How to identify Mingqian tea and why is it expensive?

Mingqian tea is generally the tea picked before the Qingming Festival (April 4th). The yield of Mingqian tea that meets the picking standards is not high, so Mingqian tea is also relatively expensive. Precisely because of its preciousness, we must learn to distinguish the authenticity of Mingqian tea.

How to identify Mingqian tea

Taking Xinyang Maojian as an example, this article explains how to distinguish Mingqian tea from non-Mingqian tea.

First, the most intuitive thing is the appearance of the dry tea.

Due to the high latitude in Xinyang area, the earliest time for tea gardens to produce fresh leaves is March 25th. Therefore, most of the fresh leaves before July 7th are pure buds. The dry tea made from them is bud tea. The bud tea is short, thin and straight, with many hairs. If it is not like this, it is definitely not Mingqian Maojian.

Second, the leaf bottom.

Some tea makers are good at making tea, and they can make the leaf bud tea into strips of Mingqian tea when they are whole. In this case, you need to look at the leaves. If there are fewer leaves and neat buds after the tea leaves are brewed, it may be Mingqian tea. If there are more leaves and fewer buds, it is definitely not Mingqian tea.

Third, taste.

The tea before the Qingming Festival has accumulated nutrients from the tea tree for the entire winter, so it tastes fresh, sweet, and fragrant, and its biggest feature is that the sweetness lasts for a long time. The taste of the tea after the Qingming Festival is far inferior to that of the tea before the Qingming Festival, and the specific performance is that the bitterness becomes stronger and the sweetness lasts for a shorter time.

Fourth, tea.

The tea before the Qingming Festival has many hairs, the tea soup is muddy and the color is emerald green, while the tea after the Qingming Festival has clear tea soup and yellow color.

Why is Mingqian tea expensive?

First, things are valuable because they are rare. Because the temperature is not high before the Qingming Festival, the tea trees sprout less and the amount of tea buds is small.

Second, the tea pickers pick less tea leaves before the Qingming Festival. A skilled tea picker can only pick two to three catties of tea leaves a day from a single bud or a single flag. And making one catty of dry tea takes about four to five catties. The amount of fresh leaves consumed varies depending on the type of tea.

Third, if the amount of fresh leaves is small, the tea-making fee charged by the tea-making master for making dry tea will also be high.

Where is Mingqian tea produced?

The main production areas of Mingqian tea are the Jiangnan tea areas, mainly in northern Anhui, northern Jiangsu, northern Hubei, etc. Some early-budding tea varieties in these tea-producing areas, such as the "Wuniuzao" tea variety, have already begun to sprout during the "Qingzhe" and "Spring Equinox" seasons. Before the Qingming Festival, the tea trees reach the picking standards, and the tea produced is called "Mingqian tea".

Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan and other tea-producing areas in southern China have subtropical and tropical climates. The temperature rises quickly in spring. Even during the Spring Festival, the newly grown buds and leaves on the tea trees have reached the standards for picking and production, and the production of spring tea begins. By the Qingming Festival, spring tea has been produced for some time. Even if the tea picked and produced before the Qingming Festival in these areas, it cannot be regarded as Mingqian tea in the full sense of the word.