Songxi Red Tea [Fujian Songxi Specialty]

What is Songxi black tea? Authentic Fujian Songxi specialty: Songxi black tea

Content summary:Do you want to know what Songxi black tea is? This article is a detailed introduction to the specialty of Songxi, Fujian Province - Songxi Black Tea. It was compiled and edited by the editorial team of China Specialty Network after reviewing and collecting relevant information about Songxi Black Tea. The full text takes about 8 minutes to read, mainly including the basic introduction of Songxi Black Tea and its nutritional value? What are the product characteristics of Songxi black tea? How to distinguish between genuine and fake Songxi black tea? Tasting and eating methods of Songxi black tea, etc

Introduction to Songxi Black Tea

At the Shanghai World Expo, Songxi Black Tea won a gold medal. At present, there are about 180 enterprises engaged in black tea processing in Songxi County, with an annual output of over 3000 tons and a sales value of nearly 150 million yuan. The products are sold well in large and medium-sized cities in China such as Beijing, Fuzhou, and Xiamen

The dried tea strips are thin and tight, with a distinct tea aroma. The tea soup is clear and transparent, with a fragrant and sweet tea flavor. Even if brewed directly with boiling water, it can maintain a refreshing and sweet taste

How to distinguish the authenticity of Songxi black tea

(1) Grip

First, feel the weight, elasticity, and thickness of the black tea strips with your hands. The strands of high-quality black tea are relatively tight, with heavy ones being better and rough and light ones being inferior. The main purpose of touching tea leaves with your hands is to understand the dryness of black tea leaves. Pick up a tea stick casually. Dry tea usually has a prickly texture and is easy to break. Rub it with your fingers to make it into powder. If the tea leaves are damp, they do not have this characteristic. However, when touching tea leaves, do not grab them too much to avoid sweat from your hands seeping into the tea leaves and causing them to become damp

(2) Eye observation

Pick up a handful of dry tea and place it on a white paper or porcelain plate. Hold the plate with both hands and rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise to observe whether the appearance and color of the black tea are uniform, and if there are any, check if there are any golden hairs. The best ones are those with tight and clean ties, no broken tea or less broken tea, and a dark and oily color (some teas may even show golden hairs); The tea is coarse and loose in texture, with a messy color and a lot of broken tea and powdered tea. It even contains impurities such as tea seeds, tea fruits, old branches, old leaves, diseased leaves, weeds, branches, metal objects, insect corpses, etc. This type of tea is considered inferior tea or inferior tea. In addition, identification can also be made by observing the color of the soup and the bottom of the leaves after brewing. The soup color of high-quality black tea is bright red, clear and bright, with fully unfolded and even leaves, and a soft and tender texture; The soup color of secondary tea and inferior tea is a reddish, slightly dark, and turbid color, while inferior tea with a moldy taste shows the characteristics of no spreading leaves and dull color

(3) Nose smell

It is the use of human smell to distinguish whether black tea has smoky, sour, aged, moldy, sun dried, and other odors. High quality black tea has a sweet and pleasant aroma when brewed, while low-quality tea and inferior tea have no obvious or mixed odors. In fact, during the processing of black tea, if the processing conditions (such as temperature, humidity, etc.) and processing techniques (such as withering, fermentation, etc.) are not properly controlled, or if the finished black tea is stored improperly, some unpleasant odors will be produced. However, some unpleasant odors have a lower content and are not easily detected when smelling dry tea. At this time, it is necessary to distinguish them by brewing. If tea containing sour, aged, or moldy flavors is found, its odor is not too strong, and baking treatment can be tried to improve the quality later

(4) Tasting

When the appearance, dryness, color, aroma, etc. of the dried tea meet the selection criteria, you can take a few teas and chew them in your mouth to distinguish and further understand the quality based on the taste. In addition, tasting can also be done by opening soup. The taste of high-quality black tea is mainly sweet and mellow, while small variety black tea has a mellow and sweet aftertaste. Gongfu black tea is mainly fresh, strong, mellow, and refreshing. These characteristics are not obvious in inferior tea, and the taste of inferior tea is strong, bitter, and even has an unpleasant odor

Tasting and eating methods of Songxi black tea

Setting up a cleaning utensil

Before drinking black tea, regardless of the drinking method used, tea utensils such as boiling pots, cups or cups for holding tea must be prepared first. At the same time, clean water is also needed to thoroughly clean each item to prevent contamination

Pour tea into a cup

Only add 3-5 grams of black tea to each cup, or 1-2 bags of tea. If boiling in a teapot, add an appropriate amount of tea to the teapot and immediately pour boiling water into it. The water temperature should be maintained at 90 to 100 degrees Celsius, and at the same time, the teapot and teacup should be heated with hot water. This procedure is called warming the teapot (cup)

Boil water and make tea

After adding an equivalent amount of tea to the cup, pour boiling water into it. If it is a high-end black tea, it is advisable to use a white porcelain cup to observe its color. Usually flush until it is 80% full. If boiling in a pot, the water should be boiled first, and then the tea ingredients should be added