Tea liquor color and how to know its artificial?

Well I can't answer your question, but I have a distantly related one
myself. I was brewing some longjing at work and after maybe the fourth
or fifth brew I forgot about it in my yixing-style cup and went home
for the day. The color while I was drinking it was normal.

Yet when I came in the next morning, the tea was a dark brown color
with an oily sheen on the surface. It didn't smell strong or have a
particular strong flavor (I hesitantly tried a small sip before
throwing it out). I was trying to remember if I had brewed something
else that I didn't remember, but I am almost positive it was a fourth
or fifth brewing of the longjing I had brewed the day before. I can't
imagine that my few-month old yixing style cup was "seasoned" enough
to change the color that severely.

Has anyone had brewed tea dramatically change color before?

cha bing

That, my friend, is oxidation. (Well, the brownness anyway, not the
oil slick.) It's the same process that causes food (especially things
like avocados) to turn brown when left exposed to the air. Sencha
does this very rapidly-- sometimes in just a few hours it will go from
a brilliant green to an entirely unappealing brown.

-Brent

thx,

it could very well be low grade, it was the cheapest LJ from this
company
3$/oz, i have the more expensive one too a small amount, but didnt
brew it yet

so ill be looking for nice shoots next time :)

> To be honest it looks quite low grade, with tea leaves rather than tea
> shoots.
> I have got some pictures on a longjing tea for you to compare note.

> I've even been taken before when I thought for sure I had bought some
> decent Dragonwell from Ten Ren. It cost a ton, smelled good, was
> supposedly from that season, and in the end it was junk. In fact if
> you search the archives I posted a few times about it asking about the
> oil slick. It happens.
>
> - Dominic

There are often tea shows that come to Shenzhen or Guangzhou that I
attend. Some of the stalls have large amounts of various teas for
sale in big tins and you can walk over and touch the teas. If you
ever get the chance with longjing, put your hand flat down on the
leaves and then see if any of the leaves stick to your hand. The most
oily tea that I have ever seen has been Longjing.

I came across some pretty terribly adulterated Qie She this spring
too. The tea professor's daughter tried to peddle it to me without
opening the box...boy was she surprised to see how oily the tea was.

Hmm maybe the tea is bit older or have been kept for a long time.
green tea that has lost if freshness somehow yields a yellower liquor
with my experience.
idoubt they put color to it.

> Just to clarify - oily almost always means adulterated?

I guess not really...it just seems nasty.