Thoroughly Cooked and Penetrated - Making Drinkable 'Healthy Tea'

One, Prequel!

In 2017, Houyue crowdfunded a tea, the first generation of thoroughly cooked and penetrated tea, crowdfunding Eight Menghai Ancient Charm Raw Tea. At that time, I gave this tea to many peers to taste, and most comments were like 'ruined, Pu'er is not made this way', with many expressing regret. But this tea sold very well and received excellent feedback. Tea friends don't care about your school; if it tastes good and you can drink more, it's good tea.

In 2019, Houyue crowdfunded the second thoroughly cooked and penetrated tea, crowdfunding Eleven Menghai Ancient Charm Raw Tea. This tea followed the style of Crowdfunding Eight, and sales and feedback were still very good.

But we are still a minority in using the thoroughly cooked and penetrated process for spring ancient tree tea, guarding the harvest. This is related to the merchants who buy tea personally guarding the fresh leaves and watching the tea making. They require traditional processes, hand-frying, and cannot be thoroughly cooked and penetrated, because there is a saying in the market that our thoroughly cooked and penetrated process makes old tea not taste good.

By this year, Crowdfunding Eight is in its eighth year, and tasting this tea is already very good. Houyue tea friends chase orders and ask most about this first-generation thoroughly cooked tea. It cannot be said that tea stored for eight years is good, but after fifteen, twenty, or thirty years it won't be good? Crowdfunding Eight and Crowdfunding Eleven have significant quantities, several tons in total, with many tea friends. These are real market reactions. Those who rashly conclude that such tea has no value have finally shut up. This is also the timing for me to launch the Lan series this year; promoting the three Lan series teas of 'Lanlan' is the reason I have been writing several such articles intensively this year, including this one.

Two, Background!

1. Tea makers 'dare not' drink tea

If you observe carefully in the Pu'er tea industry, you will see various states of practitioners: some dare not drink tea in the afternoon, some say they are taking Chinese medicine and don't drink a drop, some only dare to drink old tea, some drink water in large gulps and sip tea, some like me rarely drink tea outside and only drink tea I make myself, some only drink ripe tea, some only drink roasted tea, and some scholars and experts who have been in the industry for years say they don't usually drink tea...

We have to admit that Pu'er tea has some problems. But it is definitely not what Gao Mouchang said that ripe tea cannot be drunk, nor Zou Mouju's claim that new raw tea cannot be drunk. Every industry has various problems; industries develop, practitioners progress. We need to face problems and learn more, not be the troublemakers who kill the industry with one stick.

Tieguanyin had problems in previous years, and during the gap, Pu'er tea achieved significant development. But in recent years, have you tried Tieguanyin? I think Tieguanyin that has returned to traditional processes is really good. Tieguanyin's production in 2024 exceeded 60,000 tons.

No industry disappears, only companies disappear. Industry problems are not necessarily bad things.

1. Tea friends who have been drinking for years dare not drink new tea

This is even more common. Pu'er tea enthusiasts stop at new tea. I have come into contact with many tea friends who have drunk tea to the point of developing an allergic constitution to new tea.

1. The dilemma under the concept of 'more fragrant with age'

In Dongguan, a large amount of tea aged ten to twenty years cannot be sold, even if the price is reduced to a dozen yuan per cake, it still cannot be sold, and the storage cost may not be recovered. Has the law of 'more fragrant with age' failed?

1. The Pu'er tea industry needs breakthrough options beyond marketing

Have you noticed that the Pu'er tea industry has talents, but they seem to be marketing talents, such as live streaming, financial tea, and Sister Yi. Innovation in the tea industry itself seems rare.

I also fanned the flames when everyone was attacking tea fossils. Here I want to formally apologize. I now think tea fossils should be considered an important innovation in the industry. If operated properly and developed orderly, it might create a market scale of tens of billions a year. The bottom line of tea fossils is the bottom line of merchants. You can make delicious tea fossils. You cannot give up eating for fear of choking, nor can you, like Gao and Zou, kill with one stick. The biggest part of this world is the middle layer; it cannot be either/or. The Pu'er tea industry is now facing the same problems as tea fossils.

Pu'er tea's breakthrough has only a few options: marketing, product, process, culture.

I believe that process breakthrough is one of the important directions.

Three, Main Story

Make healthy tea!

Make tea that tea friends can drink more of.

Make tea that practitioners can drink for a lifetime.

1. What does thoroughly killing and penetrating tea leaves look like?

Take new raw tea as an example.

①
Soup color. Normal brewing gives a yellowish or whitish soup, with forest teas often whiter. Heavy steeping gives a mainly yellow soup. Conversely, if red dominates, it is not thoroughly cooked.

②
Aroma. Floral and woody, such as orchid base with woody, floral honey with woody. If leaf aroma or green smell appears, it is not thoroughly cooked.

③
Mouthfeel. The soup of thoroughly killed and penetrated raw tea has shape, round and smooth, with good silkiness. High-grade raw tea has a sinking feeling, as if it doesn't need swallowing but goes down by itself. Such tea is either thoroughly penetrated or old enough. If there are burrs, hardness, dryness, or rough astringency, it is not thoroughly killed. Many say that thorough killing and penetration makes tea lack thickness and strength. This is incorrect. Thoroughly killed raw tea still has thickness, but it is not abrupt; it is a gentle thickness, a soft power, requiring a clear body and calm mind to understand better.

④
Clarity. Thoroughly killed raw tea feels like the sky after rain, like a vast blue sea, clean and pure, a kind of relaxation, a simplicity to the extreme peace.

⑤
Sweetness. Traditional layers, bitterness, returning sweetness, and salivation do not exist; it is purely sweet (except bitter tea). Fresh leaves from the forest, after thorough killing, have a sweet and refreshing feeling, sweet from the beginning and sweet in the aftertaste. This is the 'lightness' emphasized in Caigentan; no need for ups and downs, just peace, purity, and continuous sweetness.

⑥
Stability. The first infusion and the tail water should have consistent flavor style, for example, both clear and sweet with sufficient charm, the difference only in intensity. The tail water has no watery taste and is also good. If stability is insufficient and the flavor is inconsistent, it is not thoroughly cooked.

⑦
Body sensation. New tea can be drunk and can be drunk more. Of course, thoroughly killed and penetrated tea also needs to be rested for a few months before drinking to be better. Longjing masters suggest trying new Longjing lightly and then waiting a month or so to drink. If the body sensation is less stimulating, the body feeling is calm, and tea tolerance greatly increases, then it is thoroughly killed and penetrated tea.

1. How to make ripe tea thoroughly penetrated?

Fermentation degree, what we often say as 70% or 80% ripe, has nothing to do with thorough penetration.

Light fermentation can still be thoroughly penetrated; heavy fermentation can also be not penetrated.

Black tea and white tea also have the issue of thorough penetration; you can refer to the tasting feelings above.

1. How to make thoroughly cooked and penetrated

Thoroughly cooked and penetrated can be achieved through process, but this article is not convenient to explain.

But my thoroughly cooked and penetrated also has a requirement: the raw material must have good ecology. This is an additional requirement and has nothing to do with thorough penetration.

Four, Sequel

What the industry is like is a luxury to discuss; what you do yourself is the right path.

The Lan series will involve four types of tea: raw, ripe, white, and black. Each type will have Lanlan, Dalan, and Xiaolan, meaning I will launch twelve Lan series teas.

New tea can be drunk more, old tea tastes better!

That is the goal of my Lan series tea. Let's wait and see.

Five, Extra Story

A list of Houyue's thoroughly cooked and penetrated tea products!

People often ask me which teas are thoroughly cooked and penetrated. I have made a table; welcome to try the teas according to the table.

This is the thirty-seventh article in my 'Paper Talk Tea' series. Click to view more 'Paper Talk Tea' articles.