When drinking tea, you can often find some substances that cannot be said to be "indescribable" and appear in the brewed tea soup.

Tea lovers will inevitably have some doubts: was not to got low-quality tea, or added into something?

These things appear in the tea soup, is it the tea itself, or is it caused by brewing?

Undescriptable the first: oil mist

Brewing some aged tea (such as years of raw Pu'er or ripe Pu'er), sometimes see a very thin layer of oil mist on the surface of the tea soup.

This oil mist is actually because the tea contains some fat-soluble substances such as fatty acids, carotene and some volatile aroma components.

Because these substances are light in weight, they float on the surface of tea soup, which is generally called "cha yun" or "tang yun".

Especially some Pu'er tea, rock tea or other heavily fermented tea, or tea soup is thicker, it is easier to form a "cha yun".

In addition, the cha yun is also affected by water quality, and the higher the water hardness, the more likely the cha yun appears.

The cha yun is only a normal phenomenon that is affected by various factors and does not affect the drinking.

In general, there is a tea soup with cha yun, the soup is relatively thick, and the taste is more mellow.

Undescriptable second: tea velvet

After buying the tea, especially the teas such as Biluochun, Xinyang Maojian and Jinjunmei, it will be found that the surface of the dried tea is white or golden velvet, and some will be formed into pompons.

After brewing, the tea will also mix small fluff, affecting the clarity of the tea soup. Some people who are unclear why they mistakenly believe that this is a mildew of tea.

These fluffs are actually a symbol of tea tenderness and quality, and are one of the important factors in assessing the quality of tea.

Pompom refers to the vellus hair on the tender tea leaves are stuck together during the process of making handmade tea.

Moreover, tea is rich in amino acids, tea polyphenols, so unless someone asks to remove it, it will generally remain.

Tea velvet is more, the normal description of this tea is very tender, is the picking of tea buds.

Undescriptable third: flocculent material

Tea lovers who love to drink black tea will find that some varieties of black tea, if not finished immediately, will find some flocs in the tea soup after cold, and can't help thinking about whether the tea is deteriorated. 

In fact, the reason why some flocs appear in some black teas is because the tea polyphenols in the tea will be converted into theaflavins or thearubigins during the fermentation oxidation.

When brewing tea, the solubility of theaflavins is affected by the water temperature. When the water temperature is high, the theaflavins are dissolved in the water, and the tea soup looks clear and translucent.

But as the temperature gets lower, the tea soup cools, and the theaflavins re-aggregate and form a complex, which is the floc visible to the naked eye.

This floc also has a professional name - "Leng Hou Hun", also known as "tea cheese." For some black teas, “Leng Hou Hun” refers to its excellent quality performance.

Undescriptable fourth: bubble

When brewing tea, when you brew tea from a high place, you will see the foam on the surface of the tea soup. Especially in the first few bubbles, the foam will be more. Some people will think that it is the same as the foam produced when boiling the food.

The foam on the tea soup is not the same as the foam that appears when you boil food.

This kind of foam is actually because tea contains a natural substance - tea saponin.

Tea saponin is highly prone to foam due to its characteristics. And scientific research shows that tea saponin has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and other effects, and is beneficial to the human body.

Especially in the Song Dynasty, the white and delicate foam on the tea soup is a symbol of good tea.

The Cha Bai Xi and point tea are to kill the tea soup to make it foam, and then use the bubble to express unique calligraphy and painting.

The foam produced during tea brewing is a normal phenomenon, which will not affect the quality of the tea soup, nor will it affect the taste of the tea soup.