There are two ways to express the quality of commercial tea: text representation and sample representation.
(1) Words express the quality of commercial tea: In foreign trade, words express the quality of commercial tea by specifications, grades, standards, brand names, trademarks, names of places of origin, etc. (1) is expressed by specifications. Commodity specification is an important indicator of commodity quality. For tea, some physical and chemical indexes are mainly used to express quality specifications, such as water content, water extract content and crude fiber content of tea. (2) expressed in grades. The same tea leaves have different colors and different colors have different grades. There are obvious differences between grades, which must be made clear. (3) expressed by standards. Tea standards include international standards and national tea standards. Such as international black tea ISO7320 standard, China export tea standard, etc. The commercial tea exported from China must meet the relevant standards of tea export from China. If there are special requirements for exporters to taste tea in foreign trade contracts, it should also be indicated that the commercial tea must meet a certain standard of the exporting country or the importing country. ④ represented by brandortrademark. Good crystal brands and trademarks, because of good reputation, have a stable consumer group, which is conducive to sales. ⑤ It is expressed by the name of the place of origin (nameoforigin). Traditional tea is a famous agricultural and sideline product for export in China, with excellent quality and strong local characteristics. The name of the place of origin can better reflect its quality, such as West Lake Longjing Tea, Qimen Black Tea and Huangshan Mao Feng.
(2) Representing the quality of commercial tea with physical samples: As agricultural and sideline products, the quality of tea is difficult to achieve absolute standardization, and the method of representing the quality with samples is intuitive and reliable. Tea samples are usually several physical objects randomly selected from a batch of commercial tea or processed by production units to represent the quality of commercial tea, and buyers and sellers take these physical objects as the basis for delivery quality. When selling with "samples", we should pay attention to the representativeness of the samples.
Without scientific instruments and methods, the quality of tea can be evaluated by color, aroma, taste and shape. Using these four aspects to evaluate the quality of tea is usually identified by looking, smelling, touching and tasting. That is, look at the appearance, look at the color, smell the aroma, touch the bones and taste the soup.
① Color-Different teas have different color characteristics. Fried green tea should be yellow-green, baked green should be dark green, steamed green should be emerald green, and Longjing should be bright green with a slight beige color. If the color of green tea is dark and dark brown, the quality must be poor. The vapor color of green tea should be light green or yellowish green, clear and bright; If it is dark yellow or turbid, it is definitely not good tea. Black tea should be black and glossy, and the soup should be red and bright. Some top-grade Kung Fu black tea can form a yellow oil ring around the teacup, commonly known as "golden ring"; If the soup is dark and turbid, it must be inferior black tea. Oolong tea should be green, brown and shiny.
2 aroma-all kinds of teas have their own fragrance, such as scented green tea, top-grade green tea with orchid fragrance and chestnut fragrance, and black tea with fragrance, sweetness or floral fragrance; Oolong tea is cooked in Momoka and other places. If the aroma is low, it is classified as inferior tea; Old tea is old; Deteriorated tea leaves have bad smells such as mildew. Even Kuding tea smells natural. Scented tea attracts tea customers with its rich fragrance.
(3) Taste-or the taste of tea. The taste of tea itself consists of bitter, astringent, sweet, fresh and sour ingredients. If the proportion of ingredients is appropriate, the taste will be fresh, mellow and delicious. Meanwhile, different teas have different tastes. The first taste of superior green tea has its bitterness, but the aftertaste is rich and mellow, which makes your mouth full of saliva. Rough and inferior Chaze is tasteless and even has a dull mouth and tongue. Excellent black tea with rich, strong and fresh taste; Low-grade black tea is tasteless. Kuding tea is bitter to eat in the mouth, but sweet to drink.
④ Appearance-The quality of tea can be judged from the appearance of tea, because the quality of tea is directly related to the fresh leaves picked by tea, and also related to the tea making, which is reflected in the appearance of tea. For example, good Longjing tea, smooth and straight, looks like a bowl nail; Good pearl tea has round, compact and uniform particles; Good kung fu black tea is tight, and the red broken tea particles are neat and uniform; Good Maofeng tea, more buds, more buds, and so on. If the rope is loose, the particles are loose, the leaves are rough and the bones are light, it is not good tea.
Tea knowledge in different seasons
① Spring tea-refers to the tea picked from late March to mid-May of that year. In spring, the temperature is moderate and the rainfall is sufficient. In winter, after half a year's cultivation, the tea buds are full, the color is green, the leaves are soft and rich in vitamins, especially amino acids. It not only makes the taste of spring tea fragrant, but also has health care function.
② Summer tea —— refers to the hot summer weather from early May to early July when tea is picked, and the new shoots and leaves of tea trees grow rapidly, so that the content of water extract that can dissolve tea soup is relatively reduced, especially the reduction of amino acids, which makes the taste and aroma of tea soup not as rich as that of spring tea. Because the contents of bitter anthocyanins, caffeine and tea polyphenols are more than those of spring tea, purple buds and leaves not only add different colors, but also taste bitter.
(3) Autumn tea-tea picked after mid-August. The climatic conditions in autumn are between spring and summer. When tea trees grow in spring and summer, the content of new shoots and new buds is relative, which makes the leaves smaller, brittle, yellow in color and more peaceful in taste and aroma.
④ Winter tea-about late June 10. Winter tea grows after autumn tea harvest, and the climate gradually turns cold. Because the new buds of winter tea grow slowly and the content increases gradually, the taste is mellow and the aroma is rich.
It is not easy to buy tea. If you want to get good tea, you need to master a lot of knowledge, such as the grade standard, price, market, evaluation and inspection methods of various teas. The quality of tea is mainly identified from four aspects: color, fragrance, taste and shape, but for ordinary tea drinkers, when buying tea, they can only look at the shape and color of dry tea and smell the fragrance of dry tea, which increases the difficulty of judging the quality of tea. Here is a rough introduction to the method of identifying dry tea. The appearance of dry tea is mainly seen from five aspects, namely tenderness, rope, color, broken and clean.
-1. Tenderness
Tenderness is the basic factor that determines quality. The so-called "dry appearance, wet ass" means tenderness. Generally, tea with good tenderness is easy to meet the appearance requirements of this kind of tea (such as "light, flat, flat and straight" in Longjing). In addition, it can also be identified from the presence or absence of tea seedlings. Good pre-seedlings and white hair shows show that they are tender and well-made. If the tenderness of raw materials is poor, no matter how good the workmanship is, there will be no white hairs on the sharp seedlings and tea strips. But tenderness can't be judged only by the number of fine hairs, because the specific requirements of various teas are different. For example, the high-quality Lion Peak Longjing is fluff-free. Moreover, fuzz is easy to fake and operate by hand. The tenderness of bud leaves is judged by fluff, which is only applicable to "fluff" teas such as Mao Feng, Maojian and Yinzhen. What needs to be mentioned here is that the most tender fresh leaves should also sprout, and it is not appropriate to pick the bud heart unilaterally. Because the bud nucleus is an imperfect part, its content is not comprehensive, especially the chlorophyll content is very low. Therefore, tea should not only be made into buds in pursuit of tenderness.
-2. Cable
Cord is a certain shape and specification of various tea sets, such as fried green strips, round pearl tea, flat longjing tea, granular red broken tea and so on. Generally, long strip tea leaves are elastic, straight, strong, thin, round, flat, light and heavy; Round tea depends on the elasticity, uniformity, weight and ethereal degree of particles; Flat tea to see if it is smooth and meets the specifications. Generally speaking, the rope is tight, heavy, round (except flat tea) and straight, indicating that the raw materials are tender, the workmanship is good and the quality is excellent; If the appearance is loose, flat (except flat tea), broken, smoky and burnt, it means that the raw materials are old, the workmanship is poor and the quality is poor. Take the standard of Hangzhou green tea as an example: Grade I, Grade II, Grade III, Grade IV, Grade V, Grade VI, fine grain, fine grain, compact grain, compact grain and slightly loose grain.
-3. Color
Tea color is closely related to the tenderness of raw materials and processing technology. All kinds of tea have certain color requirements, such as black tea, green tea, oolong tea and black tea. However, no matter what kind of tea, good tea requires consistent color, bright luster, oily and fresh. If the colors are different, the shades are different and dull, it means that the raw materials are old and tender, the workmanship is poor and the quality is poor.
The color of tea also has a great relationship with the origin and season of tea trees. Such as alpine green tea, the color is green and yellowish, fresh and bright; Low camellia or flat tea is dark green and shiny. In the process of making tea, due to improper technology, the color often deteriorates. When buying tea, you should judge according to the specific tea you buy. For example, Longjing, the best Shifeng Longjing, had natural brown rice color and light yellow tea before the Ming Dynasty. This is a major feature of Shifeng Longjing, which is obviously different from other Longjing in color. Because the price of Shifeng Longjing is extremely high, tea farmers will create this color to pretend to be Shifeng Longjing. The method is to fry the tea a little more to make the leaves yellow. The difference between true and false lies in that the real lion peak is symmetrical, bright and clean, light yellow and light green, with a faint fragrance in the tea fragrance; The fake lion peak angle is loose and empty, the hair is rough and yellow, and the tea smells like fried soybeans. It's really hard to judge without many comparisons. But once brewed, the difference is very obvious. The over-fried fake lion peak is not as rich and tender as Longjing.
-4. decisive
The whole crushing is the shape and degree of tea crushing, with uniformity being the best, followed by crushing. The standard tea tasting is to put the tea in a plate (usually made of wood), so that the tea can be layered in turn according to its shape, size, weight, thickness and crushing degree under the action of rotating force. Among them, the thick ones are at the top, the tight ones are concentrated in the middle, and the broken ones are deposited at the bottom. All kinds of tea, medium-grade tea is the best. The upper layer is generally thick and old leaves, with light taste and light water color; There are many broken teas at the lower level, and the taste is often too strong after brewing, and the soup is darker.
-5. Clear
Mainly depends on whether tea is mixed with camellia oleifera. , tea stalks, tea powder, tea seeds and the amount of inclusions such as bamboo chips, sawdust, lime and sediment mixed in the production process. Tea with good purity does not contain any inclusions. In addition, it can also be identified by the dry aroma of tea. No matter what kind of tea, there must be no peculiar smell. Every kind of tea has a specific aroma, and the dry aroma and wet aroma are also different, depending on the specific situation. Green gas, burnt smoke and cooked stuffy smell are not desirable. The above text is only a very general introduction. It is the taste, aroma and color of the brewed tea soup that is the easiest to judge the quality of tea. So if you can, try making tea. If you have a special preference for a certain kind of tea, you'd better find some information about this kind of tea, accurately understand its color, fragrance and shape characteristics, and compare the tea you buy every time, so that if you have more times, you will easily get to the point quickly. Domestic tea varieties are loaded, and non-professionals are unlikely to judge the quality of each kind of tea, just choosing what they like. I don't buy tea in tea shops everywhere. I usually buy them at the place of origin or the teahouse, so I go everywhere in spring. Generally speaking, locally produced tea is pure, but the quality of tea is different due to the difference of tea making technology. Tea in the teahouse is much more expensive than outside, but it is easier to find good tea here. First of all, you can try to know its quality. Second, the teas in better teahouses are carefully selected. If you can't buy tea from the place of origin, it is still an option. There are also some big tea houses where you can try tea on the spot. If you have a good eye for a certain kind of tea, you can go to the tea wholesale market to buy it. Compared with small tea shops, the tea there is relatively new, with many kinds of choices and cheaper prices. But from my own experience, it is generally not easy to find very good tea here, especially green tea. Because of the high price of premium green tea, tea wholesale markets and small tea shops operate less because of cost problems, and most good tea is bought by big tea houses and tea companies.