Is this poor processing?

Semi-oxidized tea
Post Reply
User avatar
d.manuk
Posts: 655
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:13 pm
Location: Dallas

Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:15 am

207E8A52-E16B-4260-AB95-31C47D321E87.jpeg
207E8A52-E16B-4260-AB95-31C47D321E87.jpeg (146.89 KiB) Viewed 4000 times
The edges of a few of the leaves of this Baozhong tea are browned. I was wondering if this is a flaw in processing since the other leaves are very green. I don’t know if this is indicative of being bruised too much or heated too much during pan frying. Since the Baozhong was $0.50/gram I have high expectations.
39D9B5B5-6F25-4784-AC0A-1BDBA2A8CF82.jpeg
39D9B5B5-6F25-4784-AC0A-1BDBA2A8CF82.jpeg (105.96 KiB) Viewed 4012 times
User avatar
Victoria
Admin
Posts: 3043
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 3:33 pm
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Contact:

Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:22 am

I don’t think so, the brown edges are simply part of the pan frying/roasting process to halt further enzymatic activity in the leaf. How was the tea :) ?

Floating Leaves specializes in Baozhong, and has several grades.
User avatar
d.manuk
Posts: 655
Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 4:13 pm
Location: Dallas

Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:17 am

Victoria wrote:
Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:22 am
I don’t think so, the brown edges are simply part of the pan frying/roasting process to halt further enzymatic activity in the leaf. How was the tea :) ?

Floating Leaves specializes in Baozhong, and has several grades.
It was nice but I think it would have been better if all of the leaves had uniform pan frying (if all of them were green throughout) as opposed to the occasional leaf like the ones pictured above.
Thankfully there were no stems.
Overall I give the tea a 9/10. :D
Ethan Kurland
Vendor
Posts: 1026
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 1:01 am
Location: Boston
Contact:

Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:41 pm

Shine Magical wrote:
Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:17 am

It was nice but I think it would have been better if all of the leaves had uniform pan frying (if all of them were green throughout) as opposed to the occasional leaf like the ones pictured above.
Thankfully there were no stems.
Overall I give the tea a 9/10. :D
You have me somewhat baffled. You have "nice" equate to a rating of 9 out of 10 which I would call excellent. (NIce would fall into 7/10 for me, at the moment. I haven't rated by numbers before). You also have me pleased, because you are so honest. You say, "I think it would have been better...." That is the key to when we look at leaves. It gives us thoughts, but we know from drinking, not visual impressions.

Having said that, I do have a habit of pulling stems out of bowls & gaiwans between infusions. I've been told that stems do add flavor & do no harm; but, removing stems seems to be a good idea though I cannot detect an improvement in taste. Cheers
User avatar
Bok
Vendor
Posts: 5782
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:55 am
Location: Taiwan

Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:07 pm

Leaves are natural things, as such they are not uniform. I think it speaks to a less automated process if not everything looks exactly the same.

Kind of keeps me thinking of EU regulations as to why shape and size a cucumber has to have. Tons of food wasted each year in consequence.
John_B
Posts: 186
Joined: Thu Oct 12, 2017 4:42 am
Location: Bangkok
Contact:

Wed Sep 26, 2018 11:51 pm

Isn't browning on the outer edges of the leaves related to oxidation (natural browning through air contact, enabled by a bruising process to break leaf cells), versus the heating step that suppresses the oxidation? If so the complaint is that the oxidation isn't uniform, not the kill-green heating process that stops it.

I recently tried a Vietnamese sheng that was scorched across some leaves, it seemed, so processed very inconsistently. It was still ok; a bit of char subsided over the first few infusions and from there the mix of character in different leaves sort of worked. It would be odd to pay 50 cents a gram for tea that inconsistently processed though; this was a farmer processed tea instead.
Post Reply