Pu 'er tea are Tuo tea and cake tea.

3. Brick tea: It is pressed into a rectangular shape like a brick. Most of the brick tea is sold to Tibet and Mongolia, and this shape is mainly made for the convenience of transportation. Pu' er tea is classified according to the method of making

1. Raw tea: It is fermented naturally after picking, and the tea is more exciting. It should be cooked for many years, and the tea will turn mild. Good old Pu' er tea usually adopts this method of making.

2. Cooked tea: After 1973, scientific and artificial fermentation methods were used to make tea mild, so that the tea was soft and delicious.

among many kinds of tea, Pu 'er tea is famous not only for its quality, but also for its unique drinking method and wonderful efficacy. Pu 'er tea is mainly brewed; Boiling and drinking Pu 'er tea is to make full use of the residual tea after soaking, supplemented by spices (onion, ginger, salt, sugar, etc.).

1. Washing tea and making tea:

1. First, heat the tea set with boiling water and add the tea leaves; Turn off the fire after the water boils, wake up the tea with boiling water (make the tea spread gradually), and wash the tea (besides awakening the taste of the tea, it also has the important task of washing the impurities in the tea together. )

2. Wash tea in boiling water. The first brewing speed should be fast, and the boiling water poured in will be poured out immediately, because it only needs to wash the tea leaves, and it is not necessary to soak its taste, then use this boiling water to iron the cup, and then pour it out. Generally, raw Pu 'er tea is washed once and cooked Pu 'er tea is washed twice.

3. Head way. Pour boiling water for 3-5 seconds, pour the tea soup into fair mug, put the sieve on the fair mug, and filter the broken tea to make the soup clear. Then you can pour it into small porcelain bowls and drink it when it is warm.

4, 2-4 courses of tea are brewed for 5-15 seconds each, and then there is no need to heat the tea for three times, because the tea leaves are gradually developed. When the soup is soaked for a long time, the color is too strong to look good and the taste is not good. Of course, the choice of shade can be decided according to people's preferences.

5, 5-N courses of tea will take 5-1 seconds for each additional brew, and so on until they are tasteless.

2. Key points:

1. When brewing Pu 'er, the amount of tea leaves accounts for about 1/5 of the pot body. It is best to remove the tea cakes, tea bricks and tea pots and expose them to the air for

two weeks, and then brew them better!

2. Be sure to wash and brew tea with boiling water.

3. Pour it into the fair mug and drink it slowly every time. Don't soak it in the pot for too long, otherwise it is not good to stew the tea.

4, every bubble interval of 1-2 seconds, cooling until the fourth bubble and then heating, and then soaking more than once. Old Chaze can warm up every

two bubbles, but the interval is longer.

5. In addition, you can make several courses together and drink tea and soup together. Pu 'er tea is still full of flavor even after it gets cold, so you can make it cold in summer or drink it after it is iced.

One of the seven indicators to judge Pu 'er tea: quality

means good raw materials, which is the first basic element and the first material basis of any high-quality tea; Without this, other virtues of Pu 'er tea would be out of the question. Because of the different climate, soil and vegetation, each producing area has its own characteristics. For example, the teas produced by Yi Wu in Xishuangbanna, Mengku in Shuangjiang in Lincang and Jingmai Mountain in Simao Lancang should all be the best in Pu 'er tea, but their respective characteristics are very distinct.

The standard of "quality" includes the following categories:

1. Producing areas: The raw material of high-quality Pu 'er tea must first be Yunnan big leaf species. The most important traditional Pu 'er tea producing areas are lincang, Simao and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan, and others such as Dehong and Baoshan also have some remarkable good teas. Tea in these three major producing areas has its own characteristics and personality, and which one you like depends entirely on your personal hobbies.

2. time sequence: based on the picking time. Spring tea, summer tea and autumn tea (tea farmers also call autumn tea valley scented tea). Among the three kinds of tea, spring tea is the most important tea, followed by autumn tea; The old tree tea, spring tea and autumn tea each have their own strong points, and the spring tea is full of gas. No matter what kind of tea tree, summer tea is the worst.

another pair of important concepts is the problem of old tea and new tea; In the long years, the quality of Pu 'er tea, the rich and colorful changes of tea products, and the psychological touch of tea drinkers in the face of the long river of time make drinking old tea a rare enjoyment. Generally speaking, old tea is divided into ancient tea, grade tea, grade tea, and so on. The more common time division is: ancient tea is about 1 years old, such as the tribute tea left by the Qing Dynasty; No. grade tea has been produced for more than 5 or 6 years (the production time of old tea brands varies), but all of them disappeared around 1949; India-grade tea is a variety of tea products since Fohai Tea Factory resumed production in 1952. There is some truth in this classification, but because most of these teas except ancient teas have a history of storage, and their locations are basically concentrated in Hong Kong and Taiwan in subtropical high temperature and high humidity areas, there is not much reference value for the taste style of Pu 'er tea stored as old tea in the whole country or even the whole world in the future. So what is the real future old tea? There must be different styles in different places, but the basic quality of "the older the tea, the more fragrant it will be" will not change. How the specific places are, it needs to be verified by the practice of tea lovers from all over the world-a tea friend in Beijing has a very good saying: good tea should be saved from yourself.

For new tea, some people think that it takes about 1 years for raw tea to be drunk, and it takes one or two years for cooked tea to be drunk. This statement also has a certain one-sidedness. If raw Pu is stored for 1 years, the effect to be achieved is to take ripe Pu as the standard in soup color and taste, and subconsciously still think that cooked tea is the prejudice of Pu 'er tea; In fact, the biggest difference between drinking raw tea and cooked tea is that cooked tea is nourishing and healthy, and raw tea is full of energy. Of course, the two are not distinct, either one or the other. For daily life, drinking cooked food has obvious effects on sobering up, nourishing and protecting the stomach, reducing fat and losing weight, and regulating the three highs. Besides the function of cooked food, raw food can give people psychological aesthetic enjoyment. However, as a new tea, it doesn't take ten or eight years and one or two years to drink it. The key to Pu 'er tea is the raw material base. The raw material is good. At that time, it was just taken off from the stone mill. Why not drink it? What's so bad about it? And the strong Shan Ye sunshine is refreshing; After being stored for one year, it has changed; In another year, there will be further changes. If this continues, it will be a new realm every year, and it will be a wonderful enjoyment. Therefore, if the family keeps tea (in view of the reality of family planning in China), if a family of seven people is counted, each person in the same batch of tea will open a cake of soup every year for 5 years, which is most suitable for collecting one large piece (84 cakes) and two small pieces (42 cakes each) every year. In this way, in addition to drinking enough for themselves, a small number of people will be left to communicate with tea friends and enjoy good tea in 5 years. In addition, the freshly pressed cooked tea tastes a little new in different degrees, but the quality is good. After two or three months, the taste is very good. For example, the cooked tea made by Zou Bingliang and Rong Jiasheng, who are skilled in fermentation technology, has only been out of the factory for three or two months, but it is often thought by drinkers to be two or three years old.

In addition, regarding the ancient Pu 'er tea in the Forbidden City, Mr. Deng Shihai said on page 83 of Pu 'er Tea (Taiwan Province Huzhong Tiandi Edition): In 1963, the Forbidden City in Beijing treated the tribute tea of the Qing Dynasty, and there were more than 2 tons left, some of which were Pu 'er tea. These Pu 'er teas were as big as melons and as small as table tennis, and the largest was 5.5 kg (33.5 kg). This batch of Pu 'er tea is well preserved and has not been mildewed. I have taken some samples and the comment is "The soup is colored, but the tea tastes old and weak".

Mr. Deng quoted Mr. Wang Yufeng, the executive director and secretary-general of the Chinese Tea People's Association, who published an article "Pu 'er Tea and the Qing Dynasty-A Discussion on Promoting Pu 'er Tea Culture" in the journal of Agricultural Archaeology in 1993.

Mr. Deng didn't explain two points here:

(1) Mr. Wang Yufeng tasted Lu 'an or black tea at that time, not Pu 'er tea; This will mislead tea lovers and infer what it feels like when Pu 'er tea is stored at the age of ancient tea in the Forbidden City. Moreover, the weight conversion is also wrong, which is inconsistent with the records in Pu 'er Tea Records and Pu 'er Official Records.

(2) Mr. Deng did not point out that the article was quoted from Mr. Wang Yufeng's work. Just reading Deng Wen, readers would think that the person who tasted the "imperial" Pu 'er tea in the Forbidden City was Mr. Deng himself, and in 1963, considering the situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait at that time, it was no ordinary event.

information about the remains of Pu 'er tea in the Forbidden City in Beijing: In the early 196s, there were tons of tribute tea left unfinished in the Qing Palace in the tea storehouse of the Forbidden City in Beijing, including Pu 'er tea, daughter tea and tea cream. In 1963, the Forbidden City handled more than 2 tons of tribute tea from the Qing Dynasty. On October 23, 1963, by chance, I saw this batch of aged tribute tea in Beijing Tea Factory. General bait group tea is as big as watermelon (slightly flat), as small as tennis and table tennis, with brown and black tea color, neither mildew nor bad, and well preserved; There are marks on the surface of the tea ball to tighten the cloth pattern, which shows that the tea was wrapped in cloth, kneaded tightly and dried. I once chose a large Pu 'er tea group and weighed it with a scale, weighing 5.5 Jin (the old scale in the Qing Dynasty was 596.62 g). This kind of group tea is shaped like a human head. In contrast to Zhao Xuemin's Compendium of Materia Medica in Qing Dynasty, Pu 'er tea has a "human head style, and celebrities head tea". It is consistent with the record that tribute is paid every year and it is not easy for the people to get it.

At the same time, this batch of tribute tea in the Forbidden City was treated with modern Baihao Yinzhen tea (all with white hairs and long buds), roasted green tea (as Lu 'an tea) and rectangular black brick tea (thinner than today's tea bricks). I once took back a few samples to try soaking, and the soup was colored, but the tea taste was old and weak.

in the early 196s, tea production was reduced and the domestic market was in short supply. This batch of Pu 'er group tea in the Forbidden City was smashed and sieved, mixed with loose tea and sold. On November 13th, 1992, I met an old expert of the Forbidden City, Mr. Shan Shiyuan, in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Auditorium. I asked about the tribute tea in the Forbidden City. It was reported that Pu 'er tea, tea cream and others still had samples. I don't know which emperor left the tribute tea in the Forbidden City when he was in office. It is very regrettable that it should be the historical tribute tea left over by Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu at the latest, which is a very precious cultural relic.

3. Tree products: there are wild type, transitional type and cultivated type; There are also old tree tea (or ancient tree tea, tea farmers generally call it Dashu tea), platform tea (tea garden tea) and abandoned tea (barren mountain tea and wild tea). In addition, there are some mutated or rare tree products, such as purple bud tea and rattan tea.

Remarks: ① Occasionally, some strange products that are not tea, but look very much like tea, are sold at a high price. Fortunately, this strange product is harmless to health, but it is also harmless. ② The problem of Qiao Mu tea. Many tea lovers usually regard arbor tea and terrace tea as opposite concepts. In fact, arbor should correspond to shrub. Moreover, the big leaf species in Yunnan are all arbor tea, even if its shape is platform. The terrace is built on the hillside of the tea garden. In order to facilitate picking, it is pruned every winter to prevent the tea trees from growing taller. In other words, if it is not pruned, it will continue to grow to more than ten meters or even dozens of meters, and the main characteristics of Qiaomu tea will appear: there are trunk and side branches; If it is a real bush tea, many teenagers are also a bush. For example, the eighteen tea trees in Qianlong and Yufeng beside the Old Longjing Temple in West Lake, Hangzhou, have been less than two meters high for hundreds of years. In addition, there is another situation, although it is platform tea, it has been an old tea garden for decades, and the processed tea products also have the style of old tree tea.

4. technology: the first step in distinguishing the category of technology is the difference between raw tea and cooked tea, which can be easily identified. The second step is to distinguish whether to sprinkle noodles or make noodles. Sprinkling noodles is for the sake of beauty, and the strips are put on the noodles with better color, while there are some inferior teas inside. It is best to be consistent inside and outside, and not to make noodles. The third step: whether to match. That is, tea cyanines from different places of origin, the same quality or the same place of origin and different grades are mixed and processed. Whether it is good or not can't be generalized. For example, in some places, the tea tastes good and the tea flavor is not enough. If Lincang tea is used for blending, it can achieve the effect of pure taste and rich tea flavor. This blending is actually a good creation. In recent years, some tea products that won prizes in various exhibitions, especially cooked tea, have mostly achieved excellent quality through clever blending. But the other is that unscrupulous merchants mix raw materials with low quality and low price with some high quality and high price, and finally sell them at the market price produced by good raw materials. Now there are many teas produced in large quantities in the market, and there are many such combinations.

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