Awakening the Aged Charm
Choosing Utensils to Enhance Tea Charm
Soft Water Releases the True Flavor of Tea
Use qualified purified water with a hardness of less than 50mg/L.
Tap water is prohibited. Do not use any brand of mineral water if you have little knowledge of water quality. Alkaline mineral water (pH > 7.5) can cause cloudy tea liquor, excessive precipitation of caffeine, a rough taste, and a "cooked taste". Hard water should not be used either—magnesium ions in hard water (＞150mg/L) will combine with tea polyphenols to form insoluble substances, resulting in dark, cloudy tea liquor and enhanced astringency.
1990 aged white tea for brewing
Warm the pot and Dry Roasting the Tea
Wipe the tea simmering pot dry, heat it over low heat for 30 seconds, then add 5g of tea cakes. Gently shake the pot, taking the "rustling" sound from the slight friction between the tea and the pot wall as a rhythm. Dry roast for about 1 minute until a faint roasted aroma is smelled (do not burn the tea).
Brewing Tea:
Refill Brewing Tips:
Second brew: After the first brew, directly add warm water (about 80℃) to the original water level. Bring to a boil over high heat, then switch to low heat and simmer for 1 minute. Avoid over-simmering, as it may cause excessive extraction of internal substances and result in a weak-tasting tea liquor.
Number of brews: The tea can be refilled and brewed 3-4 times. The residual tea in the later brews has a particularly prominent sweetness—you can extend the steeping time (8-10 minutes) to fully experience the "sweeter with each brew" change.
The Timeless Secrets in 1990 Aged White Tea
Taste: The tea liquor boasts distinct medicinal notes (similar to isatis root and Poria cocos), woody aroma, and a calm, aged fragrance. It offers a long-lasting sweet aftertaste, with the residual tea in later brews carrying a rock sugar-like sweetness.
Tea Liquor Color: It transitions from amber to reddish-brown—starting with a deep amber hue in the first brew and gradually shifting to reddish-brown in subsequent brews. The liquor remains clear and translucent throughout. The intensity of the color indicates the tea's concentration: a darker shade means a richer taste, while a lighter shade delivers a fresh, sweet flavor.
With proper brewing, the timeless aged charm of the 1990 aged white tea can be fully unleashed. Each brew promises a layered and rich taste experience.
Water temperature and heat Taboos:
Avoid simmering over high heat for more than 3 minutes (especially when boiling dry tea directly). This prevents excessive extraction of caffeine, which can result in a bitter aftertaste.
The Philosophy of Brewing Aged White Tea
The essence of brewing 1990 aged white tea is to "awaken time with time"—it is a "dialogue" between people and tea, and to feel the changes in layers through the rhythm of pouring the tea.
Boiling is the "fusion" of water, fire, and tea, allowing the essence accumulated over time to unfold in boiling water, experiencing the taste of time that is "sweeter the longer it is boiled, and warmer the more you drink it".
water quality
Choose qualified purified water; never use alkaline mineral water.
(For commercially available mineral water brands, their water sources and quality indicators vary. So-called "high-quality mineral water and mountain spring water" may cause loss of functional components and inhibition of aroma in tea.)
I:Effect of Alkaline Water on Green Tea
1. Effects on tea liquor color：
green tea:
Under alkaline conditions, chlorophyll is easily destroyed (chlorophyll stability decreases at pH > 8.0) , causing the tea liquor color to easily change from bright green to yellow or dark yellow, resulting in turbidity , especially noticeable when brewed at high temperatures. Flavonoids (such as catechins) in green tea are easily oxidized in an alkaline environment, exacerbating the darkening of the tea liquor color.
black tea:
Theaflavins (bright orange-yellow) are easily oxidized to thearubigins (dark red) under alkaline conditions, and further generate dark brown, causing the soup color to change from bright red to dark and lose its transparency .
Other types of tea:
The color of oolong tea, white tea, and yellow tea may be darker due to alkaline water. The color of black tea (such as ripe Pu-erh) will become more turbid, and the color stability of aged aroma substances will also be affected .
2. Impact on taste and texture
Analysis reveals differences:
Tea polyphenols and caffeine: lead to insufficient concentration and bland taste . An alkaline environment inhibits the dissolution of tea polyphenols (bitter substances) and caffeine, reducing the bitterness of the tea soup.
Amino acids and sugars: Disruption of amino acid structure reduces the freshness and crispness.
Mineral influence: Alkaline hard water (containing more calcium and magnesium ions) combines with tea polyphenols to form insoluble precipitates (such as "cloudiness after cooling"), resulting in cloudy tea soup and a rough taste .
Balance of taste: It significantly affects the "richness" of tea soup for teas that rely on polyphenols to support their taste (such as raw Pu-erh tea and high-roasted rock tea), with no noticeable aftertaste and an overall taste that is bland and coarse .
3. Effects on aroma
Volatile aromatic substances: An alkaline environment may accelerate the degradation or transformation of aromatic substances (such as aldehydes and alcohols), resulting in a single aroma profile, especially in light-aroma teas (such as jasmine tea and Anji white tea), where the floral fragrance dissipates easily and may even develop a "mushy" taste.
Aged aroma and woody aroma: For fermented teas such as black tea and aged Pu'er, alkaline water may slightly highlight the aged aroma (pH>8.0) and suppress the fruity or honey aroma.
II:The adaptability of different types of tea to water quality
1. The interaction between the physicochemical properties of water and tea components
- Hard water (>120 mg/L CaCO₃) : Calcium ions combine with tea polyphenols to form precipitates, reducing the astringency of tea soup (EGCG binding rate can reach 23%), but losing antioxidant activity (Food Chemistry, 2018); Magnesium ions promote caffeine dissolution, and every 1 mg/L increase in magnesium can increase the caffeine concentration by 0.8% (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2020).
- Soft water (<60 mg/L CaCO₃) : Theaflavin dissolution rate increased by 12%, and the brightness of the tea soup increased (L* value increased by 3.2), but the amino acid extraction efficiency decreased (Food Research International, 2019).
2. Supported by scientific experimental data
- Longjing green tea brewing experiment (TDS = 50 vs 300mg/L) : The amino acid content of the tea soup in the soft water group (1.2mg/mL) was significantly higher than that in the hard water group (0.8mg/mL), but the caffeine content was 18% lower (China Tea Processing, 2021); Sensory evaluation showed that the freshness score of the soft water group was 1.7 points higher (out of 9), while the body of the hard water group was 0.9 points higher.
- Research on water quality suitability for Wuyi rock tea : Water containing trace amounts of sulfate (20-50 mg/L) can increase the dissolution of cinnamaldehyde, a characteristic aroma compound of cinnamon, by 24% (GC-MS detection), and significantly enhance the rocky aroma (Tea Science, 2020).
3. Water quality selection recommendations (based on tea)
| Tea | Ideal TDS | Recommended pH | Key ion requirements |
| F.T.L. Green Tea | 30-80mg/L | 6.8 | Ca²⁺＜15mg/L, Mg²⁺＜5mg/L |
| F.T.L. Oolong Tea | 80-150mg/L | 7 | HCO₃⁻ 40-60mg/L |
| F.T.L. Black Tea | 100-200mg/L | 6.8 | K⁺ 2-5mg/L, SiO₂ 10-15mg/L |
| F.T.L. Pu'er Tea | 50-120mg/L | 6.8 | Fe³⁺ < 0.1 mg/L |
4. Examples of the impact of special water quality
London tap water (high hardness) : When brewing black tea, the formation of oxalate-calcium complexes leads to "cold turbidity" appearing 30 minutes earlier, with the turbidity (NTU) of the tea reaching 12.5, which is significantly higher than that of the soft water group (NTU = 4.3) (Food Hydrocolloids, 2019).
Kagoshima hot spring water (containing sulfur) : Sulfides react with theaflavins to form methyl flavonoids, which reduces the umami intensity of sencha by 37% (*Journal of the Japanese Institute of Food Science and Technology, 2022).
One Region, One Tea: Water quality from specific local water sources enhances the color, aroma, and taste of local tea, but using local water requires systematic professional knowledge and high costs. For non-professionals, mastering the basic principles of "softened purified water + temperature control" is far more practical than pursuing famous springs from the origin.
The precise matching of water and tea is essentially a dialogue of geographical genes, which needs to be built on a multidisciplinary system of geology, food chemistry, heat transfer and other disciplines, and cannot be covered in just a few lines of web pages.
The UK-based AquaSim laboratory has simulated 12 core indicators of Tiger Spring water. However, it lacks the original spring's microbial community (such as Nocardia tea-loving bacteria), resulting in a 27% difference in post-fermentation flavor. In addition, the operation is complex: it requires mastering the "listening to the spring while boiling water" method (stopping the fire immediately when the water first boils), and a temperature error of more than 3°C will disrupt the flavor balance.