通过铁观音叶底，我们能看到什么?

通过铁观音叶底，我们能看到什么?

叶底即铁观音茶叶冲泡后剩下的茶渣。安溪铁观音茶叶在冲泡之后吸水膨胀，使叶片还原为原有的形状。一款茶从采摘到加工存储的合理与否，都可以在叶底中暴露无遗。

看叶底，主要是从嫩度、色泽、匀度三个方面来入手。

1

嫩度

所谓嫩度，就是看一款铁观音茶中，芽头及嫩叶的含量和总体叶质的老嫩。

很多茶在没有泡开时，由于制作工艺的关系，不太容易分辨其芽头和嫩叶的含量，而通过叶底则很好辨别。拿起几片铁观音茶叶将其平摊开来，我们就能看出它的采摘级别是单芽、一芽一叶初展还是一芽二三叶之类了。

辨别叶片整体的老嫰程度，除了眼睛看之外，还要用手来揿压。分辨的总体原则是：

Ⅰ. 手指揿压叶底柔软有韧性的嫩度好；质硬，放手后松起的表示叶质老。

Ⅱ. 叶脉不隆起平滑如绸缎的为嫩；叶脉隆起触手的为老。

Ⅲ. 叶子边缘锯齿平和的为嫩;叶边缘锯齿状明显的为老。

Ⅳ. 叶肉厚软的为最佳，代表嫩度好、内含物质丰富，多为高山优质茶原料;柔软但薄的一般，多为台地茶原料；又硬又薄的最差。

2

色泽

叶底的色泽能非常直观地反应一款铁观音茶的原料和加工优劣。观察叶底色泽最好能有几款茶放在一起对比来看，否则容易受到光线、环境和主观因素影响。

叶底色泽分辨的总体原则是：

Ⅰ. 颜色要正常。所谓的正常，就是具备茶类应有的颜色要求。比如说看绿茶，那就以嫩绿、黄绿、翠绿为佳，深绿色较差，青蓝色为最差(说明原料使用了紫芽茶)，如果有爆点(雨天茶)、焦叶、红叶、红梗子、叶片糜烂那就更不好了。

Ⅱ. 色泽要亮！要亮!要亮!重要的事情说三遍。亮，并不是说叶子自己会发光，而是一种鲜活、润泽、饱满、富有生命力的表现。那么怎样的叶底算亮呢?这就是考验品茶段位的时候了，因为在这个问题上文字的表现力实在是匮乏的，你只有亲眼见过这种充满活力的明亮，才会明白。如果一定要类比，那就像早春雨后刚刚萌发的树芽，那种富有生命力的明亮，是夏天、秋天的树叶所无法具备的。

3

匀度

在看叶底的三个项目中，匀度是相对比较次要的。所谓匀度，就是看一款茶的老嫩、大小、厚薄、整碎是不是比较统一。

这和一款茶的采摘加工管理有关。有的铁观音茶农采茶不管三七二十一，一把抓，那么从叶底上反映出来的就是大大小小很不匀整。在加工时，有的安溪铁观音茶厂把不同山头、不同批次采摘的茶不加辨别地混在一起加工，也会出现匀度很差的情况。

匀度差，代表采茶做茶不严谨、不规范、不认真。

4

其他

除了以上三点之外，还要注意叶底的舒展程度。

大多数铁观音茶叶在制作过程中，都会经历揉捻或包揉的等做形的工序，工艺过关的茶，在经过开水高温冲泡之后，叶片会自然舒展开来，恢复到原有的形状。一些揉捻较重的茶比如乌龙茶等，完全舒展后仍然会稍有卷曲，这都是正常的。

但如果冲泡之后叶底完全摊开如纸、或者紧缩泡不开，那都是工艺存在缺陷的表现。这两年岩茶很火，一些茶厂以重火炭焙来掩盖茶原有的缺陷，对于这样的茶，我们就可以通过叶底是卷曲舒展有活力还是紧缩黑硬来加以辨别。

最后，把玩过的铁观音茶渣也不要丢弃，可以将其放在一边，隔一段时间后再去嗅闻，此时的“冷香”是辨别一款安溪铁观音好茶能不能位列极品的重要指标，绿茶、红茶、乌龙茶概莫能外。

Through the bottom of Tieguanyin leaves, what can we see?

The bottom of the leaves is the residue left after the tea leaves are brewed. After brewing, Anxi Tieguanyin tea absorbs water and expands, restoring the leaves to their original shape. Whether a tea is reasonable or not from picking to processing and storage can be fully exposed in the bottom of the leaf.

Looking at the bottom of the leaves, we mainly start from three aspects: tenderness, color and evenness.

1

tenderness

The so-called tenderness refers to the content of buds and young leaves in a Tieguanyin tea, as well as the overall tenderness of the leaves.

When many teas are not brewed, due to the production process, it is not easy to distinguish the content of their buds and young leaves, but they can be easily distinguished by the bottom of the leaves. Picking up a few pieces of Tieguanyin tea leaves and spreading them out, we can see whether the picking level is single bud, one bud and one leaf, or one bud, two or three leaves.

To identify the overall age and tenderness of the leaves, in addition to looking at them with your eyes, you should also press them with your hands. The general principles of discrimination are:

Ⅰ. Pressing the bottom of the leaves with your fingers is soft and tough, and the tenderness is good; the texture is hard, and the leaves that loosen up after you let go indicate that the leaves are old.

Ⅱ. Leaf veins are not raised and smooth like satin, which is young; leaf veins are raised and tentacles are old.

Ⅲ. The leaf edge with smooth serrations is young; the leaf edge with obvious serrations is old.

Ⅳ. Thick and soft mesophyll is the best, representing good tenderness and rich content, and is mostly high-quality tea raw materials from high mountains; soft but thin in general, mostly Taiwanese tea raw materials; hard and thin are the worst.

2

color

The color of the bottom of the leaf can very intuitively reflect the raw material and processing quality of a Tieguanyin tea. To observe the color of the leaf base, it is best to compare several teas together, otherwise it will be easily affected by light, environment and subjective factors.

The general principle of leaf bottom color distinction is:

Ⅰ. The color should be normal. The so-called normal is to have the color requirements that tea should have. For example, when looking at green tea, light green, yellow-green, and emerald green are the best, dark green is poor, and blue-blue is the worst (indicating that the raw material uses purple bud tea). , red stalks, leaf erosion is even worse.

Ⅱ. The color should be bright! Be bright! Be bright! Important things are said three times. Bright does not mean that the leaves will shine by themselves, but a manifestation of freshness, moistness, fullness and vitality. So what kind of leaf bottom is bright? This is the time to test the tea rank, because the expressive power of words is really lacking on this issue, and you will only understand if you have seen this vibrant brightness with your own eyes. If we have to make an analogy, it is like a tree bud that has just sprouted after the rain in early spring, the kind of vitality and brightness that leaves in summer and autumn cannot have.

3

evenness

Among the three items looking at the bottom of the leaf, evenness is relatively minor. The so-called evenness refers to whether a tea is relatively uniform in age, size, thickness, and whole pieces.

This is related to the picking and processing management of a tea. Some tea farmers pick tea regardless of whether it is 3721 or 3721, and then the bottom of the leaf reflects the unevenness of large and small. During processing, some Anxi Tieguanyin tea factories mix teas picked from different hills and batches without discrimination, resulting in poor evenness.

Poor uniformity means that tea picking is not rigorous, normative, or serious.

4

other

In addition to the above three points, pay attention to the degree of stretch of the bottom of the leaf.

Most of the Tieguanyin tea leaves will go through the shaping process such as rolling or wrapping in the production process. After the tea has passed the process, after being brewed with boiling water at high temperature, the leaves will naturally stretch out and return to the original shape. Some teas with heavier rolling, such as oolong tea, will still curl slightly after fully stretched, which is normal.

However, if the bottom of the leaf is completely spread out like paper after brewing, or if the foam cannot be opened after shrinking, it is a sign of a defect in the craftsmanship. In the past two years, rock tea has been very popular. Some tea factories have used heavy charcoal roasting to cover up the original defects of the tea. For this kind of tea, we can distinguish it by whether the bottom of the leaf is curled and stretched with vitality or tightened and hardened.

Finally, don't throw away the Tieguanyin tea residues that you have played with. You can put them aside and smell them after a while. The "cold fragrance" at this time is an important indicator to distinguish whether a good tea can be ranked the best. , green tea, black tea, oolong tea is no exception.