Spring brings blooming flowers and renewed life; savor a cup of spring Tea for a rendezvous with the season. The scenery and mood blend perfectly, creating the utmost comfort. As is well known, Spring Tea holds a prominent place among teas of all seasons. To many tea enthusiasts, spring tea surpasses those from other seasons in both taste and nutritional quality.
The go-to choice for buying tea is naturally the tea market, where numerous offerings are labeled as spring tea. Some of these teas are indeed seasonal spring teas, while others may be older stocks or from different seasons, something that consumers are well aware of. So, how can we distinguish whether they are seasonal spring teas?
First, feel the dryness of the tea leaves. Pick up some tea leaves and touch them with your hand. If the leaves are dry and crisp, their quality has been maintained well; otherwise, it indicates that the tea has become damp. Additionally, weigh the tea leaves in your hand. Generally, tea rich in content and substance feels heavier and more solid.
Second, smell the aroma of the tea. Bring your nose close to the tea leaves. If the tea has greasy, moldy, sour, or scorched odors, it suggests that the tea was contaminated during processing or storage. If the tea has a fresh scent without any off-odors, it is a good tea.
Third, carefully observe the shape, color, and uniformity of the tea leaves. Uniform shape and fewer impurities indicate better quality; conversely, lower quality is indicated by irregularities.
Finally, taste the tea. After brewing the tea, take a sip. If the tea liquor has a pure fragrance and a sweet, fresh taste without any off-flavors, it is authentic spring tea. Conversely, if the brewed tea liquor tastes bitter and harsh, it indicates lower quality tea.
What are the characteristics of spring tea, and how do you identify it?
Generally, spring tea refers to tea made from the first shoots and leaves of tea plants after they have survived the winter.
Spring tea is characterized by abundant nutrients in the tea plants, resulting in thick, fleshy leaves with high levels of aromatic compounds and vitamins. It has a fresh taste and strong aroma, with tightly rolled and heavy tea leaves. Typically, Green Tea appears lustrous green, while black tea is glossy dark red, both indicating high quality.
The moderate spring temperatures and ample rainfall, coupled with the tea plants' rest during the winter, result in plump, bright green shoots with soft leaves and rich vitamin content, especially amino acids. This not only makes spring tea taste fresh and fragrant but also gives it health benefits.
Quality Comparison
The quality characteristics of spring, summer, and autumn teas can be described from two aspects:
(1) Dry inspection: Judging primarily from the color, aroma, and shape of dry tea. Green tea with a lustrous green color and black tea with a glossy dark red color, accompanied by robust, solid tea leaves, or with a significant amount of white down, and tightly rolled black and green tea leaves, as well as round and compact pearl tea, along with a rich fragrance, are characteristic qualities of spring tea.
Green tea with a dull color and black tea with a bright red color, light and loose tea leaves, long tender stems, and loosely rolled black and green tea leaves, along with an aroma that slightly indicates age, are characteristics of summer tea.
Green tea with a yellow-green color and black tea with a dark red color, unevenly sized leaves that are thin and small, and a mild aroma, are indicative of Autumn Tea.
(2) Wet inspection: Conducting a tasting evaluation to further determine the quality. Tea that sinks quickly upon brewing, has a strong and lasting fragrance, and a mellow taste; green tea with a yellowish green liquor, and black tea with a bright golden ring around the edge of the cup; tea leaves that are soft and thick with many normal buds and leaves, are characteristic of spring tea.
Tea that sinks slowly upon brewing, has a slightly weaker aroma; green tea that tastes somewhat thin and slightly Astringent with a greenish liquid, and green leaves mixed with copper-green buds in the leaf residue; black tea that tastes strong but less refreshing with a dark red liquid and brighter leaf residue; tea leaves that are thin and harder with many opposite leaves, are characteristic of summer tea.
Tea with a weak aroma and bland taste, with copper-green buds mixed in the leaf residue and leaves of varying sizes with many opposite leaves, are characteristic of autumn tea.