Four reasons why green tea smells good but tastes bad!

After Qingming Festival, farmers put most green teas on the market. Tea lovers can enjoy a cup of fresh, fragrant Qingming green tea. It’s like stepping into spring.

Qingming green tea stands out as the "top product" among spring teas. This is because the buds have been dormant all winter. During this time, they gather many nutrients and plenty of organic matter.

In spring, tea trees thrive. Tea buds grow, and fresh leaves stay tender. The internal substances also become rich. The Qingming green tea made is fresh, refreshing, and delicate.

The aroma of good green tea is also very outstanding. For example, West Lake Longjing is famous for its rich and lasting "tender bean curd fragrance." But the aroma of tea does not only refer to "the aroma you smell," but also to "the aroma you drink"!

For tea lovers who have just entered the industry, the first step to recognize the quality of tea is often to start with smelling the tea. Does the higher the aroma, the better the green tea? The answer is no!

"Some green teas have an aroma that goes straight to the top of your head, but they don't smell good when you drink them." Perhaps many tea lovers have encountered similar situations. What is going on?

Common factors affecting the aroma of Mingqian green tea, where does the aroma of tea come from?

When tasting Mingqian green tea, whether it is smelled or drunk, it comes from the aromatic substances in the tea leaves, which are a mixture of some volatile substances mixed in different concentrations.

There are two main sources of aroma in tea. First, fresh tea leaves contain about 80 known aromatic substances. Second, the tea-making process creates over 700 aroma components.

Tea's aromatic substances fall into over ten categories. These include alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, lactones, phenols and their derivatives, heterocyclics, heterooxygen compounds, sulfur compounds, and oxygen-containing compounds. There are many types, and most of these aromas are fat-soluble.

You can add limited aromatic substances to tea. Usually, only a tiny amount of aroma can dissolve in the tea. In addition, most aromatic substances are immediately released when encountering high temperatures and are suspended on the surface of the tea soup.

When we taste tea, we notice two fragrances: "water-floating" and "water-falling." "Water-floating fragrance" is the scent that lingers on the surface. You can smell it, but there's no liquid. It’s like tea leaves—you can smell them, but you can't drink them!

"Water-falling fragrance" means the scent mixes into the water and tea. This creates a unique experience of both smelling and tasting the fragrance in the tea soup.

Spring tea's "water fragrance" comes from four main factors:

1. Poor quality

The tea fragrance can only be tasted when it enters the water. Poor quality is the most direct reason for the "fragrance not falling into the water" of green tea! One possibility is that the internal substances in the raw fresh leaves are weak, and the spring tea that is picked before it grows well often has insufficient internal substance accumulation.

This will lead to the failure to express the significance of the water fragrance. It smells fragrant, but tastes empty! In addition to relying on aromatic substances, the expression of the water fragrance of a cup of green tea also requires the assistance of amino acids, sugars, polyphenols and other substances.

If these internal substances are not accumulated enough, even if the aromatic substances are rich, they will only be short-lived. Because the expression of aromatic substances is positively correlated with the accumulation of other substances, if the internal substances are insufficient, the tea fragrance will soon weaken.

Insufficient green tea production technology is also a possibility. After the green leaves are killed, the fragrance type and aroma level are basically fixed. If the green leaves are not killed enough, the high boiling point aromatic substances may not appear, resulting in the lack of fragrance in the tea soup.

Finally, we should also consider that tea leaves have strong adsorption capacity. Some unscrupulous tea merchants take advantage of the strong adsorption capacity of tea leaves and add flavors to the aged green tea in stock to fake it as fresh green tea, giving people the illusion that it smells very fragrant.

This kind of inferior green tea with added flavors is not difficult to identify. Its aroma will float on the surface of the tea leaves. It tastes very bland or even has a strange smell, but it still smells very fragrant. Be alert to the fact that it is flavored tea!

In addition, normally processed tea leaves usually need high-temperature hot water to brew the tea fragrance to be rich. Even if the flavored tea is brewed at a low temperature (about 80℃), the aroma will burst instantly. This is also a good way to identify the flavored green tea.

2. Improper storage

A cup of green tea "smells good, but it doesn't smell good" indicates that the aromatic substances in the tea are more attached to the surface of the dry tea in the form of physical adsorption, presenting a relatively unstable state.

This is because under the influence of the external environment, the aroma of tea leaves is very volatile. You can smell the tea aroma by blowing on the dry tea, or you can smell the aroma clearly by shaking the cup, and the aroma of the brewed tea soup is very weak.

Improper storage can also cause a large loss of tea aroma, and the brewed tea soup is likely to have a large difference in aroma and soup feeling. Therefore, when storing tea leaves, it must be strictly shielded from light and sealed, away from high temperature and odor.

3. Water quality problem

The aroma of green tea is not obvious after falling into water, and there is also the possibility that the rich aroma suddenly becomes weak. Once you find that the tea you often drink suddenly smells fragrant but tastes not fragrant, you should check whether there is a problem with the water quality as soon as possible?

Check the water quality from three aspects: First, whether the water for brewing tea has been changed? Water is the mother of tea, and the water for brewing tea is also crucial to the display of the aroma of green tea. Usually, hard water is not suitable for brewing tea.

Excessive mineral content in mineral water and tap water will affect the balance of tea leaves, reduce the tea's resistance to brewing, suppress the aroma in the soup, and make it not fragrant.

Second, beware of water deterioration. Perhaps some tea lovers will ask, "How can water deteriorate?" In fact, this phenomenon is very common. If the packaged barreled water is left for too long after being unsealed, it is very likely to deteriorate.

This is because a large number of microorganisms will gather in the water that has been left for a long time. Such water is deteriorated, making it difficult for the tea aroma to enter the water. Therefore, the unsealed pure water and other water for brewing tea should be consumed as soon as possible to avoid water quality deterioration and affect the taste and aroma of the tea!

Finally, for daily tea brewing, keep the kettle, water dispenser, tea brewer and other utensils clean and hygienic. For example, if a kettle that has not been used for a long time is not cleaned and used directly, there is a high probability that there will be odor. It is best to clean it before use!

Pay special attention to the cleaning of the spout, because the narrow spout is also an excellent place for microorganisms. If you don't clean it and use it to brew tea directly, the aroma and taste will be greatly reduced.

4. Teaware absorbs aroma

Zisha teapots and clay teaware are more likely to absorb the aroma of green tea, which may also cause the brewed tea to smell fragrant but taste bad. Generally speaking, different types of tea are suitable for brewing with different utensils.

Usually, excluding common reasons, the situation of "smelling fragrant but not fragrant" caused by teaware is very likely to be caused by using the wrong tea brewing utensils, allowing the unsuitable teaware to absorb the tea aroma.

For green tea with fresh buds and leaves, glass cups or covered bowls are generally used as the mainstream brewing utensils, especially the "cup brewing method", which is the most popular, and can be used for viewing, smelling, and tasting tea.

But the Zisha teapot, known as the "first teaware in the world," is not suitable for brewing green tea! If you don't master it, you might "cook the tender tea." This can hurt the falling water fragrance's performance. It can also make the water fragrance dull and stale.

To sum up, everyone has some ideas about why they can smell the aroma of some spring teas but cannot taste it!