In the sensory evaluation of Pu-erh tea, one indicator is the infusion color. What kind of infusion color indicates better quality Pu-erh tea?
Because Pu-erh tea is divided into new and aged tea, raw and ripe Pu-erh, as well as dry and wet storage, it is difficult to use a single standard to measure all categories of Pu-erh tea. However, Pu-erh tea has the widely recognized standard of “aging into fragrance”; that is to say, regardless of the type of Pu-erh tea, those with good aging or transformation are universally acknowledged. Looking at the infusion color, if it is sufficiently red and clear, then the transformation of this Pu-erh tea is excellent from a color perspective, scoring high on at least this indicator.
From a scientific perspective, the infusion color of Pu-erh tea is determined by pigments. The main pigments in Pu-erh tea are theaflavins, thearubigins, and thearubins; it is currently believed that these three pigments are the primary water-soluble oxidation products of polyphenols:
Theaflavins are the main component of the “brightness” of the tea infusion;
Thearubigins are the main component of the “redness” of the tea infusion;
Thearubins are the main component of the “brownness” of the tea infusion.
Clearly, to make your stored Pu-erh tea both red and bright, you must increase the content of theaflavins and thearubigins while reducing the content of thearubins.
How can we achieve this during actual production and storage?
Pu-erh tea is a post-fermented tea. This post-fermentation includes both the piled fermentation of ripe Pu-erh and the natural fermentation of raw Pu-erh. The natural fermentation of raw Pu-erh may also involve dry or wet storage; therefore, we divide Pu-erh tea into three categories for explanation:
I. Ripe Pu-erh
In the piled fermentation of ripe Pu-erh, as the number of pile turnings increases,
the content of theaflavins gradually decreases;
the content of thearubigins gradually increases;
the content of thearubins gradually increases (significantly).
II. Dry-stored raw Pu-erh
During the dry storage of sheng Maocha and Qing Bing:
theaflavins gradually increase;
thearubigins gradually increase;
thearubins gradually increase (insignificantly).
III. Wet-stored raw Pu-erh
During the dry storage of sheng Maocha and Qing Bing:
theaflavins gradually decrease;
thearubigins gradually increase;
thearubins gradually increase (significantly).
From the research of the scientists mentioned above, we can gain some inspiration for the storage of Pu-erh tea:
1. For ripe Pu-erh, whether the infusion color is clear or reddish is contradictory. That is to say, if fermentation is too light, the color is clear but not red; if fermentation is too heavy, it appears red but lacks clarity, and even carries the risk of appearing brownish. Therefore, most producers choose moderate fermentation. Of course, if you have patience, you can also choose lightly fermented ripe Pu-erh and look forward to it gradually turning red during the later stages of storage.
2. For dry-stored raw Pu-erh, it can basically become clearer and redder with age. At the same time, note one point: in terms of infusion color, the storage of Qing Bing has an advantage over that of Maocha.
3. For wet-stored raw Pu-erh, there is clearly no standard to follow; it becomes red, but it seems it will never become clear regardless of how it is stored. I suggest you simply avoid making it too dark or murky.
Of course, infusion color is only one of many evaluation indicators for Pu-erh tea. The assessment of Pu-erh tea quality only has auxiliary reference value; for the quality of Pu-erh tea, you still need to make a further comprehensive judgment based on your own palate.
Sources
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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