Old Lv's Tea Talk Part 2

20250510

Old Lv's Tea Talk Part 2

Taking raw tea as an example, tea leaf fixation can be roughly divided into three schools.

1. Traditional school. In fact, the traditional school only has a history of about 30 years. Those claiming to use ancient methods are actually quite new, only about 30 years old. Saying this is just to sell tea, just like a thirty-something young person whose ancestors were farmers, and going back dozens of generations, no one made tea. But once this thirty-something young person starts a tea brand, it suddenly has a history of over a hundred years, dating back to the Qing Dynasty. I digress. Back to the point. The traditional school emphasizes retaining greenness, using light fixation, and the dry tea smells strongly of leaf fragrance. These teas need aging, but as mentioned in the previous talk, market pressure is too great, so these new teas are sold, harming many tea drinkers. This process currently accounts for the largest proportion, especially among Cantonese people and old tea enthusiasts.

1. Green tea school. New tea should be fragrant and fresh, like green tea requirements, hence the name. This type of process also accounts for a significant proportion, especially in the Lincang tea region. If the green tea school chooses tea leaves from forest areas for fixation, it can be very good, with clear sweetness, crispness, low bitterness and astringency, high aroma, and very pleasant to drink. However, many in the green tea school are speculators, often using tea leaves from the foothills, resulting in a tea liquor that is hard and dry, which can be harmful if consumed long-term.

1. Fully fixed school. Just like the tea I make myself, such as the Dayi Wu tea area teas from Houyue in 2023-2025, like Houyue's Crowdfunding 8 and Crowdfunding 11. Many famous mountain ancient tree teas in Houyue's spring tea harvest are not fixed by me, and they lean towards traditional methods, because these tea friends who prepaid for the tea do not accept my process. The market has kidnapped the process!!! With full fixation, new tea can be drunk immediately without being cold, but it is also suitable for long-term storage. Evidence is that my teas made with this process, such as Crowdfunding 8, after seven years of storage, are still very good to drink. The 6-gram mini cakes of Crowdfunding 8 are always sought after, and the market reputation is particularly good.