Yesterday, we began with color and aroma, giving an overview of the key points for appreciating raw Pu-erh tea. This can be considered the first impression of a tea. As the brewing experience deepens, we need to explore two more dimensions \u2014 flavor and resonance \u2014 to more fully sense the quality of a raw Pu-erh tea. It delivers an extraordinarily rich gustatory experience, including the collision of bitterness and sweetness, the interplay of fragrance and smoothness, all of which deserve the heartfelt attention of every Pu-erh tea lover.
\nRaw Tea Appreciation: Flavor
\nFlavor is the tea’s taste \u2014 a very direct and tangible sensation felt in the nasal cavity, oral cavity, throat, chest, stomach, and intestines. We call this gustatory sensation. The primary perception points in the mouth are the lips, teeth, gums, tongue tip, tongue surface, under the tongue, tongue root, palate, and also the throat and throat base, where sensations are particularly distinct. The stomach, intestines, abdomen, and bodily sensations are weaker and harder to perceive. The main flavors of tea include: aromatic flavor, sweetness, bitterness, liquor character, and coarse, mixed, or muddy flavors.
\nAromatic flavor: The characteristics of Pu-erh tea fragrance are:
\n1. Restrained: the fragrance is gathered in the liquor, with liquor-fragrance as the primary aspect and air-fragrance as secondary.
\n2. Long-lasting, clinging to the cup, penetrating the heart and spleen, with extraordinary permeability unmatched by any other tea.
\n3. Deeply steady, not showy, not flamboyant, not outwardly displaying, gently lingering.
\nDifferent raw materials express different aromas. Pure-material teas have clean, transparent fragrance; blended teas offer rich, layered, endlessly unfolding complexity. Fragrance is an extremely important indicator for Pu-erh tea, and liquor-fragrance is its primary characteristic. The more restrained and steady the liquor-fragrance, the more it hides without displaying, the deeper it is, the more it becomes woody, the better its liveliness, the higher its variability, the better its spreading quality, the greater its expansiveness, the softer and more lingering it is \u2014 the higher its value and the better its quality.<\/p>\n
Sweetness:
\nSweetness greatly improves the overall quality of the tea. Sweetness makes the liquor broader and more harmonious, greatly enriching its content. In the early stage of brewing, sweetness works alongside bitterness and other flavors in coordination, adding weight to the liquor and making the body smooth and thick, without yet revealing its own sweetness. But as the bitterness rapidly recedes in the later infusions, sweetness continuously emerges, growing stronger and stronger, performing the wonderful finale of the tea session until the final curtain.
\nBitterness:
\nBitterness is the foundation of tea, the soul of tea. Bitterness is the origin of sweetness \u2014 the father of sweetness. Without bitterness, where would sweetness come from? Life itself is no different. In this sense, bitterness is the main theme of flavor. Yet bitterness is so diverse: there is foul bitterness, dry bitterness, parched bitterness, numbing bitterness, piercing bitterness \u2014 these come from the tea variety, the tea being too old and dried out, or improper storage. But another kind of bitterness is beautifully captivating: bitter yet transforming, bitter yet soft, bitter yet silky, bitter yet lingering, bitter yet deep.
\nLiquor character: Commonly called “water route.” The water route can be fine and tight or loose and coarse.
\nFine and tight versus loose and coarse comes primarily from variety: small-leaf varieties are the finest, medium-leaf in the middle, and large-leaf the loosest. The water route can be strong or light, primarily determined by season: spring tea is strongest, autumn in the middle, and summer the lightest. The water route can be broad and thick or narrow and thin: the older the tree, the broader and thicker the water route; the younger the tree, the narrower and thinner. The water route can be smooth: the older the tea, the smoother the water route, and vice versa. Liquor character is one of the important indicators for identifying tea quality.
\nCoarse, mixed, and muddy flavors:
\nCoarse flavor comes from old, coarse leaf material. Mixed and muddy flavors arise from incompatible raw materials, clashing and muddled, or from crude, imprecise processing. Sour-stuffy flavors come from improper piling and smothering, resulting from failed processing. Damp and moldy flavors are primarily caused by improper storage. In short, these undesirable flavors lead to the degradation of Pu-erh tea, rendering it worthless for drinking and potentially harmful to health.<\/p>\n
Raw Tea Appreciation: Resonance
\nResonance primarily refers to the meaning that lingers beyond the immediate. Flavor is captured while drinking; resonance appears after drinking. What Pu-erh tea most distinctly displays is the aftertaste, renowned worldwide for its long-lasting resonance.
\nPu-erh resonance manifests mainly in four ways: first, exceptionally long-lasting returning sweetness and saliva generation; second, the raw materials, recipe, and craftsmanship determine the duration and balance of returning sweetness and saliva generation; third, storage determines the transformation of returning sweetness and saliva generation; fourth, quality determines where in the body the returning sweetness and saliva generation are felt. The better the quality, the deeper the bodily sensation, the longer it lingers, the more comfortable it feels. The better the bodily sensation, the higher the tea’s quality.
\nIn summary, when evaluating the value of Pu-erh tea, resonance is an extremely important decisive indicator. Through resonance, one can determine the quality level of Pu-erh tea; the full scope of Pu-erh tea creation can be comprehensively revealed through resonance. Of course, any numbing, piercing, parching, catching, or sticky sensations lingering in the mouth are signs of poor quality. Although there may be lingering fragrance, such tea cannot be praised for its resonance. (End)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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