Drinking Pu'er tea is a relaxing and enjoyable experience in itself. Even if you Drink it like chugging down the tea broth, as long as you can enjoy the various oral experiences that the tea leaves bring.
Although there's no need to adhere to a certain form when Drinking Tea, it should be done in a way that pleases you. If you can master the most basic tasting techniques, you'll also learn how to judge the quality of the tea, and at the very least, you won't be easily fooled by tea shop owners.
Today, we will discuss the first step to enjoying Pu'er tea – learning how to taste it properly.
Aroma from an Empty Cup
One sip clears my drowsiness, my thoughts become clear and full of the world.
Pu'er tea is rich in internal substances, including a large amount of aromatic compounds. These include camphor, medicinal, lotus, and jujube fragrances. Different Pu'er teas have their own unique aromas, so smelling the aroma is a very important part of the tasting experience.
A common misconception is that people think smelling the aroma involves holding a cup of tea and sniffing the aroma of the broth. In reality, smelling the aroma usually involves taking a deep breath with an empty cup.
The second infusion results in a relatively stable broth. At this point, hold the fairness pitcher that has been emptied of tea broth, using the residual heat in the cup. Move close to the rim of the cup and you can clearly feel the refreshing aroma of the Pu'er tea.
The aroma of Pu'er tea is not as flamboyant as Tieguanyin or as fresh as Longjing. It is more reserved and unassuming.
Excellent young Pu'er teas, especially those from famous mountains and ancient trees, are known for their elegant orchid, floral-fruit, and honey aromas. While aged teas are prized for their camphor, jujube, and medicinal aromas.
Chewing the Broth
A second sip clears my mind, just like rain sprinkling on light dust.
How do you chew liquid tea broth? Chewing is a metaphorical expression, akin to how toothless elders eat by grinding food between their hard palate and tongue.
This slow and deliberate chewing not only aids digestion but also allows for a deeper appreciation of the viscosity and texture of the food. Chewing the tea broth is a process of carefully feeling the texture of the broth.
The method is simple: after the tea broth enters your mouth, use your tongue to make a circle, allowing the broth to fully swirl around your mouth. This ensures that the tip, surface, root of your tongue, and upper and lower jaws come into full contact with the broth.
After carefully savoring, slowly swallow a mouthful of tea broth. This way, you can clearly feel the thickness and smoothness of the tea.
Savoring the Sweetness
Third sip leads to enlightenment, one must strive to break through troubles.
Sweetness after bitterness is one of the great joys of drinking Pu'er tea, particularly raw Pu'er. This experience, akin to the sweetness following bitterness, occurs when the bitterness and astringency of the tea broth stimulate the mouth, causing saliva to be secreted more rapidly. This is due to the polysaccharides and amino acids in the tea.
Savoring the sweetness isn't as mystical as some might suggest. For beginners, all you need to do is focus your senses on the back of your tongue and seriously feel it. After a few times, you can grasp what the experience of sweetness is like.
Pu'er tea varies widely in flavor and character. Some teas have a quick and intense sweetness, while others develop slowly and last longer. Lu Li once tasted an exquisite raw Pu'er where the sweetness was intense and rapid, reaching the level of “immersing the palate.”
Understanding the Nature of the Tea
Fourth sip brings me back from dreams, wanting to express the true meaning yet words fail me.
For beginners, mastering the above three steps gives you the most basic tasting ability. However, if you want to take it further, you need to deeply understand the nature of the tea. The realm of understanding tea can roughly be divided into knowing the nature of the tea, following the nature of the tea, and controlling the nature of the tea.
Knowing the nature of the tea refers to having a clear systematic understanding of factors that affect the drinking value of Pu'er tea, such as different years, materials, processing methods, and storage conditions.
To brew each pot of Pu'er tea skillfully, you need to be familiar with the nature of various types of Pu'er tea. Loose tea and compressed tea, new tea and aged tea, raw tea and ripe tea, each has its own characteristics and different natures.
Understanding the nature of this tea allows you to select the appropriate teaware, amount of tea, water temperature, and other brewing steps. If you're not familiar with the nature of the tea, you can try brewing it a few times to get acquainted. Once you've mastered the brewing techniques, you can proceed with formal brewing.
The relationship between Pu'er tea and tea drinkers is like that between a thousand-mile horse and its discoverer. We must “know the nature of the tea” to fully display its drinking value and advance to the next levels of following and controlling the nature of the tea.
Following the Nature of the Tea
Following the nature of the tea means not doing things that go against the nature of the tea, such as boiling new tea or brewing old tea at low temperatures. Instead, you should brew tea according to the “temperament” of the tea.
Pu'er tea has many immutable characteristics. Longer brewing times result in a stronger broth; higher water temperatures make the broth easier to become bitter and astringent, etc. Only by adhering to these natural laws can you say you are following the nature of the tea.
Controlling the Nature of the Tea
If understanding the nature of the tea requires extensive knowledge and memory, and following the nature of the tea means going with the flow of nature, then controlling the nature of the tea is about following your heart, even transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary. This may sound somewhat idealistic, but it actually has a profound materialistic basis.
Controlling the nature of the tea means that if the Pu'er tea itself is of poor quality, the tea brewer can use external conditions flexibly, such as choosing the right teaware, to take advantage of the fault tolerance of the tea's nature, thus enhancing the drinking value.
Controlling the nature of the tea may seem like defying fate, but it is actually subject to certain limitations. For example, if a Steeping time of 30 seconds doesn't produce astringency, but 40 seconds isn't particularly bitter and the broth is even thicker.
The natural following of the nature of the tea and the free will of controlling the nature of the tea may seem contradictory. However, controlling the nature of the tea is actually the highest realm built upon knowing and following the nature of the tea