Interview with Pu 'er Tea (Three Drunken Feathers Dance and Zou Jiaju)

Dialogue interview with Pu 'er tea

Feather Dance: Please tell us the difference between drying and baking.

Zou: Personally, I think it matches. Because no matter any plant, it is multi-trait, single variety has many disadvantages, and human needs are diversified, so I advocate mixed tea. Biological diversity, plant diversity, including tea diversity, is in line with the natural law of human formation.

Feather Dance: Is the raw tea tasteful, the tea soup light, or the rich tea soup turbid?

Zou: We should look at this separately. Raw tea itself belongs to the category of green tea. If you want to drink tea from the perspective of green tea, of course, you should choose something with light astringency and bitterness, which is more in line with the taste. However, if you want to collect Pu 'er tea, you must choose bitter raw tea for storage, which will become more and more mellow in the future. The reason is that according to the experience of Hong Kong people in drinking tea for 200 years, the thicker the old leaves, the more mellow the tea will be. The astringency and wine taste are the unity of opposites. The more astringent tea is, the more mellow it will be. This is the same as Yunnan tobacco leaves and brewing materials, and it is the result of natural transformation of microorganisms.

Feather Dance: Is Pu 'er tea stored wet or dry?

Zou: I don't agree with the idea of "wet warehouse and dry warehouse", because Pu 'er tea itself is fermented, so it must rely on certain moisture, humidity and air. Without these things, it will not change. You can do an experiment by wrapping raw tea in plastic paper to keep it away from moisture and temperature. Even if it is put for a long time, it will not change, and the bitterness still exists.

I think dry storage is misleading. In my 30-year working career in tea, whether it is artificial fermentation or natural fermentation, if the moisture, oxygen and temperature in the air are not allowed to contact with tea, then microorganisms will not have the conditions for development and change, and tea will not be transformed.

Feather Dance: How to treat trademark registration and protection of origin?

Zou: This is about Yunnan. It should be done as soon as possible, which is conducive to the protection of Yunnan's regional economy and the development of Pu 'er tea.

Feather Dance: The problem is that the tree species of Pu 'er tea are not unique to Yunnan!

Zou: We have already tried this. In fact, the big leaf species introduced from other places will eventually grow into small leaf species, which is an ecological and environmental problem. There are two aspects to species. On the one hand, the preservation of species stems from heredity, on the other hand, it adapts to change. When a species spreads to other places, it will adjust itself according to the local environment, and it is impossible to grow the same big leaf tea as Yunnan.

The conditions for growing tea in Yunnan are as follows: first, the geographical location is on both sides of the Tropic of Cancer, and the sun shines vertically; Second, we grow tea on the plateau at an altitude of 1000 meters. The oxygen content will be much lower, and ultraviolet rays will have strong penetrating power, which will illuminate plants and carry out photosynthesis. Therefore, in the process of natural growth, tea will form much more polyphenols than other places. The relationship between polyphenols and sunlight is so close that it is impossible to grow real Pu 'er tea trees in other places.

Species is the genetic aspect of tea, and adaptation is the change aspect of tea.

Feather Dance: What do you think of the practice of illegal businessmen forging fake tea leaves?

Zou: The difference between fake tea and real tea will be very big, which can be detected by equipment.

Feather Dance: What do you think of the subscription of old tea factories?

Zou: This is the major policy of national reform, and the future situation is unpredictable. After all, everything has two sides. For example, if a tea factory is subscribed by people who don't understand tea, this is a very bad situation. If roasted green tea is used again, the consequences will be even worse. Perhaps decades later, consumers will not buy these teas again when they have their own understanding. The previous investors were very risky.

Feather Dance: Is fermentation the most important step of Pu 'er tea?

Zou: The quality of Pu 'er tea is a diversified issue. First of all, it must be a big leaf tea in a certain area of Yunnan; Second, it must be a tanning process; The third necessary condition is post-fermentation. No matter natural fermentation or artificial fermentation, there must be a fermentation process.

Feather Dance: Besides raw and cooked quality, what other factors should be considered in the collection of Pu 'er tea?

Zou: First of all, raw materials are the most important! It must be a big leaf species, and the dried green tea will have storage value and effect. Another important issue is pesticide residues! With the continuous development of society, the current standards may not pay enough attention to the problem of pesticide residues, but twenty or thirty years have passed, the society is progressing, the standards are improving, and various standards are more stringent and perfect. The testing equipment at that time was also very advanced. Once the pesticide residue is detected to exceed the standard, all previous efforts will be wasted.

In order to be responsible for the society, I am here to remind you in advance, hoping to attract attention.

Feather Dance: Is it possible to reduce the price of Pu 'er tea cakes?

Zou: Commodities will go up and down. However, there is still a difference. If we maintain high-quality standards from the initial steps and consistently maintain high quality in all aspects, we will definitely appreciate in the end.

Feather Dance: Besides the Pu 'er tea storehouse, what else should we pay attention to when storing Pu 'er tea in general?

Zou: There must be a special storage room, otherwise some life smells, such as cooking fumes, cosmetics and smoke, can be easily absorbed by tea leaves.

Feather Dance: For those who are committed to Pu 'er tea, 2008 is very attractive. So, what is the weight of time for the quality of aged tea?

Zou: Time has certain factors, but personally, taste and pharmacological effects are what everyone should pay more attention to. French people choose to drink cooked tea because of the consideration of time and commodity economy, and the pharmacological effect of cooked tea is indeed better than that of raw tea. China people pursue perfection, so they prefer to drink raw tea, and the taste of raw tea after long-term storage is really good. It's just a cultural difference.

Before, I didn't quite agree with Mr. Deng Shihai's remarks, but I really appreciate a point in his recent Pu 'er Tea 2, that is, "Save raw tea, drink cooked tea and taste old tea".

Some experiments also show that the pharmacological action of cooked tea is better than that of raw tea, but the taste is inevitably dull; Naturally fermented raw tea, commonly known as "old tea", tastes more vivid after storage.

Feather Dance: Now there is a saying in Pu 'er tea industry called "one theory and ten lines". In other words, a viewpoint has many different viewpoints. What do you think of views that are different from yours?

Zou: The theoretical development of anything will produce this phenomenon. I think this is a good thing, it can attract the attention of the society, and only contrast can distinguish it. I believe that with practice, consumers will have their own clear views.

Feather Dance: There are many books about Pu 'er tea now. Why did you write the second book?

Zou: I want to fill the gap in the history of Pu 'er tea. For this reason, I have read a lot of historical materials, and I have been to Central Asia myself and learned a lot.

Due to some historical reasons, Yunnan Pu 'er tea has not been included in Mr. Lu Yu's tea classics, so the cultural added value of Pu 'er tea is relatively low and the culture is relatively thin! I elaborated on this problem in my new book. This is called "Jingoma Tiedaye Tea".

Another reason is that Yunnan is relatively backward and there are few famous literati, so the promotion of Pu 'er tea has been in a bad situation.

There is also a problem of consumption flow. In the past, big leaf tea was only popular in a certain area. Wait, these problems will be elaborated in my second book.

After seeing the idea of my second book, Director Yang of the Institute of Religious Studies was surprised to say that this book not only added a brilliant stroke to the history of Pu 'er tea, but also filled the gap in the history of Nanzhao, and interpreted Nanzhao from the perspective of tea.

Feather Dance: Could you please introduce your second book?

Feather Dance: Can you introduce your Zou Ji?

Zou: First of all, I want to clarify that "Zou Ji" is not my tea. It is widely rumored that I personally made this tea, but I didn't make it, but the state-owned enterprise made it in my name. They trusted me and thought that I had a unique opinion on the varieties of Pu 'er tea, so I borrowed my name to do it, but it was not what the outside world imagined, and I didn't do it myself.

Feather Dance: What do you think of the Pu 'er tea beverage currently developed in the market?

Zou: I think we should be cautious on this issue. Because additives must be added to drinks, and there are more than 500 kinds of additives at present, which is good and which is not, there is no clear conclusion, so the problem of developing tea drinks is worth pondering.

At the beginning of the year, I also attended an international conference on tea abroad. This question is quite popular. I immediately wrote a "Tea Warning Record", which discussed the food safety system in detail, hoping to attract public attention.

I am in favor of drinking tea instead of tea drinks. Because the history of tea for thousands of years proves that it is harmless, and it is a good performance. On the contrary, the history of drinks is only a few decades, but the bad situation caused by drinks is obvious to all. Generally speaking, tea is definitely better than tea drinks.

Feather Dance: Are there any plans to compile and publish 18 Wang Xingyin's diary?

Zou: Now many famous artists give me their notebooks because they all trust me. The older generation of tea people, such as Peng, gave me their notebooks. I use it as a reference now, because many things need to be verified and books need to be based. It's all work notes, too professional. They just record the date of the meeting, the content of the research, the formula and other things, such as what proportion of tea is used and how to adjust the raw materials. The arrangement of these notes does not have much social effect. Personally, I mainly use it as a reference and verification material.