What are the good pure sun-dried white teas & how is good white tea formed? See this article for details

《1》

How can a white tea be called good?

Of course, only when these three conditions of good origin, good craftsmanship and good storage are met can it be called good white tea.

The production area is good, mainly in the mountains.

The high mountains have sufficient moisture, warm sunlight, rich soil minerals, and clouds and mists that are "colorful, light and heavy, and fragrant to attract the wind", creating an excellent growth environment for white tea trees.

The main advantage of good craftsmanship is the hands of the tea making master.

The process of white tea is very simple. There are only two processes of withering and drying. An ordinary person can remember these two processes in his mind at a glance, but the actual operation is very laborious and laborious.

Withering is divided into sunlight withering and indoor withering. Of these two withering methods, the most troublesome is sun withering, which is often referred to as pure sun drying.

So, is the white tea produced under such laborious and laborious pure sun drying necessarily a good tea?

As a judge, don’t rush to ask for the answer. Let’s talk about the third best thing first, storage.

The key to good storage is attentiveness and care.

White tea likes shade, likes dryness, and has strong adsorption properties. Therefore, when storing, you should store it according to its properties and place it in a dry, cool, light-shielding, sealed, and odor-free environment.

Therefore, as long as white tea meets the "three good" conditions, the quality will naturally be superior.

Now, let’s talk about pure sun-dried white tea. Is it a good tea? In addition to pure sun exposure, what conditions must be met to be considered a thoroughly good tea?

《2》

What is pure sun exposure?

Before answering everyone's question "Is pure sun exposure good tea?", let me first tell you some popular science about the definition of pure sun exposure.

Pure sun drying, the official name is: solar withering, is to spread the tea leaves in the sun and use sunlight to slowly lose water and reach a dry state.

The sunlight mentioned here is sunlight.

Tea farmers use sunlight during the day. This natural and clean energy allows the excess water in the tea to dissipate and evaporate.

Making tea this way is very troublesome. You have to pay attention to weather changes and cloudy and sunny conditions at all times.

If it is a rainy day, it is naturally impossible to do pure sun drying, because there is no sun, no sunshine. At this time, the white tea must be put away;

What about on cloudy days?

Everyone knows that on a cloudy day, the sunshine is not so strong, but it does not mean that there is no sunshine at all.

Therefore, white tea can be withered in the sun on cloudy days, but the sunshine on cloudy days is gentle, as warm and moist as "the autumn sunshine on White Horse Lake, purple water chestnuts flying like brocade luan",

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The sunshine on a clear day is stronger, as bright as "when you enter an ancient temple in the early morning, the first sun shines on the high forest".

In short, whether it is cloudy or sunny, the presence of sunlight is beneficial to the withering of white tea.

However, making tea in this way is time-consuming and energy-consuming, and requires a lot of labor costs.

Because of the different intensity of sunlight and the different exposure times every day, white tea naturally needs the attention of tea farmers during the process of withering in the sun. Sometimes it has to be recycled and taken out many times a day.

Therefore, in order to save trouble, some people are not willing to dry the white tea in the sun for convenience. At this time, indoor withering arises, but this is a story for another day.

Moreover, when drying white tea in the sun, you must choose a clean, flat, open, odor-free, and dust-free place. Spread a thin layer of green tea on a water sieve to dry, and the water sieve will also It should be 70 centimeters above the ground and should not be in direct contact with the ground.

In short, pure sun-drying is not just as simple as putting it in the sun to dry, but also requires paying attention to many details. Therefore, pure sun-dried white tea is an art made by tea masters. Taste.

《3》

What details should be paid attention to when doing sun withering?

Sun withering is to spread the green tea leaves of white tea in the air, using solar energy and convection in the air to slowly exchange and dry slowly.

It can be seen that the ultimate purpose of sunlight withering is to allow the moisture of the tea green to disappear smoothly and take away the excess material.

However, in order for tea leaves to smoothly dissipate water when exposed to pure sunlight, tea farmers need to pay attention to many details when drying tea.

For example: whether the method of picking tea leaves is appropriate;

Another example: whether the time point during transportation is accurate;

Another example: whether it is necessary to How to control the thickness of the spread.

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These links are all interlocking, like a nine-link chain. If one link fails, the remaining links will be useless. Therefore, tea farmers We have very strict requirements and full grasp of these details.

Take stall drying as an example.

When the tea making master spreads out the tea leaves to dry, in order to ensure that each piece of the tea leaves is exposed to the warm sunshine and the water can drain smoothly, the tea leaves will be thinly dried. Spread in layers on a water sieve to dry.

The thin stall will not only make the water flow smoothly, but also retain a large amount of rich amino acids, aromatic hydrocarbons, active enzymes and other substances in the tea leaves, while those substances that bring bitterness to the tea soup will Will be lost in the air with water.

If, when spreading out to dry, you feel anxious, like rushing to finish the work and rush to ship the goods, thus spreading a large amount of green tea thickly in one place.

This will form a pile. These tea greens are thickly piled together, and the surrounding tea greens are in slightly better condition. The tea greens squeezed in the middle are not so lucky.

They are in a state of being "attacked from the front and back, and being attacked from the front and back". They are stuck in the middle and cannot dissipate air or heat smoothly.

In this way, the thick green tea will ferment in advance. The thicker the thickness, the heavier the degree of fermentation. This is contrary to the concept of "slight fermentation" of white tea. Even if it is placed in the sun, it will not be dried. , and it can't produce a dry and pure taste.

And they are crowded together like a sardine can, squeezing the originally straight and straight leaves into curved, wrinkled, and curled-up ones, which is very unsightly.

In addition, after the "torture" of Wodui, the color of the tea leaves is often black and deep, and the tea stems are red. It is not as fresh as the previous "guest house green and willow color new". Bright.

When you drink this kind of tea in your mouth, it naturally does not have the fragrant fragrance, thick, smooth, and refreshing soup feeling, but is light and thin.

So, attitude determines everything. Whether a tea is good or not depends on the attitude of the tea maker.

《4》

What’s so good about pure sun-dried tea?

As the saying goes: hard work will definitely pay off, and the efforts of tea farmers will naturally be rewarded with white tea.

Because white tea naturally flows under clean, pure, and original sunlight, during the process of water flowing, solar energy reacts with the endoplasm of the tea leaves, using convection in the air for slow exchange. , and dry.

At this time, some excess substances in the tea are also consumed, such as: tea polyphenols that bring astringency, and caffeine that brings bitterness.

Therefore, pure sun-dried tea is refreshing, sweet and not so bitter when you drink it.

In the "Boiled Spring Essay" of the Ming Dynasty, there is such a sentence: "The author of tea is the fire, and the one who makes the tea is the most important, and it is closer to nature..."

This also shows that The benefits of pure sunlight have been valued by tea lovers since ancient times. Moreover, the temperature of the sun is relatively low, unlike charcoal fire and other high temperatures, which cause the nutrients in the tea to be destroyed.

In addition, during the pure sun drying process, the tea leaves can absorb a large number of probiotics in the air under the action of sunlight. These probiotics have a good effect on the transformation of white tea, such as promoting the aromatic substances The formation and enrichment, as well as the increase in freshness and refreshing taste.

In this way, the fragrance of pure sun-dried white tea is dry, rich and fragrant, with the warmth and comfort of "the light of ninety springs fights the sun, the fragrance of apricot blossoms on the side roads of mountain cities".

The tea soup of pure sun-dried white tea also looks pure and clear. Take a sip of the tea soup in your mouth, and it will be full of freshness and sweetness. The tea soup will enter your throat, and it will be moist and pure.

In short, it is comfortable to drink in the mouth and smell in the nose.

In addition, after the aging of pure sun-dried white tea over the years, the aroma and taste will be relatively more stable, mature and charming.

Old white tea that has been sun-dried has a deep medicinal aroma, a steady aged aroma, a light floral aroma, and a sweet fruity aroma...

The tea soup is also thick. , smooth, full of texture, and full of thickness. Use your tongue to gently roll up the tea soup on the tongue, and the tea soup will slide down the tongue, extremely silky.

After three rounds of tea, there will be a slightly sweet aftertaste in the mouth, with a long aftertaste of fragrance, which is very comfortable.

Therefore, pure sun-dried white tea is naturally the best.

But for a good tea, in addition to meeting the conditions of pure sunlight, what other conditions must be met before it can be called good tea?

《5》

In addition to satisfying the pure sun exposure, drying and storage are also required!

It is undeniable that pure sun-dried white tea can be called a good tea, but it still needs to be the best in drying and storage to meet the standards.

In addition to withering, there is another process that cannot be ignored in the white tea process, which is drying.

As for the drying standards of white tea, the new national standard for white tea clearly stipulates that the moisture content of finished white tea must not exceed 8.5%.

In Fuding, many skilled, careful and attentive old tea farmers will dry the white tea to a moisture content of 7% or even around 5% for later storage.

The tea leaves with such dryness are dry to the touch, the aroma is warm, the tea soup is thick and moist, and the whole tea feels comfortable.

It can be seen that a good tea, in addition to being purely sun-dried, also needs to meet dryness standards in terms of craftsmanship.

A tea with standard dryness is the first prerequisite for having storage value.

Therefore, tea lovers should carefully and properly preserve this tea after purchasing it.

In order to make the white tea age better and produce a better taste, it must be completely sealed with three layers of packaging during storage.

After that, place it on a shelf away from the wall and the floor. Finally, make sure that the environment where the tea is stored is dry, cool, dark, and odor-free.

The water content of the white tea stored under this condition will not exceed the standard, and the white tea will not be affected by moisture and deteriorate.

It can be seen that the birth of a good white tea requires the assistance of good drying and good storage in addition to pure sunlight.

《6》

Is pure sun-dried tea good tea?

The answer is yes.

Pure sunshine is a gift given to White Tea by the clean and warm solar energy in nature, like the sundress and crystal shoes given by the elves to the princess, making her shine on the dance floor.

Make the aroma of white tea warmer and drier, and the tea soup purer, sweeter and fresher.

But when everyone looks at the problem, they should look at it from a comprehensive and developmental perspective.

A good white tea must not only grow on high mountains, be nourished by clouds and mist, and absorb nutrients.

We must also have good craftsmanship and follow national standards, not only to make the white tea qualified, but also to make the white tea the best.

Finally, if you want to get a good white tea and taste a good tea soup, you need to store it properly.

White tea that meets the "three good" conditions can be regarded as a truly good white tea.

I went up to the Yaotai one after another, calling the boy several times but not letting him go.

I was just taken away by the sun, but I taught the bright moon to send me the future