Green tea The most representative mainstream tea

Traditional Chinese tea can be divided into six categories according to the degree of fermentation and production process, namely green tea, black tea, white tea, dark tea, yellow tea and oolong tea. Among them, green tea is the largest category of tea, accounting for 70% of the total production of tea. Today, during the Ching Ming season, the first batch of "Mingqian tea" should have been harvested. This is a concept that tea merchants stir up every spring. However, does Mingqian tea really mean high-grade tea? Green tea, which occupies a mainstream position in China, has changed in Japan across the sea.

Green Tea History and Mingqian Tea

The reason why green tea has a long history is partly because it belongs to non-fermented tea in terms of fermentation degree (fermentation degree is less than 5%), which is closer to the true taste of tea leaves, and because the ancient tea-making technology is not yet perfect, from Shennong tasting Baicao to During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the way of eating was basically "eating tea" as mentioned before. With the development of tea brewing technology, green tea has gradually become an indispensable drink for people. Many famous teas that we are familiar with today come from the green tea family, such as West Lake Longjing and Biluochun. Of course, the fact that these two kinds of tea can rank among the top two famous Chinese teas is due to the glory of Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. For example, Biluochun, the original name was "Scaring Fragrance". It will be smashed in the basket, so it is specially handed over to the girl in her arms to bring back. When making tea, the so-called tea fragrance, fragrance and body fragrance are intertwined, also known as "daughter fragrance". It is estimated that even the vulgar Qianlong would not listen to it. After going down, he felt indecent after knowing the name, so he ordered to change the name to Biluochun.

The distribution range of green tea is very wide, almost every place in China can find characteristic green tea. In a quiet room, people brew a cup of tea and taste the tea color, floating leaves and aroma. For a cup of high-quality green tea, people carefully crafted every detail, including the water used to make the tea, the tools, and the time when the tea is picked. Speaking of this, we have to mention the famous "Mingqian tea" and "Yuqian tea" among green teas.

"Mingqian tea" refers to the tea leaves picked before the Qingming Festival, while "Yuqian tea" refers to the tea leaves picked before the Grain Rain after the Qingming Festival. Both belong to spring tea, because it is said that after the whole winter precipitation, the The tea leaves are rich in nutrients and relatively fresh and tender, and are deeply loved by tea lovers. Among them, Mingqian tea is more precious. Most tea trees cannot grow tea leaves that meet the picking standards before Qingming Festival, so the quantity is relatively rare. So, is the quality of Mingqian tea really worthy of its name?

In fact, the season is only one of the criteria for judging the quality of tea. Tea picked before Qingming Festival is indeed fresher and tenderer, but the specific quality depends on the quality of the tea itself, the local climate, etc. For example, some alpine tea trees grow slowly, so picking before Qingming Festival is obviously not a good choice. In addition, the climate varies from year to year. If the light and temperature conditions before Tomb-sweeping Day are not ideal, then it is better to let the tea leaves stay on the trees for a few more months to make them grow more fully. Even if high-quality tea is picked, the processing methods of the tea factory will affect the quality of the tea. Therefore, it is undoubtedly one-sided to assert that Mingqian tea is the best tea only based on the picking season.

In terms of processing, there are four major categories of green tea, namely roasted green tea, baked green tea, sun-dried green tea and steamed green tea. Stir-fried green refers to the tea leaves that are processed by manual pan frying, drum frying and drying machines after the tea leaves are finished; roasted greens are baked using charcoal fire or dryers; dried greens use the traditional sun-dried method, but This kind of processing method is relatively rough, so the sun-dried green tea is basically only used as raw tea, and is used as raw material for processing tea cakes and Tuocha. The last category is steamed green, which uses the heat of water vapor to destroy the enzymes in the tea leaves, thus completing the fermentation of the tea. Steaming green tea technology has a very old history in China, but later, the tea produced by steaming green tea technology gradually became scarce, and it was developed by Japan instead. Today, the mainstream green tea in Japan is basically steamed green tea.

Sencha and Matcha

Japan had already introduced tea from China before the 12th century. Unfortunately, Japanese people did not develop the habit of drinking tea. It was not until the early 13th century, under the promotion of Zen Master Eisai, that tea drinking prevailed in Japan, where natural disasters frequently occurred. . At that time, the reason why Zen Master Rongxi promoted tea in "Drinking Tea and Preserving Health" was that "in China, everyone likes tea, so heart disease is rare, and everyone can live a long life. But Chinese people have more dishes and are skinny. The reason is whether you drink tea or not." Zen Master Eisai chose a place in Japan to cultivate the tea seeds he brought back from China. The soil quality of this place is very ideal, and the light conditions are rare. The tea produced here is still the top grade of Japanese tea. The name of this place is Uji.

In disaster-prone Japan, drinking tea is not only for strengthening the body as Zen Master Eisai said, but also to a large extent for the spiritual comfort of the Japanese. Enjoy some quiet time while making a cup of tea. Similar psychological healing is often seen in modern history. For example, during World War II, Churchill asked to ensure that British residents could drink a cup of hot tea even during bombing, so as to enhance people's confidence and maintain enthusiasm for life. Fanta in Germany and Coca-Cola in American soldiers, although the drinks are different, the principle is the same. Because drinking tea is needed to soothe the inner world, the Japanese don't mind spending a lot of time in the process of drinking tea, and add a lot of ritual to it. From the way of making tea to the tea utensils used, the tea ceremony became popular in Japan. In the 16th century, Sen Rikyu, known as the master of Japanese tea ceremony, used his position in the shogunate to further standardize the tea ceremony. He believes that different tools should be used to drink tea in different seasons, and all tea utensils (tea bowl, tea whisk, water spoon, tea spoon) must be handled with care. In the past, the tea sets preferred by ordinary Japanese were Chinese glazed bowls, but Sen Rikyu himself preferred the Raku Yaki tea bowls fired in the Japanese island. Since then, the Japanese's choice of tea set styles has also changed. If some readers don’t know what the raku teacup looks like, then another thing is that the change initiated by Sen Rikyu has formed a new aesthetic style in Japan—wabi-sabi style, so you can probably understand it without adding it. What does the modified raku bowl look like?

But at this time, Japanese tea ceremony is dominated by matcha ceremony. That is to learn from the tea ordering method of the Song Dynasty, turning the tea leaves into tea powder, and then brewing. In the middle of the 18th century, another popular tea ceremony genre, the Sencha ceremony, officially appeared. The focus of sencha ceremony is just the opposite of that of matcha ceremony. Matcha ceremony advocates the sense of ritual and process of drinking tea, and has high requirements for scenes, utensils, and actions, while sencha ceremony advocates the true and natural taste of tea. According to legend, the patriarch of the sencha ceremony was Motoaki Shibayama, known as the "tea seller". When he sold tea in Kyoto, he boiled a bowl of boiling water, waited for the water to boil, and then directly grabbed a handful of tea leaves and put them in. This simple and rustic way of drinking tea was immediately welcomed by the Japanese people.

Of course, the matcha ceremony was also updated later. The powdered tea it uses has successfully inherited the brewing method that has been lost since the Song Dynasty in China. Moreover, in today's dessert products, matcha is also very suitable for the tastes of young people. In fact, the taste of pure tea brewed using matcha method is much bitterer than that of sencha method. Many people may not be able to adapt to it when they try it for the first time. In addition, if you want to make refreshments and buy matcha powder, you must pay attention. Only the powdered tea produced by steaming green tea can be called matcha powder, and the powdered green tea produced by other fermentation methods can only be called matcha powder. For green tea powder. With the update of chemical technology, it is difficult to distinguish the two from the appearance, but just remember that although matcha powder and green tea powder are only fermented differently, the price is very different. The price of matcha powder should be the same as that of green tea. Powder hundreds of times.

green tea

main species

West Lake Longjing Tea, Biluochun Tea, Lu'an Guapian Tea, Rizhao Green Tea

Tea polyphenol content

300mg/g or more

fried green tea

The aroma is outstanding, with the taste of blast furnace frying, the aroma is long-lasting, and the tea soup is green with yellow

roasted green tea

It is conducive to the adsorption of floral fragrance, the fragrance is not strong, but clearer. Baked green tea leaves are generally dark green, with a more oily surface

sun-dried green tea

The taste is original and extensive, and the health function is more obvious. It is mostly used as the raw material for black tea and herbal tea.

steamed green tea

The color of the tea soup is green, the bottom of the leaves is green, with grassy and bitter taste, the fragrance is not as good as other processing methods, and it is closer to the natural taste of plants

should

Suitable for people with high blood pressure, people with excessive fat intake and people who drink too much alcohol

avoid

The content of tea polyphenols is the highest, so people with impaired kidney function and neurasthenia should not drink strong tea

first brew time

There are differences between varieties, and it is better to take about half a minute.

West Lake Longjing

Origin: Hangzhou, Zhejiang

Soup color: light green

Fragrance: quiet like orchid

West Lake Longjing tea ranks first among the famous teas in China. After brewing, the edges of the leaves are neat, the tea soup is light in color, and has a quiet aroma that gradually diffuses. If the fragrance is suddenly strong, it is probably a fake.

Xinyang Maojian

Place of Origin: Xinyang, Henan

Soup color: bright apricot green

Fragrance: tender and long-lasting

It grows in the mountains with abundant rainfall, and can only be picked for one season every year, and the tea leaves in summer and autumn are basically undrinkable. When brewing, the first brew will be very bitter, and the second brew will emit a lasting aroma.