What does it mean to wash tea and wake up tea? how long does it take to wake up tea?

From childhood to childhood, every time I drink tea with my parents, in addition to Guangdong's unique hot washing utensils with boiling water, there is also an action that I still can't understand: rinse the tea, that is, pour the first tea! Yes, that's right! It's down!

Of course, every time will ask the elders, why pour out, those are also the essence of tea ah, pour out is not a bit of a waste?

Elders will always reply that you can't drink the first bubble, it's very dirty, and the tea is covered with dust.

Uh. It is impossible to refute it in an instant. After all, Cantonese people even wash dishes with boiling water when they go out for dinner. They really have a penchant for cleanliness.

But is that really the case?

Let's analyze little by little why we have to soak.

Wet water pre-immersion

Like coffee, when brewing coffee, there will be the first stage of filling with water and steaming for 30 seconds, which is to better discharge the carbon dioxide from the coffee and thus extract it stably.

And I don't know if you have ever tried to pour water into the tea and be bored for a period of time. After the next period of water injection, the taste of the tea soup is very rich. That's because the wet water helps to get the substance out of the tea. In the Great Dictionary of Chinese Tea, there is the word "awakening tea", "awakening tea" and "washing tea". This practice is to wash away the impurities (such as dust) on the surface of tea and induce the taste and aroma of tea, which is a legacy of the ancients.

The step of washing tea is very important for Pu'er tea. I have seen an article on some international websites that some international friends tasted fishy when they tried Pu'er tea for the first time.

This is very interesting. As we all know, Pu'er tea in China does not involve any animal treatment of salt water / fresh water in the process of making tea. However, after a simple act of washing tea, the smell of fish is gone, and the original taste of Pu'er tea is revealed.

If you don't listen to the old man, you will suffer in front of you. Next time you drink tea, you'd better wake up first.

However, it should be noted that not all teas are suitable for awakening tea! For example, black tea. Generally speaking, black tea will only be brewed three times. Japanese black tea researcher Meng Inochi mentioned in the Book of Black Tea that for the first time, pour in the tea leaves after steaming for 3 to 4 minutes to taste the fragrance; the second time, wait 10 to 20 minutes before soaking to enjoy the true color and taste of black tea; the third bubble water is only 1/3 of the original (can also be adjusted to your own preference), and drink the last drop.

For example, some tea with exquisite leaf shape (FANNINGS, DUST, CTC), after touching the water, the flavor substances in the tea begin to release, and the extraction speed is fast. If you want to wash this kind of tea, it is difficult to guarantee that the taste of the next tea is still complete.

Therefore, the action of pre-soaking in wet water is indeed very important for both coffee and tea. However, whether all of them are used equally, some are not. Just like growing a lot of plants, you should adjust measures to local conditions. You can't grow tropical fruits such as pineapples and bananas in the Arctic Circle, not to mention whether you can grow such plants there. The climatic environment there has been determined, and this kind of plant can not survive there.

If you are not sure whether the tea in your hand needs to be awakened, it is very simple to ask after-sale, or try to compare both. Tea is not the more expensive the better, but like coffee, as long as you like to drink, that is the best.