http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/2006/06/trophy-from-kumming-last-year.html
Since is the year of the Rat (my favorite sign). I am revisiting one of my '05 most expensive purchase. 2000g / 999 limited edition from Menghai. Got the 1st and 6th cakes from this series. Even helped the owner to redesign their wrapper....
I did submitted this to the '06 taste-off on the puerh community blog. I don't think the cake been "Fever" much since my last tasting in June '06. But something interesting about the brew I wanted to mention.
http://community.livejournal.com/puerh_tea/53924.html
I observed these color changes many many times. Specially when I neglected the brew or let them sit overnight....
The color certainly changes to a deeper hue, and the liquor usually thicken up, specially from aged oolong or sheung/shou pu. More obvious in Bad Cooked pu, it turned to a thick soup. I don't know if this is healthy or not. But I usually chuck it : ) If you thinking about bottle tea, ain't it the same?
Anyhow the top pic is the color changes during a 24 hrs. period. Why and what is happening within this transformation? I am far no scientist or any thing tech. expert..... anyone?
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8 comments:
My latest blog post may be able to shed some light on what's happening to your day old tea...
http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/qi-to-good-tea.html
Peace
matt-interesting article you have. Do you believe Cha qi will "evaporate" from the brew, if not consume immediately? Maybe the color change occurs from the lost of qi? Very interesting thoughts. Thanks - T
Thanks for the kind words Toki. Energy is always moving from one form to the next in this world. In fact, we have the same amount of energy today as we did 1,000,000 years ago, it just takes on different forms. In elementary scince class we learn that a change in colour or taste signifies that a chemical reaction is taking place. The authors that I quoted in my blog believe that a chemical reaction takes place as the main catechins in tea, epigallocatechin (EGC), epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and gallocatechin gallate significantly decrease in strength. Conversely, if these chechins decrease then some other particles must increase. Qi is esential energy. If one feels that the taste of tea is an essential part of tea and this taste changes, then it can be said that tea looses essential energy, its true form, its qi.
Peace
Typos rock my world!
Peace
matt-I had an experience on a aged wuyi old tea tree SX, which release its qi for over 2 weeks. Even brewed overnight and drank cold. I guess the qi remained in the leaves and what I was drinking is the radiant (EGC?) which affected the water? I believe the only way to fully consume the qi is to eat the leaves all together (which I often do.... : )
I am not sure where this is taking us. But certainly, the qi of the leaves still very much... "Alife", for a 50 yrs old oolong.
i am typing thru a iphone : (
The research cited in my blog specifically applies to green and partially oxidized teas. Your old wuyi has a drastically different chemical make up than the non-oxidized green or partially oxidized tea used in this study (this is a hole new can of worms, the qi of the leaf is a different post for another day:) My post specifically looked at how the qi in water effects the finally product from source to slurp. By eating the leaves you will definitely consume all the qi in them, but like I said, when the qi in the water interacts with the qi in the leaf, it is more than just the sum of it's parts its. So, your not consuming the radiant qi but simply the qi that is created by the end product of this reaction!
Have fun picking tea out of your teeth!
Paece
Hahahah ;)
Toki, this may be caused with water. I prepare tea either with tap water (lots of calcium and other minerals) and with Brita filtered tap water. The brew prepared with tap water darkens as the time pass, the filtered water tea does not change the color. The tea and brewing technique is the same in both situations.
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