When we evaluate tea we are often puzzled. It may be our body or mood causing all kinds of problems in the tasting, or it may be the tea itself; we cannot decide. The taste is flat, the aroma doubtful, the liquor empty and astringent - but what exactly is wrong with the tea? We wonder and cannot pin it down. What to do?
At such moments we should stop, rest, and taste again - or try another day.
But maybe there is another way.
If we eliminate in reverse - a method of exclusion by suspicion - we may get a pleasant surprise.
This article is all my experience: every line is "maybe" and "uncertain", but the truth may hide behind those uncertainties.
View these with suspicion:
1. Old raw cakes that are pitch black.
If the cake is pitch black and the buds and stems are the same color with no gradation, eighty percent of the time it is loose tea artificially aged and re-pressed. If the leaf patterns between the leaves are also crisp and clear, you can be almost certain it is a newly pressed "old raw tea".
2. Old raw tea that tastes empty and flat.
I like calm flavor, but not empty and flat. "Harmonious" means tight and firm, not hollow. If an old raw tea's liquor is empty and flat - especially with a watery note - the odds it is fake are high.
3. Old tea that feels heavy in the hand.
I store some old teas myself; when I weigh them in my hand they all feel light. If old tea still feels heavy, with a dense sinking feel, be suspicious.
4. Old raw tea whose liquor looks like ripe tea.
Old raw tea with ripe-tea liquor color is suspect. Either the storage was flawed, or lightly fermented ripe tea is being passed off as old raw.
5. The old tea from "some book".
This old tea never existed in the world - but someone wrote a book, and the newly made "old tea" was born. Even if such tea exists, the quantity is tiny and it will never reach you. Any aged tea that never runs out deserves suspicion.
I listed five points about old raw tea because I have found many fakes in livestreams and among the teas around me.
6. Tea that defies common sense.
Look at the packaging first
Tea labeled as thousand-year ancient-tree tea is suspect. Do thousand-year trees exist? I do not know, but you will never buy one, and no one can make tea from it. Claiming something that does not exist is fraudulent at its very start - suspicious.
Labels declaring specific centuries, such as "600-year ancient-tree tea", belong to liars or fools; anyone able to produce such a product is suspect. Mangbang first-grade claimed in large volumes is suspect; likewise all kinds of "tea king trees" - any claim of volume invites doubt.
Then judge by common sense
Various "ancient-tree teas" with da baihao (big white pekoe) appearance are suspect.
Tea labeled with effects such as "weight loss", "beauty", "detox" or "lower the three highs" is suspect. I do not know whether tea can help you lose weight, but I know that once such claims appear, they are there to harvest you.
Laobanzhang or Bingdao from before 2000 is suspect. Such teas are everywhere - defying common sense, hence doubtful.
7. Award-winning tea.
A louse on a bald head - as plain as can be.
Looking at all the awards in this industry leaves me speechless; every one of them deserves doubt. Any award-winning tea, I believe, should be viewed with suspicion. Money spent networking, time spent on PR, all to win an award - the time and cost spent on making the tea itself then becomes insufficient. Doubt it.
8. Raw tea that looks exceptionally neat and pretty.
Plump white buds and neat tender-green leaves may signal pesticide use. Uniform, regulation-perfect appearance where every leaf looks alike may be fertilizer tea.
9. Bright golden black tea.
Either dyed or sulfur-fumigated - suspect.
10. At the tasting table
Mid-to-high-end tea that makes you thirsty: suspect.
Mid-to-high-end tea with incomplete flavor: suspect.
Mid-to-high-end tea that falls off to water very fast: suspect.
Forest tea with no clean sweetness: suspect.
Laobanzhang whose bitterness never resolves: suspect.
Ancient-tree tea whose astringency does not give salivation: suspect.
Forest ancient-tree tea with watery tail brews: suspect.
Mid-to-high-end tea whose tail is not good: suspect.
High-stem forest ancient trees without cool after-charm: suspect.
Forest tea whose body-feel runs poorly: suspect.
So what do we do in these cases?
1. When in doubt, do not choose - mark it with a question mark first.
If you are buying, doubt means do not buy - a gentleman does not stand under a crumbling wall. If you are evaluating, put a question mark on the tea and note it down. Taste again later, or ask others. All progress is made by working through problems.
2. Keep samples and record the phenomenon.
How to improve? A blunt pen and samples. Save photos and notes in your memo app. When you first start learning, also keep the physical tea - revisit it often so the memory sticks.
3. From the tea, judge the person.
When I choose fresh leaves, I choose the plot. When I choose material, I am choosing the person. If you find that someone has given you three or more problematic teas, you can tag them: "problem tea source". My practice is to stop discussing tea with them - at least, to stop drinking their tea.
Life is short; no need to waste it there. Walk on in clear weather and moonlight - is that not pleasant?
End of essay!
What you are reading was written in haste and may be incomplete. This is an article that needs updating from time to time - bookmark it if useful.
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