When
we focus on the " ancient tree tea", “Tableland Tea "will be
cast into the shade.
We are
discussing a special subject to "what is Pu'er tea", we summed up the
four attributes of Pu'er tea, in these four attributes, in addition to the
first attribute is "tea", the other three properties are far beyond
the scope of tea. And all are based on the "Haoji tea(号级茶)"
as the basis for induction. Such as "can drink antique" is sgnificant
identification of “Haoji tea(号级茶)”.
It is
undeniable that the introduction of the concept of ancient tree tea is Pu'er
tea industry businessmen another clever move. It doesn't have to be like
another region of tea that they use one or more historical stories accumulate,
ephasize its long history, "the old tea tree" is the simplest and
easiest epression way to atract the attention of consumers.
People
have a kind of worship complex for a long history of things and the Millennium
plant itself, Pu'er tea has a long history of making tea and old tree have a long age. Many people are
surprised and curious, and they began to taste and experience the ancient charm,
although they do not understand "the domineering, soft and honey fragrant
"exclusive noum, more do not know "a mountain a tea, a tea a
smell" contains the uniqueness, and ancient tea tree is scarce resources,
yield rarely, for them to provide a lot of imagination. Thus, people's
preference for the ancient tree tea has
gone beyond the category of tea, and place on higher psychological expectations.
Actually,
before detrusion the concept of ancient tree tea, people seldom pay attention
to the source of Puer tea raw mateiral. The detrusion of old tree tea, on the
surface, it is an "upgraded version" of Puer tea, based on the above
analysis, businesses and consumers makes a re classification and depth mining
for the quality of Puer tea. From a commercial point of view, it is a
successful business operation. But from another point of view, it also simple
the ancient tea tree, from hill head to hill head, from old trees to ancient trees,
even appeared the concept and product of the just from one(单株)
ancient tree tea. The tendency of only mountain head ancient tree for respect, in
recent years, the production of Pu erh tea appear a simplify trend. As long as
it is a mountain head ancient tree tea, don't ask manufacturers、don't
ask the craft, even if it is personal production, will be sought after, even
some consumers simply go up the mountain buy tea, form the tea mountain
passenger flow like tide water, a hubbub of voices, tea factory lonely and
lonely under the mountain, customer list sharp decrease. Pu'er tea production
enterprises have been weakened, production of Pu'er tea master (technician) is
weakened, unique production techniques have been weakened, Pu'er tea industry,
some well-known brands have been weakened.
Of
course, the Tableland Tea will get the biggest lash.
Some
people say, in the hype of ancient trees tea, the Tableland Tea has become the
target of ancient tree tea, the Tableland Tea was banished to "trash
tea", it belongs to the typical lying gun.
So,
how should we evaluate the Tableland Tea?
The special background and present situation
of the Tableland Tea
Before
the emergence of Tableland tea, Yunnan already has ancient tea tree and ancient
tea garden, the history of planting tea and making tea has lasted for thousands
of years. The emergence of Tableland Tea is a thing in the 70s and 80s of last
century, it was a new thing at that time. Its appearance, it is also related to
the ancient tea tree and the ancient tea garden.
Last
century, 70s and 80s, the evaluation of ancient tea tree and ancient tea garden
is very different with today. The general judgment is:
1.Ancient
tea tree, due to the tree very high, plus tea tree disperse,The reality of the
existence picking inconvenient.;
2.Fresh
leaf yield per unit area is less than Zhejiang area;
3.At
that time, Yunnan producing tea area rarely, basically green tea, black tea
production, however ancient tea tree fresh leaves artifactitious green tea(dian
green tea) is bitter in taste, astringent feel is heavy, it was inferior to
Jiangsu and Zhejiang Green Tea. What about puer tea? As the production is very
low, only satisfied with border sales (also known as the border sales tea) and
a small amount of exports, rarely involved in the production of enterprises, however,
these enterprises are mainly in the production of green tea and black tea, Pu'er
tea production accounted for only about 20% of these enterprises, most of the
tea factory did not know what is Pu'er Tea until the last century at the end of
the 90s.
In a
word, ancient tea trees and ancient tea gardens were regarded as backward
production methods.
Therefore,
Beginning in 70s and 80s of last century, Yunnan tea industry appeared to learn
and emulate the boom, the ancient tea tree dwarfing experiment, tea tree
breeding, artificial cultivation and so on many attempts, the Tableland
Tea"Roaring Across the Horizon", and the formation of the concept of
"modern tea garden".
In
terms of the production of Pu er tea, before 1989 year, its main raw materials
to the ancient tree tea based, but after by 1990 year, the Tableland Tea into
the high yield stage, in addition, the promotion of government and civil
society, Yunnan throughout the region tea producing areas, whether it is green
tea, black tea, including Pu er tea, start with Tableland Tea as the main raw
material, even there was a consensus at that time, the quality of Tableland Tea
is better than ancient tree tea, a lot of tea factory at that time only
purchase the Tableland Tea, refusal to purchase ancient tree tea, ancient tea
trees become abandoned at the time, no one cares. With the rise of Pu'er tea in
Taiwan, coupled with Hongkong (Pu'er tea in the main consumption areas) to
increase inventory, the subsequent situation is that a lot of Yunnan tea
factory began to gradually reduce the production of green tea and black tea, expand
the production of Pu er tea, due to the strong demand of the market, no
production of Pu'er tea enterprises also began to get involved in the production
of Pu'er tea, some of the newly built factory only to the processing Pu'er Tea
professional enterprise. Since the formation of Pu'er tea industry scale. In
this big background, Pu'er tea raw
material demand suddenly rose, but play a key role still is the Tableland Tea,
the ancient tea tree is still left out in the cold.
Another
return of the ancient tree tea, it was after 2004 year, and gradually formed
the concept of mountain head pure material. It is the high-profile entry that
accompanied by the historical mark of ancient tea mountain and the ancient tea
garden, coupled with commercial speculation, rising prices, ancient tea tree
have been highly respected in the market, ancient tree tea become upstart of
many varieties of Pu er tea.
Therefore, the tableland
tea fall into low ebb. But this is only a superficial phenomenon, in recent
years, the tableland tea fall into low ebb is different from ancient tree tea
deprecated, the tableland tea only exists the weakness of public opinion, that
did not affect his mainstream position in Pu'er tea, Pu'er tea market is still
up to 90% of the proportion of raw materials.
Return to the property of
"tea", the tableland tea is still a good quality tea.
In
contrast to the ancient tree tea and the tableland tea, found troubling results.
According Tea detection directory and standard to carry out chemical
examination, the some indexes of tableland tea were higher than ancient tree
tea, in particular, tea polyphenols, tea polysaccharides, vitamins, etc. We
called "some obvious advantages of plant nutrients".
But
according to the principle of fermentation of biological medicine, it is found
that the ancient tree tea has more "medicine source reserves". Taking
esters material as an example, such as phospholipids, sterols, terpenes, wax
and fat soluble pigment were higher than the tableland tea. Its high quality fatty acid is sixteen
carbon, eighteen carbon, unsaturated fatty acid content of more than 50%. These
substances produce a large number of secondary metabolites in a semi anaerobic
state, this secondary metabolite has a "medicine" complex body, and
that have the characteristics of "medicine food homology". When we
drinking puer "Haoji(号级) tea" and "Yinji(印级)
tea", we found a common feature: Ginseng (ginseng aroma) and medicinal flavor
(weak Chinese herbal flavor). The appearance of this fragrance, in fact, the
old tea contains officinal ingredients, when it encounter heat, It will
volatilize. Without doubt, they are masterpieces of ancient tree tea. Therefore,
we more inclined to ancient tree tea property of lay particular stress on” medicine
source”.
Not
only that, we also found several problems:
1. The
tableland tea making Yunnan green tea(Dian green tea), black tea, their quality
is better than the ancient tree tea.
2. Selection
the tableland tea making puer raw tea cake, in a short time to open soup to
drink, its soup color yellow light degree, transparency, taste sense are better
than the ancient trees tea.
3. The
tableland tea as raw material, there have also been a number of batches classic
Pu'er tea. This phenomenon is caused by another factor, it is blending.
We're
saying about that, it is not to prove that the tableland tea is better than the
ancient trees tea. Contrary, we always think that the ancient tea trees is the
best choice in terms of Pu'er tea. The tableland tea should be inferior to the ancient
tree tea, the enzymes and alkaloids of ancient tree tea is higher than the
tableland tea, the endogenous enzyme was ten times higher than the tableland
tea. The more aged more aroma of Puer tea, it is also the aging process
“enzymatic fermentation”. The reason is that the ancient trees tea after
decades of storage generally is better than the same year tableland tea.
Although
the tableland tea is also big leaf species macrophanerophytes, also comes from
the ancient tea tree and have the same gene, but the reason of brachysm and
close planting, so that the accumulation of material more emphasis on
"tea" attributes.
