It's Not Good Pu-erh if no Returning Sweetness

Some teas are based on fresh, fragrant, sweet and bitter, sputum, acid and other indicators to judge whether it is good tea, such as green tea, black tea, green tea, and some teas have a different approach, using watering and returning sweetness as the standard for judging good tea. In a sense, it can be said that Pu-erh tea without returning to sweetness is not a good Pu-erh tea!

So what is the return? How is returning sweetness produced?

In the process of drinking tea, friends who love tea have found that many teas have a bitter taste when they are drinking. Then, some tea people thought that this tea is not a good tea. In fact, the bitterness of tea is not all bad. Is it good tea? The taste of tea soup is determined by the comprehensive reaction of people's taste senses to the taste substances in tea. Different teas have different tastes due to the different types, contents and proportions of their taste components.

First, what is "returning to sweetness"?

Returning sweetness is a natural sensory effect that people often drink tea and a 

positive evaluation of the taste of fine tea. The returning effect is a specific taste 

mainly formed by the combination of bitterness and sweetness. It is a kind of 

sweet and bitter taste at the entrance. It has a long aftertaste in the mouth, and 

the sweetness gradually exceeds the bitterness and taste over time. A taste that 

ends in sweetness. The sensory experience is mainly characterized by: “the 

entrance is slightly bitter, the aftertaste is sweet and sweet”, “the entrance is bitter

 with sweetness, then the bitterness is gradually disappeared, the sweetness is

 getting longer, the sweet aftertaste is longer than the bitterness” and so on.

Second, what are the reasons for the tea soup "returning to sweetness"?

The first argument is that it is the result of a sensational transformation. The 

deputy director of the Department of Tea Science at Zhejiang University 

expressed his opinion in his book "Tea Culture and Tea Health": "Tea contains 

tea polyphenols, which can bind to proteins and form a layer of impervious in the

 oral cavity. Membrane, local muscle contraction in the mouth causes the 

squeakyness of the mouth, which makes us feel that the tea that just drank will 

have a bitter feeling. If the tea polyphenol content is suitable, a film with only 

one or two monolayers or bilayers is formed. The film thickness is moderate, 

and there is a smell in the mouth at the beginning. After the film breaks, the 

local muscles of the mouth begin to recover, and the astringent transforms the 

feeling of returning to sweetness and watering. Therefore, he believes that 

"returning to sweetness" is the result of the combination of tea polyphenols and

 proteins.

Another way of saying that "returning to Sweetness" is an illusion of the mouth, 

that is, "contrast effect." Professor McBurney and Professor Bartoshuk published

 in 1979, "The Relationship between Different Taste Quality and Stimulant",

 "Sweetness and bitterness are relative concepts. When you taste sweeteners 

such as sucrose, you will find that water is bitter. And when you taste the bitter 

substances such as caffeine and quinine, you will feel the water is sweet." This

 phenomenon is a contrast effect, so many people also believe that this illusion 

may also be one of the factors that cause return.

3. What are the ingredients that may cause “returning to Sweetness”?

1. Tea polyphenols and total sugar: Xu Yongquan and others use the electronic

 tongue (electronic tongue is an intelligent recognition electronic system 

developed by mimicking the human taste mechanism) to analyze the taste of tea.

 Studies have shown that the bitterness of tea soup has a significant positive 

correlation with the taste of returning sugar, and the two complement each other; 

the content of tea polyphenols and total sugar has a significant positive 

correlation with the intensity of tea soup, indicating that tea polyphenols and 

total sugars are within a certain concentration range. Helps improve the 

sweetness of the tea soup. For example, Pu-erh tea has a higher content of tea

 polyphenols and is more obvious, which is also a proof.

2, flavonoids: Although the tea industry has not reported that flavonoids can 

produce "returning sweetness", but it has been reported that flavonoids are the 

substances produced by olives. The source of bitterness of olives is due to its 

special chemical composition: such as oleuropein, flavonoids and polyphenols, 

in which flavonoids are higher than other foods. The bitter substances in bitter 

gourd are bitter gourd saponin and bitter melon glycosides; the bitter substances

 in Kuding tea are also glycosides and a small amount of flavonoids. Glycosides

 only show bitterness, so when you eat bitter gourd, you only feel bitterness, and

 there is almost no feeling of returning to Sweetness. The taste of flavonoids is 

very special. It shows a bitter taste at the beginning of the mouth and a natural

 sweetness after a while. The flavonoids contained in olives are the main reason 

for their return to sweetness, and the higher the flavonoid content, the more 

obvious the returning sweetness and the more mellow the odor. The flavonoids

 in tea are about 3%-4% of dry matter. However, the mechanism of flavonoids 

back to sugar is still under study and it is not very clear.

3, orsweetnessic acids: orsweetnessic acids in tea will stimulate the secretion of

 salivary glands to produce a "sweet and return to sweet" feeling. There are many

 kinds of orsweetnessic acids in tea, and the content is about 3% of the total dry 

matter. Most of the orsweetnessic acids in tea are free orsweetnessic acids, such

 as malic acid, citric acid, succinic acid, oxalic acid, etc., and other orsweetnessic

 acids are formed during the tea making process. In the process of withering and

 greening of tea, the content of orsweetnessic acids will increase. Therefore, it is

 easier to feel the long-lasting returning of oolong tea, and the green tea that has 

been properly spread will show a certain degree of returning sweetness.

4. Sugar: Tea soup contains polysaccharides. These polysaccharides have no 

sweet taste, but have a certain viscosity, so they will stay in the mouth. Saliva 

contains salivary amylase, which catalyzes the decomposition of starch water 

into maltose, while maltose has a sweet taste. It takes a certain time for the 

enzyme to break down the polysaccharide, and this reaction time difference 

creates a feeling of "returning to the sweetness".

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