Due to the complex processing and transportation operations, rock tea produces a large amount of broken tea throughout the entire production process, as the packaging is marked with “Fragile”. To ensure the quality of the tea leaves, broken tea is often picked out and disposed of as waste.
We recall the leisurely time when we were children helping to pick tea stems in the tea factory. At that time, we didn’t know why we had to pick so clean in our cognitive world. We only remember sitting and chatting, doing hands-on activities, and having a lot of pocket money in just a few hours. To clean a sieve that is wider than ours, apart from the tea stems and red leaves, there are only broken teas with a strong sense of presence.
We thought that if picking up broken tea was also a task at that time, it might be like the challenge of picking green beans with chopsticks. Not only were our eyes dazzled, but our hands would also be soft. But who can say that broken tea is just hollow gauze, made up of all shortcomings? Even if Wangwang’s crushed ice melts, it still tastes delicious!
01 Does broken tea affect its taste?
The Chinese people pay attention to the beauty of harmony, not to mention the precious tea, which is wasteful when thrown away, but lacks soul when left behind. In the recently popular 0713 group tour, there are often two words “broken activity” – activities other than group tour are called broken activity, scattered but beneficial to overall development, which is equivalent to tea crushing.
In short, broken tea is another form of product of normal rock tea, which has the same internal substances as normal rock tea, but lacks the previous aesthetic appearance.
The commonly referred to “tender picking” of rock tea actually results in the natural formation of broken buds during production. Even if good things are broken, they are still good things. The top buds make a great contribution to the taste, which is not to be boasted about.
However, the degree of damage caused by broken tea has increased, and the dissolution rate and amount of effective substances will be faster. According to relevant experimental results, the brewing rate of the contents in broken oolong tea is significantly higher than that of traditional oolong tea, especially in the first 30 seconds of brewing. The brewing amount of broken oolong tea accounts for 31.4% of its total brewing amount, while the brewing amount of traditional oolong tea only accounts for 13.7%. However, the stability and durability of broken tea are relatively reduced, but generally speaking, the taste is not much different from that of intact tea.
We conducted an experiment where broken tea and relatively intact tea were brewed at the same rate in a covered bowl. The first brew had no discernible difference in taste and color, but as the number of brews increased, broken tea gradually became bitter.
This is because the internal substances are precipitated from the surface of the leaves, and with more broken substances, there are not only multiple pathways for the internal essence to come into contact with the tea, but also a long time, which is equivalent to Ultraman’s energy alarm when he is about to win and fighting monsters.
But the monster, which was originally on the brink of extinction, suddenly appeared with several lively clones. Who else can beat it? We frowned and watched as our classmates continued to brew with their spacious bowl lids: “Hey, where did the tea break
The so-called smaller size can better avoid the claws of the devil, with a large amount of broken tea pouring into the fair market. Moreover, because the rich essence is continuously released, it constantly exudes its charm in the fair market, trying to captivate us.
The same principle applies to male peacocks when they see people. Excessive force can lead to the opposite effect, with caffeine and tea polyphenols being released too much in advance, which can truly be a painful experience.
02 How to make tea with broken tea?
When drinking tea, some people not only appreciate the taste and aroma, but also check the stretching posture and leaf base of the tea during brewing. If the tea is not completely intact in the dry state, a beautiful lady taught us that shaking the dry tea left and right is better than shaking it up and down to prevent broken tea from sticking to the left and right walls or lids.
Most people have a subjective impression that broken tea is difficult to drink and brew, but if the correct techniques are mastered, broken tea will not become so difficult to drink. In summary, when brewing rock tea with broken tea, the method of adding whole tea and broken tea is used, and the brewing technique of “fine water injection, fast soup” is used.
The taste of the first brew is generally light, and the combination of whole broken tea can increase the taste of the first few infusions (the advantage of faster extraction rate of broken tea), and also improve the steeping resistance of tea leaves. However, the amount of tea added can be reduced appropriately. Usually, for a 150ml lid bowl, 7-10g of broken tea can be added, and about 2g of broken tea can be reduced appropriately.
The interrupted strands of rock tea are relatively thick and complete, but the front end is mainly composed of fine buds and tender tips, which are prone to breakage during the tea preparation process. However, the taste of this broken tea is actually the strongest. As the saying goes, “One pound of good tea has three or two pieces
The shape of the newly twisted rope
In the prevalence of Chaoshan Gongfu tea in Malaysia, there is a saying about tea gall, which refers to the structure formed by the large, medium, and broken leaves of tea leaves in a pot. Incorrect brewing can damage this structure, causing the tea soup to be bitter and thus damaging the tea gall.
So, when injecting water, it should be done in one go, and the water flow should not be loose. If it is too rough, it can easily damage the tea gall and cause bitterness in the tea soup. This kind of tea gall is usually packaged and sold separately from the tea leaves in small tea bags. However, this model is not very popular among the new generation, and almost only traditional tea customers support this practice.
The key point of this is that when drinking broken tea, everyone can DIY by putting the broken tea into a tea bag and trying to make a tea gall structure. There is no need to excessively pursue the integrity of the rock tea strands, and a reasonable degree of fragmentation will make the tea soup more delicious. Of course, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder can easily use the strongest assistive tools such as tea filters to get started.
03 What other wonderful uses can broken tea have?
There is no perfect item in the world, but we can turn waste into treasure. If you feel that there are too many broken teas and it is too troublesome, you can let the broken tea play its perfect utilization value.
One reason is that broken tea, like tea stems, has a certain degree of adsorption and the unique fragrance of tea leaves. In the past, broken tea could be packaged into bags and placed in places such as wardrobes, kitchens, and bathrooms that are prone to producing odors.
Secondly, in terms of health preservation, the beauty effect of pure natural detoxification and beauty cannot be ignored. Soak broken tea in a bucket to soak your feet, especially during the recent rainy season when it is damp and cold, soaking your feet is super comfortable. Everyone should take action to start a healthy and healthy life from small things, starting from you and me.
Third, it reminds us of the period when our former classmates boiled Tea egg with complete tea, and we can’t help but feel the pain. But we are not afraid that you will not drink tea, and we are afraid that you will not have enough magic bags to drink. Blessed are the partners who do not want to use complete good tea. Eating Tea egg with broken tea will not only hurt your wallet but also regret wasting good quality tea.
There are also methods to make tea pillows, brew milk tea with broken tea, and other ways to make the most of everything. Practice is the only criterion for testing truth. Learn to make good use of broken tea and experience a different and surprising life.
Liking a flower doesn’t necessarily mean seeing it bloom. How can the product of pursuing beauty be called inferior?
Everything has two sides. Tea comes from the hands of tea makers, and its clone, broken tea, cannot be omnipotent, but it is also not useless. Perhaps picking up a star in the “mud” of broken tea is a very beautiful process in itself.