Can I drink the first brew of Tieguanyin?

Can you drink the first brew of Tieguanyin? Many people don’t pay attention to this issue when drinking tea. Drinking tea is an art and it requires a lot of attention to detail. Generally, the first brew of Tieguanyin should be poured out. This is called washing the tea. The main purpose of this is to wash away the dust and pesticides on the surface of the tea leaves. Of course, doing this has its pros and cons, and may cause some of the nutrients in the tea to be lost. Let us take a closer look at this below.

Many people have misunderstandings about washing tea. When people use a teapot to brew oolong tea, it is customary to pour out the first brew of tea, which is called "washing the tea." Some tea lovers explain that this is done because it is necessary to wash away unclean impurities in the tea leaves, such as tea ash and dust. They believe that people who don't "wash tea" are "unhygienic" and "don't understand the art of tea." But have you ever thought that by “washing tea” in this way, the essence of the tea leaves is also washed away unknowingly? Here, one must pay attention to distinguishing different teas. Not all teas need to be washed, and green tea does not need this step. Second, one must pay attention to the technique. If one really needs to wash the tea, then it must be done cleanly and neatly, without dragging its feet, to reduce the loss of effective substances in the tea leaves.

In fact, according to scholars' research, the term "washing tea" was first used in the Northern Song Dynasty. It was originally a term used in the process of tea picking and was later extended to the process of drinking tea. After the fresh leaves are picked from the tea trees, they undergo primary processing and refining, which involves many steps such as making green leaves, frying in pots, rolling, baking, screening and picking, etc., which not only ensure the quality of the tea, but also meet the hygiene standards. Occasionally there are foreign objects such as tea ash and dust, which can be quickly removed by pouring out the boiling water. The first operation of brewing tea is mainly to soak it, which is conducive to the expansion of the tea leaves and the extraction of tea juice, so that the drinker can quickly feel the fragrance of the tea, rather than simply to wash away the unhygienic substances in the tea leaves.

The first brew of tea contains more effective ingredients, such as tea polyphenols, amino acids, ether extracts, etc., which are not only beneficial to human health, but also show the delicious taste of tea. According to relevant experiments, the aroma of tea and ingredients beneficial to the human body begin to seep out 3 seconds after the first brew. If the tea is poured out after more than 3 seconds, a large amount of effective ingredients in the tea will be lost.