丨This article was originally written by Xiao Chen Tea
丨First published in Baijiahao: Xiao Chen Tea Affair
丨Author: Village Gu Chen
The plan of the year lies in the spring.
At the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Dragon, there are many annual plans in the circle of friends.
Some people value health.
I decided to quit going to bed late for the next year.
Exercise at least three days a week and eat less takeout.
Someone has made a plan to save money.
Keep daily bookkeeping to reduce extravagant expenses.
In 2024, it is expected to deposit a certain amount as an incentive.
Someone has set growth goals.
Play less with your phone and read more books.
Read at least one book every month to expand your knowledge.
Of course, there are also people who have set a small goal of learning tea.
To learn to drink tea, you have to start by practicing making tea.
When you get the tea in your hand, you no longer brew it casually as before.
Don't talk about rules, don't seek to understand.
Brew carefully and completely one by one, taste carefully, and you will definitely be able to gain something.
In the new year, quit "casual soaking".
Correct the common bad habit of novice tea making at 5 points, and help you grow from a newcomer in the tea industry to a tea master as soon as possible.
1. No more rushing bubbles.
There are many people who are used to going straight to the point when making tea.
No matter what kind of tea you have, you can brew it directly when you get it in your hand.
But this is not conducive to the full tea tasting.
First-class good tea, full of shape, fragrance, color, flavor and charm.
When you have the dry tea in your hand, you might as well leave a pause for about ten seconds and scan it carefully with your eyes.
It's like eating a plum blossom cake, and the delicacy of Chinese pastry is reflected in the delicate petal pattern depiction.
Pick up a small piece, look closely, and first big eyes.
Then take advantage of the situation and taste it in your mouth.
When you stop at different dry teas, you can make observations after a long time.
For example, if you drink white tea and white peony, the bud head is one point thinner, and the leaves are slightly wider.
It is reflected in the final brewed tea soup, that is, the richness of the fragrance is different, and the taste of the soup is different.
The smallest details can only be perceived by paying more attention.
Second, no longer grab tea.
Novice tea customers have a commonality when making tea.
That is, the level of tea making is unstable.
Sometimes it tastes good, sometimes it is too light or too strong, in short, it can't play stably.
This is related to the habit of throwing tea directly after grabbing a handful of dry tea.
Because it is "grasping at hand", the actual amount of dry tea is not accurate in my heart.
Either more, or less.
The taste of the brewed tea soup is naturally difficult to control.
For example, brew fluffier tea leaves, such as white dew tea loose tea.
Grabbed a handful of dried stem leaves and put them in the bowl, which already took up most of the space, and I thought that this amount was about the same.
In fact, it's far from it.
There are many gaps between the fluffy Shou Mei loose tea, which is extremely easy to create a visual error, even if it is only a little over 3 grams, it can almost occupy the bowl.
The correct way is to use tools, weigh with gram scales, and accurately throw tea to avoid errors.
After weighing to 5 grams, gently shake the dry tea, slightly compact the loose tea in the gaiwan, and then brew it with boiling water.
Throw an appropriate amount of tea to ensure the stable play of tea flavor.
3. The warm cup does not cut corners.
Before making tea, warm the cup with hot water.
The hot pot is warm, and the hot bowl is not allowed to be sloppy during the hot cup.
Having seen such a practice, after heating the water, start warming the cup.
Pour hot water into a bowl, cup, and teacup, and then pour out quickly.
During the period, it was not evenly scalded to the inner wall.
Forget it, when entertaining friends for tea, if there are guests in the middle of the meeting.
It is also as simple as adding about one-third of the hot water to the cup, pouring it out, pouring in the hot tea, and handing it to the guest.
During this period, it was not washed with water in advance.
When warming the cup, the rim of the teacup is ignored.
Well, try to think about it, the edge of the teacup is the contact point for drinking tea.
At the same time, it is also the focus of the warm cup cleaner.
The correct way is to wash the corresponding tea set in advance and then warm the cup carefully.
The inner walls of the bowl and the cup should be "shaken" with hot water.
It is recommended to gently pick up the rim of the cup with a tea tong, place it above the tea cup, and pour hot water into the rim of the mouth.
A little more careful, making tea and serving guests more thoughtfully.
4. Avoid "using a pot of water to the end".
To make tea, use hot water.
Brewing tea with freshly boiled boiling water, under the stimulation of high temperature and hot wave, can fully release the aroma and taste inside the tea.
At this time, there is no need to worry about the good tea being burned.
Even if it is as delicate as Jin Junmei, Baihao Silver Needle, etc., you can use boiling water with confidence.
Really good tea, real gold is not afraid of fire, can withstand high temperatures, and will not show any weird performance.
Compared with warm and cold water, high-temperature boiling water to make tea can fully leach the rich taste of good tea.
Brew a more fragrant, mellow, and fuller tea soup.
Regarding the wonders of boiling water to make tea, many people in the circle understand.
But when it comes to the actual combat of making tea, it may not be possible to insist on boiling water for each brewed tea from beginning to end.
More often, after boiling a large pot of boiling water, from the 1st flush, the 2nd flush, all the way to the 6th flush, 7th flush, a pot of water is used to the end.
This is not appropriate because the boiling water will continue to cool down after boiling.
When you've brewed a cup of tea, smelled it carefully, and focused on taking a small sip, a few minutes have passed.
After brewing more than 4 times in a row, the hot water in the pot has already cooled down to lukewarm.
Wait until the last few brews to continue brewing, use the cooled hot water to make tea, the high tea aroma is difficult to excite, the mellow soup is difficult to excite, and the brewed tea soup is simply warm water, and the flavor is a big difference.
In order to avoid this situation, when boiling water to make tea, a pot of water is enough to brew 3-4 tea soups.
Then, add water again and bring to a boil.
Otherwise, after soaking a few times, press the heat button again in the middle of the field, boil again and continue.
Ensuring that the water temperature is "boiling" is the key to making tea delicious.
Fifth, make good tea, no longer use filtered tap water.
In modern home life, many people have installed water filters at home.
Filtered water is used for cooking, soup, porridge, tea, etc.
You can turn on the faucet to receive water, which is much more convenient than ordering water separately.
But here is a little cautionary reminder that filtered tap water is not a good choice for making tea.
To be fair, filtered water is only slightly better than tap water.
But it can't be compared with pure water, mountain spring water, boiling water to make tea.
The reason is that the filter can only filter out impurities and ensure cleanliness.
However, the quality of the tap water itself cannot be changed.
Due to urban life, the water quality of tap water in most cities is hard, and the water contains more calcium and magnesium ions.
PS: The water quality is hard, which will cause obvious scale formation on the inner wall of the bottom of the kettle, which is not difficult to distinguish from the daily life experience.
In addition, the waterworks will also use chlorine disinfection and other methods to ensure the cleanliness of the tap water.
Every morning, when you turn on the faucet, the residual chlorine smell in the water body is not so good.
Using such filtered tap water to make tea, the fresh and mellow flavor of the tea soup itself is difficult to guarantee.
Since more than 99% of the tea in a cup is water.
Water is the mother of tea and has a direct impact on the taste of tea.
In order not to spoil the flavor of good tea, make good tea, and use good water.
Choose pure water, mountain spring water, and low salinity mineral water to make tea, and you can brew the perfect tea soup flavor!
To make good tea, we must pay attention to the rules.
As such, stir-fry cooking.
How do I prepare food? How to season it? Heat adjustment? stir-fry frequency, etc.
These details, every single bit counts.
The slightest negligence can ruin the whole picture.
The same is true for making tea, a little more careful comparison, and patient pondering.
Under the continuous trial and adjustment, one by one, get rid of the wrong habit of making tea.
Say goodbye to the wrong side, and make a good tea with a peerless fragrance.
It's not easy to be original, if you think this article is helpful to you, please give it a thumbs up.
Pay attention to [Xiao Chen Tea Affair] to learn more about white tea and rock tea!
Xiao Chen Tea Village Gu Chen, column writer, the original innovation of the tea industry ** "Xiao Chen Tea Affairs" chief writer, has published a white tea monograph "White Tea Tasting Notes", and has written more than 4,000 original articles from 2016 to 2020.