Yunnan Black Tea - Insights by a Tea Expert

Name: Yunnan Black Tea - Insights by a Tea Expert
Uploaded: 2024-09-03T07:15:31.544Z
Duration: 29 min 19 s
Channel: The Art of Chinese Tea Crafting
Description: #howtomaketea #maketea

The Art of Chinese Tea Crafting

8 Video Views·Sep 3, 2024 #howtomaketea #maketea

#howtomaketea #maketea

Hello everyone. Today I'm with my good friend Yu Jianhui. He's making Piva red tea in Puerto Rico. So today we're going to talk a little bit about that red tea. We're going to talk a little bit about the industry. So while we're talking, what tea did you bring? This is Moncú's Saihong. Moncú's Saihong. So what does Saihong mean? Saihong is red tea. Its drying method is sun-dried. The drying method is different from traditional red tea. How is traditional red tea made? Traditional red tea is dried. And this is sun-dried. Sun-dried. So traditional red tea is sun-dried, right? Yes. We call it sun-dried. But red tea is sun-dried. Yes. It's easier. What do you think is the difference between the two? Sun-dried tea is more fragrant. It's more suitable for most people's taste. Sun-dried tea has no fragrance. It tastes a little bit like raw tea. Most people are not used to the taste of raw tea. And there are people who don't have experience in making red tea. They often can't make it well at first. So a lot of people don't like it. So we're going to try Moncú's Saihong. It smells good. Smell it. It's good. But it doesn't smell like sun-dried tea. It smells like raw tea. I smell it. It smells different from the red tea we make in Jinmai. Yes. What do you think is the reason? It has a very obvious fragrance. It must be the variety. This is Moncú's Saihong. And the ecological environment. The ecological environment. The process should be similar. So do they use the old variety? Yes, the old variety. Try it. So what do you mean by the old variety? What do you mean by the old variety? The old variety means that it uses tea, tea fruit, tea seeds. Tea seeds are planted directly. We call it the old variety. They also call it the whole variety. So we can say that it's not a variety. Because each tree has a different gene. Yes. So is it good that the old variety has such a fragrance? Yes, it's good. I just got it today and I haven't tried it yet. But it tastes good. It looks like the tea leaves are a little green. Yes, it's almost fermented. Almost. Because it's not heavily fermented. Oh, it's not heavily fermented. It's fermented in the morning and then sun-dried in the afternoon. Yesterday's tea leaves are fermented in the morning and then sun-dried in the afternoon. Oh, so... Fermentation is relatively short. Fermentation time? Four days. How many hours does it usually ferment? It depends on many factors. It depends on the humidity and temperature, right? If the temperature is high, the fermentation time will be short. You can sun-dry it for more than two or three hours. But it also depends on what kind of tea you want to make. The most important thing is the fermentation level, right? If the fermentation level is low, the fermentation time will be short. If the fermentation level is high, the fermentation time will be short. But the most important thing is the temperature. Temperature has a big impact on it. Temperature? Yes. If the temperature is high, the fermentation will be faster. Do you think the tea farmer here will control the factors? Will they control the humidity and temperature? Yes, they can control it. For example, if the humidity is high, it depends on the fermentation level. If the humidity is low, the fermentation time will be short. The water will flow more. Or they can cover the wet cloth. If the temperature is high, the fermentation time will be short. They can spray some dust. They can control the humidity. If the humidity is low, the fermentation time will be short. If the temperature is high, you can adjust the temperature of the room. For example, if it is cold in spring, winter, or autumn, and the fermentation time is late at night, the fermentation pile will be thicker. Or if I cover it, it will be thicker. Then the temperature will be higher. They can control it. Maybe we should talk about the basic process of making black tea again. Some people don't know about black tea. Can you tell us about the basic process of making black tea? The process of making black tea is that the tea leaves are taken back to ferment. The water content is 30%. The water content is about 60%. It depends on your hand. If you know how to do it, it depends on whether the stem is broken. If the stem is not broken, the water content is just right. Then you can grind it. In general, the process of grinding black tea is a little different from other teas. Because black tea needs to be pressed. The tea leaves are grinded more finely. It is easier to ferment. The leaves are cut off and grinded. After grinding, the tea leaves are cut into pieces. Because they are in a group. When the tea leaves are cut into pieces, they can be fermented. It depends on the degree of fermentation you want. You have to observe it when it is fermenting. When it reaches the degree of fermentation, you have to dry it in time. In general, the tea leaves are dried twice. The first time, you can dry it for 7 days. After the tea leaves are cooled, you can dry it again. That's it. This is the process of making black tea. The process of making black tea. So, the leaves are cut off, the leaves are softened, the leaves are fermented, and the leaves are dried. Yes. So, you have to soak them twice. Yes. So, how do you usually make black tea? You mainly make black tea. Yes. So, you have to drink a lot of tea every day, right? Yes. Because black tea has a different climate every day. So, it has a lot of influence on the taste. So, every day you make it, you will have a little difference, right? Maybe it's raining today, or the weather is better tomorrow. So, you have to drink tea every day. If you have to drink tea every day, because we sell tea, it's different from what consumers drink. We may say that there are some shortcomings when drinking tea. When we taste tea, we usually use boiling water to rinse. Use boiling water to rinse. Yes. If you use boiling water to rinse, it may be more bitter. That is to say, we can taste the bad things. But if you are a consumer, you taste it yourself, you drink it yourself, you don't have to use boiling water to rinse. You can rinse it at 85 degrees or 90 degrees, and the taste will be better. So, the bitter taste is not so strong. Yes. The other one is Dianfeng. It is a kind of tea made from tea leaves. If you soak it for a long time, it will have a bitter taste. So, try to make it as short as possible. If you soak it, the taste will be more suitable. So, when you taste tea, do you like to drink a stronger taste? No, I don't like to drink a stronger taste. I use boiling water to rinse, but I don't soak it for a long time. Oh, you don't soak it for a long time. Yes. If you are a consumer, you drink it at 85 degrees or 90 degrees. If you rinse it like this, the taste will be better. Oh. Yes. What is a good red tea for you? I think a good red tea is the same as other teas. If I want it to be thick, I can't make it thin. If it is like water, I can't drink it. It is meaningless. It should be a little thick. Yes, it should be a little thick. Try to make it a little runny. It should be a little bitter. If you drink it, it should be a little runny. As for the taste of tea, the first thing is that the taste of tea is enough. As for the fragrance, you can smell the fragrance of dry tea. In general, there is less fragrance in tea. If there is a fragrance, it will be better. But most teas do not have a fragrance. Fragrance. Yes. Fragrance may need a fresh leaf. The raw material should be a little more ecological. Also, when processing, the climate should be better. Fermentation should not be heavy. The temperature of the dried tea should be low. Then the tea can be produced. But in general, there is less. Maybe you often do tea business, and the tea is rarely produced. You mentioned several times the question of fermentation, the question of fermentation. The first time I heard this, I found it very strange. Because when I was studying tea, I looked it up on the Internet. Most people said that dried tea is fermented tea. So, I think it is strange. If it is fermented, how can there be new fermentation and medium fermentation? In fact, this is also very simple. There is a degree. Although it is all fermented, it still has a weight problem. For example, how to say, the simplest example is a bottle of wine. Some wines are more than 10 degrees, and some are more than 40 or 50 degrees. I don't know if the ratio is right. Anyway, if the fermentation is heavier, the bottom of the tea will turn black. It will turn black. Yes, yes, yes. If there is a tea tree, it will come out. The bottom of the tea will turn black. In addition, the tea soup will be redder. If the fermentation is lighter, the soup will be yellow. It won't be red. In the past, people thought that the tea leaves were all red. But now, there are slowly coming out red tea leaves. Many are lighter in fermentation. The soup is redder. Lighter fermentation, the soup is redder. The soup is yellower. Yes, yes, yes. So, do you think that light fermentation is a new trend? It depends on the customer. It depends on the consumer. In the north, people prefer red tea. They prefer a sweeter taste. The consumers in the north. In Guangdong, people prefer a stronger tea flavor. If the tea flavor is stronger, the fermentation will be lighter. It may be a little bitter. The tea flavor is stronger. Because they may prefer a stronger tea flavor. So, for different low-level consumer groups, you can make different flavors. Low-level consumers, right? Yes, yes, yes. Because we see that the tea industry may have a very traditional, like the tea industry should be a very traditional tea shop. But in fact, I think the tea industry changes every year. There are some new trends. People who make tea will adapt to the needs of new consumers. Yes, yes, yes. So, how many years have you been doing this? This is my sixth year. Sixth year. You originally came from Jiangxi. Yes, yes, yes. Then you came to Pu'er to make red tea. Yes. So, what do you mainly do? What kind of work do you do? Usually, I may say that for example, a customer needs a tea industry. Then I will check the quality with him. For example, a factory produces a lot of tea every day, right? Sometimes it will be better, sometimes it will be worse. Then I will check for the customer. I may say that I will drink it and see which day is better. Then I may order the tea that the customer wants. That's it. Just drink it, pick it up, and send it to the customer. Pick the good quality according to the customer's needs. Yes, yes, yes. Just like you said, fermenting heavy, fermenting light. Yes. I also want to discuss with you about processing. Tea processing. So, just now you said that you want to process it until the tea stalk is broken. It will be broken. Yes, it will be broken. Yes, yes, yes. How long does it take? It depends on the temperature. If the temperature is high, and if you process it at a higher temperature, it will take a long time. Generally speaking, if the weather is good, like now, more than 20 degrees, when the weather is sunny, it may take from last night, the day before yesterday, to this morning, around 8 or 9 o'clock. It may take more than 10 hours. More than 10 hours. More than 14 hours. It's normal weather. If it rains, it may rain. Originally, when it rains, the tea is fresh and there is a lot of water, right? Then the next day, when the tea is broken, it will rain again. If the air humidity is high, the water will not go up. It may take more than a day. More than a day. So when you make red tea, you have to pay attention to the weather. The weather is very important. The weather is important. If you want to make it better, you can say that the next day, I will take the tea and make green tea. I will make red tea. Even if you make it the next day, the taste will not be as good. After the tea is broken, you have to knead it. What do you think about kneading? If you want to make red tea, you still have to add pressure. Look at the result. For the result, the tea must be thin. The kneading is very heavy. Yes, the kneading is very heavy. I understand. I read this in a book. It makes sense. The kneading of red tea is different from that of pu'er tea. Yes. It's different. I heard that when you knead red tea, you have to add water to evaporate. Water to evaporate. Yes. I don't know if you... It's not to evaporate. You have to knead the tea leaves. You press the tea leaves. Yes. If you press too hard, the water will come out. Yes. Because the tea leaves are frozen. It's easier to evaporate. You have to squeeze out the tea juice. Just like how we squeeze out the tea juice from a towel. Oh. So the goal of kneading is to break down the cells. Yes. So that it ferments more evenly. Yes. Also, you have to make it into a strip. A red tea strip. Make it thin. How long does it take? Usually, it takes more than 45 minutes. If you want to make it better, it takes more than an hour. 45 minutes to an hour. It depends on how you want to shape it. Also, depending on the tea leaves, if you make it older, it will be harder to shape. It will take longer to ferment. If you use tea leaves, it will take less time to ferment. Because the leaves are thinner. It depends on the tea leaves. What about fermentation? You mentioned earlier that you can make it lighter, or heavier. You can control the humidity. You can control the temperature So the most influential process for making tea is fermentation, right? Yes. There are three factors for fermentation. The first one is the humidity. The humidity of the tea leaves, and the humidity of the space where the tea leaves are fermented. Those two factors. The humidity of the tea leaves and the humidity of the space. I can control the humidity by controlling the humidity of the space. And the environment. I can make the humidity higher. The second one is the oxygen. Oxygen is oxidized. Fermentation is an oxidized process. You need oxygen, right? You can't seal it in an environment. Without oxygen, it can't be fermented. Without oxygen, it can't be fermented. The third one is the temperature. It needs temperature to be fermented. If it's cold, it can't be fermented. Yes, because there is no room for fermentation. Yes. Nowadays, there is a good one. There is an oil-oxygen fermentation. In the past, they would seal the tea leaves. They would put them in a high-heeled frame. And they would seal the leaves. In this way, the oxygen would be less. So they would let the tea leaves oxidize. No, in the past, the tea leaves would be fermented more. If you put them in a high-heeled frame, the temperature would rise more. But there is a bad thing. Because they would touch the air. The air would be less. So the oxygen would be less. In this case, the leaves wouldn't be so bright. Oh. If you... For example, nowadays, the tea leaves are fermented lightly. If they are fermented lightly, the oxygen would be less. Also, in the past, the tea leaves would be fermented at night. If you put them in a high-heeled frame at night, the leaves would be red in the morning. The oxygen would be less. Also, the temperature would be lower in the middle of the night. So the leaves would be thicker. If the leaves are thicker, the oxygen would be less. Oh. In this case, the leaves wouldn't be so bright at night. Oh. The light wouldn't be so good. Oh. Nowadays, because the leaves can control the temperature of the air, I can control the temperature of the air. For example, I can let the leaves touch the air in the morning, right? Yes. I can let the leaves control the temperature of the air Oh. I can let the leaves touch the air in the morning. In the morning, when I let the leaves touch the air, at noon, the temperature is high. In the daytime, the temperature is high. So I can dry the leaves in 2-3 hours. Oh. Or 3-4 hours. Then I can let the leaves touch the air. Because the temperature in the room is high. Oh. Unlike in the later half of the night. When I ferment the leaves, I can let them be thinner. Right? When the leaves are thinner, the air will be more exposed to the air. The bigger the leaves are, the more oxygen they need. Of course, the temperature is higher during the day, so the leaves will look better. How many tea leaves do you harvest per day? We harvest about 2 tons per day. 2 tons of tea leaves can produce about 400 kg of tea. The more tea leaves you harvest, the more oxygen you need. For example, in the beginning of spring, when there is not much tea leaves, you can harvest 2 tons of tea leaves per day. In Jingmai, we can produce 100 kg of tea leaves per day. At most 150 kg. Is it handcrafted? Yes, it's handcrafted. But 2 tons of tea leaves per day is not a lot. In Jingmai, many people want to make red tea. But most people don't study the process of making tea. I think it's more complicated than Pu'er tea. Yes, if you don't do it well, you won't be able to drink this tea. It's not like other tea leaves. For example, green tea or green tea leaves. Even if you don't do it well, you can still drink it. You can still accept it. But if you don't do it well, you can't drink this red tea. It's like a blush. If you blush, most consumers won't accept it. It's like drinking raw tea. You won't be able to drink it. But many Pu'er tea sellers want to use the concept of Pu'er tea to promote the concept of blush. That's blush. Yes. In fact, if you know how to make tea, you can still make good blush. For example, if you know how to make red tea, you can still make good blush. Most people don't know how to make red tea. They just say, I have someone who wants to make red tea. Some people sell Pu'er tea. They use the concept of Pu'er tea to promote the concept of blush. They think they can make blush. Then they promote the concept of blush. For example, if a tea seller doesn't know how to make blush, he can try to make it. But he can only watch others make it. For example, you make red tea. I will watch you make it. I will learn from you I might be a green tea seller. You make red tea, right? I will go to you and watch you. I think it's okay. It's simple, right? He is very good at making red tea. But he doesn't know the theory behind it. He doesn't know the actual ability of making red tea. You tell him to knead, you tell him to make, you tell him to dry, he knows all of this. But he just knows the theory. He doesn't know why he has to do this. So most of the tea he makes is not good. You said red tea is traditional. I think this is one of the reasons. Red tea doesn't depend on the weather. Maybe it's more suitable to be a standard product. I feel that red tea is more stable. That's right. It doesn't get sun. Because you dry it in a dry way. So no matter if it's raining or sunny, I can dry it. It's actually the same as making green tea. It's the same. There is no difference. I feel that you can drink red tea in the first month. I think you still have to wait a few months before you start to smell the fragrance. Yes. First of all, it doesn't smell good. Another thing is that it's a little bit different from making green tea. When green tea is just made, it has a stronger fragrance. It's not easy to drink. You said you let it sit for a while. I haven't compared it. Some people think that you have to have actual data, right? Maybe it's true that I made this tea this year. I made it the year before. I put it aside. I compare it. I see the difference. But now, most people think that you can put it aside. Yes, you can put it aside. You don't have actual data, right? You don't have a base in your heart, right? Yes. So you have to have actual data. I put it aside this year. I put it aside next year. It's getting better and better. Then I can compare it with others. I can put it aside. But now, most people think that it can be put aside. But in fact, I don't know if it can be put aside. I don't know. So, people who sell Pu'er tea have to buy the red tea. Yes. Because the red tea industry is all about the red color. Yes. The product can't be put aside for a long time. It may take a year or two to sell. Yes. It means that it will be sold to consumers. Yes. Okay. So, maybe that's all for today. We have mentioned many different topics. We need to take a break. We will continue to drink this tea and other teas. Okay. So, see you next time. Okay. So, this is Yu Jianhui, an expert in red tea. No, no, no. Then, next time, you can leave some comments. Then, if you have any special questions, we will make a video together. Anyway, we will meet every day. We will make another video to answer those questions. Okay, thank you, everyone. Bye-bye.