How to make the dahongpao you usually drink?

Tea can be divided into green tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, black tea and reprocessed tea according to different production methods. Processed tea is jasmine tea, rose tea and so on that we usually drink.

Dahongpao belongs to oolong tea, also known as Wuyi Rock Tea, and it is also a unique tea variety in northern Fujian. It is said that all Dahongpao teas come from the branch of Dahongpao mother plant in Wuyishan.

The production method of Dahongpao is located between making black tea and green tea, which has both the fragrance of black tea and the sweetness of green tea.

The traditional process of making Dahongpao has twelve steps, namely, "picking, pouring, cooking, frying, rolling, re-frying, boiling, winnowing, picking, re-baking, stacking, and finally assembling and packaging."

Its practice is very complicated and interlocking. The quality of tea is closely related to the meticulous production of each step. For example, picking seems to be a simple step. Dahongpao is only picked three times a year, namely, spring tea, summer tea and autumn tea, and leaf selection is also very important. Only by strictly following the picking standards of tea can the quality of tea be guaranteed. Spring tea picks 2-3 leaves on the main bud, summer tea picks the tender leaves at the top, and autumn tea picks the leaves with greater stretch.

The leaves should not be too old or too tender. If the leaves are too tender, there will be too little cellulose and the tea taste will be insufficient. If the leaves are too old, the quality of tea will be affected.

Even the picking techniques and time are very particular. The best time to pick tea is from 2 to 4 on a sunny day. At this point, there is no morning dew on the tea. After a day of sun exposure, the oxidase activity in tea is strong, which is beneficial to the production of tea green.

The specific technique of picking oolong tea is called "riding a horse", that is, the thumb and forefinger of the hand hold down the tea stalk, and the leaf faces the tiger's mouth and folds it gently.