Finding a Pu'er aged tea that satisfies you is something to be truly grateful for. A good aged tea must have undergone very strict raw material screening, along with rigorous Fermentation processes, to produce a rich and mellow aged tea.
How to Distinguish the Quality of Aged Tea
The first aspect is taste. To achieve good taste, we must first ensure that it does not have “two flavors and one sensation.”
What are the “two flavors and one sensation”? They are pile flavor, storage flavor, and a dry heat sensation.
Pile flavor is an unusual taste produced during the fermentation process, which is undesirable. Storage flavor is a mold-like taste due to excessive moisture in the storage environment. The third is the dry heat sensation, similar to the taste of freshly fermented Black Tea. If this sensation is slightly off or if the raw materials are not of high quality, our throat and mouth will experience a certain degree of dry heat, or even dryness in the throat.
The first requirement is that it should be enjoyable to Drink, without the “two flavors and one sensation.” If it can meet this point, it is basically a qualified aged tea.
How do we judge from its appearance?
The second aspect is appearance: ensuring minimal ash content and a bright liquor color.
However, these two points do not affect the taste; they are more related to the fine processing steps during later stages of production. But they do indeed influence our experience and visual perception. To put it simply: if there is a lot of ash, it will form sediment around the edge of the brewing bowl or at the bottom of our Cup. The clarity of the liquor also directly affects the overall experience.
If a tea meets both of these criteria—no “two flavors and one sensation,” and a pleasant appearance of the dry leaves and liquor color—we consider it to be a rather excellent aged tea!