Tea King, tell me about it.

Hello, I'm Uncle Cha. I am very happy to explain the knowledge of tea science to you and share the tea culture!

When it comes to Dahongpao, many people's first reaction is "black tea, delicious"!

About this sentence, Cha Shu completely agrees with the second half, but the first half is all wet!

Although Dahongpao has the word "red", it is oolong tea, and it is the tea king of Wuyi rock tea series in oolong tea!

Why do so many people subconsciously think that Dahongpao is black tea?

To sum up, there are three points:

1, with a red name, must be black tea.

2. The brewed tea soup looks red, so it is black tea.

The words Dahongpao make people think that this tea should be black tea, so it is black tea.

Although these three reasons seem a bit "absurd", they have affected many people.

Today, Uncle Cha takes Masayama race as an example to tell you what is the difference between Dahongpao and black tea, and why not black tea?

The classification of tea in China is based on the degree of tea fermentation, which is generally divided into non-fermented tea, lightly fermented tea, semi-fermented tea, completely fermented tea and post-fermented tea.

Dahongpao, belonging to oolong tea, is semi-fermented tea.

That is to say, when the degree of tea fermentation is in the middle, it is necessary to start high-temperature enzyme fixation to stop tea fermentation.

The race of Zhengshan belongs to black tea and is the originator of black tea.

It belongs to fully fermented tea, which means that the natural fermentation degree of tea reaches 100%, and the fermentation process naturally stops.

Therefore, Dahongpao and Zhengshan are two completely different teas since their birth.

Then how to distinguish between Dahongpao and Zhengshan race?

We can distinguish it from three most intuitive and simple aspects: dry tea, tea soup and leaf bottom.

1, look at the dried tea

It's easy to tell the difference between Dahongpao and Zhengshan dry tea.

When picking fresh leaves of Dahongpao, follow the standard of "opening noodles". After the fresh leaves are completely open, pick three or four tea branches.

Therefore, the fresh leaves will be larger, resulting in the final dry tea, which is compact, plump and easy to flake.

The dry color of Dahongpao tea is black sand green, light fire tea can see green, medium and high fire turns black, and it smells caramel. This is because Dahongpao has been roasted repeatedly.

The race of Zhengshan follows the picking standard of one bud and one leaf, or one bud and two leaves, so the fresh leaves will appear smaller.

The final dry tea is smaller than Dahongpao. The rope is curly and slender, and tends to be thin.

The appearance color of Zhengshan race is mostly dark brown (smoked is gray-black). If you look carefully, you'll find a pale yellow teahouse covering the rope.

Actually, you don't have to look so carefully. As long as you put Dahongpao and Zhengshan people together, you can see the difference at a glance.

Step 2 taste tea soup

Although the tea soup made by Dahongpao is a little red in color, it is actually different from the Masayama race.

Dahongpao's tea soup is bright orange, floral, fruity or caramel.

The taste is smooth and the throat rhyme is obvious, which has the unique "rock rhyme" of Wuyi rock tea.

Zhengshansai tea soup is dark amber in color, reddish and thick, clear and transparent.

The taste is mellow, the sweetness is obvious, and there is obvious longan fragrance. If it's a smoky race, it also smells like pine smoke.

Drinking Dahongpao is like dating a beautiful young girl. Her agility and vitality can be quickly passed on to others, making people feel like spring breeze.

Drinking the right wine is like dating an elegant woman. Although you don't love each other deeply, what you said is like a lingering sound, which makes people memorable!

3. Look at the bottom of the leaves

After comparing the tea soup, let's look at the bottom of the leaf.

After the Dahongpao is soaked, the leaves are completely stretched, and the size of the tea can be seen at a glance.

If it is medium-light fire tea, you can also clearly see the oolong tea effect of "green leaves with red edges"; If it is medium-high fire tea, the color of the bottom of the leaves is basically dark black.

Open the bottom of the leaves of Dahongpao, and some leaves can still see small protrusions, which is the so-called "toad back"!

The race of zhengshan is different. From the bottom of the leaves, we can see that the fresh leaves are very small, and we can also see the existence of buds.

At this time, the color of the bottom of the leaves is dark brown, because the zhengshan species is fully fermented tea, and the green color of the fresh leaves has completely disappeared, and all of them have become reddish brown.

It can be seen from the above three points that Dahongpao and Zhengshan are completely different tea species from picking to making and drinking.

Camellia sinensis is the most representative tea species in black tea. Basically, we can see their differences clearly by distinguishing and comparing them.

So, stop treating Dahongpao as black tea!