About Lao Cha Tou Is So Famous, But Why?

Speaking of cha tou, many people may not know much about them. What are old tea heads? Old tea heads are also a kind of Pu’er tea. They are tea that has formed into lumps during the fermentation process of Pu’er tea. They are lumps in appearance and are produced by artificial pile fermentation. Next, let’s take a closer look at cha you

What is “Cha Tou”?

Tea heads refer to the lumps of Pu’er tea during the fermentation of the pile. Compared with the strip-shaped tea, the tea heads with a normal fermentation degree have richer contents, thicker tea soup, and are more durable. However, most of the tea heads will not fall apart and remain sticky at the end. Pu’er cooked tea is fermented by artificial watering. During this fermentation process, the temperature in the middle of the pile of tea will rise, and then the tea leaves will ferment through their own enzymes and slowly become cooked tea. During this process, the pile of tea must be turned over manually every once in a while to prevent the temperature inside from being too high and scorching the tea. After repeated turning during the fermentation process, the tea leaves will secrete some pectin. Because pectin is relatively viscous, some tea leaves stick together and become lumps. After the tea leaves are fermented, people will pick out these lumps of tea, untie them by hand, and then put them back into the pile of tea. Some of them are too sticky. If they are untied, the tea leaves will be broken, so they have to be put into another pile, becoming “lump tea”, so it is also called “cha you”.

Four quality characteristics of cha tou

The four quality characteristics of old tea heads are: thick, durable, sticky, and sweet

1. Thickness is the most prominent feature of old tea heads. No matter what kind of cooked tea, in terms of concentration and thickness, they all lose to old tea heads. Under the adhesion of tea pectin and mycelium, old tea heads use stems and yellow leaves as the skeleton and tender leaves as the main body, tightly sticking together. When brewing, except for the thin water before and after, the basic soup is thick and thick, just like drinking porridge, with a prominent sandy texture and full and rich internal quality. It is simply a model of thickness!

The resistance to brewing of old tea can only be described as amazing, far surpassing other teas. It is tightly wrapped, extremely rich in quality, and has a very thick taste. It is easy to brew more than 30 times. It is common to change the barreled water twice for brewing old tea without changing the tea. Even after brewing, you can still boil it and drink it. The cost-effectiveness is unbelievable.

During the fermentation process of sticky and ripe tea, under the action of various cellulases, hemicellulases and pectinases, a large amount of polysaccharides are converted into hydrated pectin, which increases the stickiness of the ripe tea. Even low-grade ripe tea will have a certain degree of stickiness after pile fermentation, not to mention the old tea leaves. Pectin is an important adhesive substance, and it sticks to a lot of tender tea leaves, making the stickiness even higher. Especially when drinking old tea leaves, the stickiness is more obvious when the tongue is turned over on the tongue. No wonder some people say that drinking old tea leaves tastes like porridge or congee.

Sweet. Old tea leaves are typical of being crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The surface layer has a relatively high degree of fermentation, while the inside is relatively light. The outer layer often has a burnt aroma, while the inner layer has a sweet and sugary aroma. The two are intertwined and have a relatively high aroma. It is sweet because most of the old tea leaves are made of old leaves and stems as the skeleton. These low-grade materials are generally sweeter. If there are more low-grade materials, the sweetness will be even greater.

What is old tea head?

Many tea heads are the best among Pu’er teas, because when Pu’er is piled up, tea leaves that are full of colloid and sugar can form tea heads, and the ones that contain the most sugar and colloid are the tenderest and strongest buds and leaves. Let’s talk about the formation process of Pu’er tea heads in detail.

茶头，也叫自然沱，是晒青毛茶中比较肥嫩的芽叶。这种芽叶本身嫩度高、果胶含量丰富，所以在发酵过程中会分泌出比较粘稠的果胶来，有些茶叶粘在一起变成一团一团的结块。

After the tea leaves are fermented, pick out these clumps of tea, untie them by hand, and then put them back into the tea pile.

The tea head is the top layer of the surface during the fermentation of the pile. It is generally hardened into a block, fully fermented, and very sticky. If you insist on untying it, it will only break the tea leaves, so you have to put it in another pile, which becomes “lump tea”.

For 20 tons of ripe tea piled up, the tea heads are often only 100-300 kilograms. Compared with the strip-shaped tea, the tea heads with a normal fermentation degree have richer contents, thicker and smoother tea taste, and are more durable, and the tea soup is thicker, which is the first choice for drinking tea.