Why is tea bitter and astringent?
The author had a tea chat with a few friends, made a pot of tea, high aroma, fresh taste, long time to brew are not bitter.
A friend said: this tea is not bitter, fragrant and smooth, delicious! Another friend said: no tea flavor ah, not bitter and astringent can be called tea? Thinking about it, it seems to be a lot of such statements, such as the bitter end of the tea, first bitter and then sweet. There is also said that tea should be bitter and astringent, in order to promote the thirst, clearing heat and detoxification. How about the truth?
First, let’s see, why is tea bitter?
Professor Yuefei Wang, deputy director of the Department of Tea at Zhejiang University, expressed his views in the book Tea Culture and Tea Health: “Tea contains tea polyphenols, which can be combined with proteins to form a layer of impermeable membrane in the mouth, the local muscle contraction of the mouth caused by the astringent sensation in the mouth, which makes us feel that the tea we just drank down will have a bitter and astringent sensation.
If the tea polyphenol content is more appropriate, the formation of only one or two layers of monomolecular layer or bimolecular layer of the membrane, this membrane thickness is moderate, at first the mouth has astringent flavor, a little after the membrane rupture of the mouth after the local muscles began to recover, astringent transformation, presenting a sweet and tasty feeling.”
So “not bitter, not astringent is not tea”, this sentence is justified, bitter and astringent flavor is often accompanied by the richness and mellowness of the tea broth, if there is no such components, the tea will be very bland.
Again, why do so many people love tea?
Bitter, has always been one of the components of the taste of tea, tea is called “bitter tea” in ancient times. Many old tea drinkers love to hang an old saying on their lips: “not bitter, not astringent, not tea”.
In the eyes of most people, bitter flavor is an important component of tea. Over the past thousands of years, the Chinese people and tea for life, but also with the bitter flavor of tea spent countless spring and fall.
Bitterness is good for health. Chinese medicine theory says that bitterness enters the heart and can diarrhea fire, dry dampness, clear heat and detoxification, and so on. “Tea bitter and cold, the most able to reduce fire. Young and strong stomach healthy people, heart, lungs, spleen and stomach fire more than abundant, so with the tea is appropriate.”
In the scientific study of tea, a common indicator used to judge the quality of a tea is called the “phenol-ammonia ratio”, which is the ratio of tea polyphenols to amino acids.
Values within a certain range is normal, if more than that means too much bitterness and astringency, if less than that may be thin flavor. So a good tea is not without bitterness, but other fresh and sweet flavors make the bitterness not so obvious, and bitterness is accompanied by a sense of mellow tea soup, the sense of richness is still there.
At the same time, under the stimulation of bitterness and astringency, the salivary glands of the mouth will secrete saliva, bringing sweetness, which is the sweetness.
One sentence summarizes the taste of tea: bitterness and astringency are essential, but good tea often hides it well, giving us a richer taste experience.
Perhaps this is the reason why young people drink less tea, the first time you drink tea, or drink a sip of tea for many years parents drink the pot of tea, always feel very bitter. It was not until years later that I realized that tea has so much to say.
Originally thought that “tea is bitter”, slowly changed to “tea can be very sweet”.
The author would like to emphasize that the bitterness and astringency of tea is something we should also learn to distinguish between good and bad. A principle, tea can be bitter, but not always stay in the mouth can not melt, to be in a very short period of time into sweetness, the shorter this time the better.
Some teas are inherently bitter because of their varietal characteristics, such as Puerh raw tea, but the higher quality ones are also bitter and astringent in the mouth, followed by a steady stream of sweetness. If the degree of bitterness and astringency is high, and can not drink the sweetness and flavor, mouth and throat tightness, long time, then the quality of tea in general.
Sanmao once said tea: the first bitter as life, the second sweet as love, the third light as the breeze. A bubble of tea lack of bitter flavor, for the “old tea people”, always seem to feel not strong enough, too bland and lack of beauty. A lack of bitter taste of life, for people who love life, it seems to feel not full enough, too ordinary and seemingly uninteresting life.