This tea has undergone 12 years of aging, with tight and compact bud clumps and a mellow, profound aged aroma. When brewing, it’s advisable to balance the characteristics of the tea cake and the quality of silver needle tea. We recommend using a gaiwan to release the aroma layer by layer, supplemented by boiling to fully unlock its residual charm.

1. Tea Preparation
The tea cake is dense and compact. Use a wide-blade tea knife to insert obliquely along the edges to find gaps, gently pry and separate layers. Take 5–6 grams of bud clumps with stems, keeping them intact. Avoid forced prying from the center of the cake to prevent tea breakage.

II. Brewing Method

Gaiwan Brewing (To Appreciate the Layered Aroma and Charm)

Utensils: 150ml white porcelain gaiwan

Water: purified water or spring water

Tea Amount: approximately 5 grams

Water temperature: 100℃ boiling water

Step:

After warming the gaiwan, add the tea leaves. Gently shake to smell the dry aroma — you can distinguish medicinal notes, honeyed undertones, and aged grain fragrance.

Pour water along the inner wall of the gaiwan to evenly moisten the tea leaves.

Serving time:

1st Infusion (Rinsing): 15 seconds

2nd–3rd infusion: 20–25 seconds, honey aroma prominent, smooth and sweet texture.

4th–6th infusion: 30–40 seconds, medicinal notes gradually intensify, and the liquor becomes rich and mellow.

After the 7th infusion: Steep the tea for over 45 seconds (extended steeping). The final infusions remain sweet, showcasing excellent steeping endurance.

Decoction Brewing (To Release the Aged Charm)
After the gaiwan brewing yields a faint flavor, take the used tea leaves and put them into a pot with cold water. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low heat for 2–3 minutes. The resulting liquor will have an amber color, a rich medicinal aroma, and a warm, smooth taste.

III. Tasting & Storage Tips

Appreciating the Liquor: When brewed in a gaiwan, fine silver fuzz (hao) can be seen floating gently in the liquor (a phenomenon known as "hao hun"). After decoction, the liquor takes on an amber hue with a silky, smooth texture.

Tasting the Charm: Inhale the lid aroma to distinguish its layered notes. Upon sipping, savor its mellow sweetness and lingering sweetness (hui gan), and feel the warm, soothing vitality of the aged tea.

Storage: Wrap the tea cake in rice paper and store it in a purple clay jar or ceramic vat. Keep it in a cool, dry place — it can continue aging for 5–10 years, with the medicinal aroma becoming richer and more refined.

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

1. 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).

2. 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

1. 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.

2. 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 ochre-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.&nbsp;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.

The charm of tea ceremony lies in appreciating what suits one's taste.

A pot of purified water is enough.

Don't be trapped by the mystique of water quality.