We all know that aged Tea like Pu'erh, Heicha or some Oolongs gain power within their taste and texture over the years of aging but what about the natural vitamins, minerals etc. which are contained inside those fresh harvested leaves? With green tea it is said that it looses its healthy benefits at least after two years. So if a green tea is loosing it's healthy vitamin aspects because age faded it out - isn't it the same with Pu'erh & co?
I mean great taste is one thing and a very important one but later onward is it just a simple aged because of bacteria gained more complex taste or are those vitamins & co still playing a part within? Or are they simple said totally gone and faded after 2 years of storing too? So does this mean a 10 year old Pu'erh does not contain anything healthy vitamin-ish anymore?
Re: Does aged tea only lose content or gain some too?
Not a scientist, but from my understanding you get other beneficial things from aged tea due to the changing of its components. A bit like any other preserved food, benefits of fresh milk and cheese aren’t the same.
According to common knowledge among Taiwan tea aficionados, aged gaoshan is more digestable and actually better for your health as opposed to the more greener/younger teas. Which you can easily see when drinking tea on an empty stomach, not a good experience with most "young” teas, no problem with laocha (still speaking of Taiwanese aged tea).
Most old people here drink old tea
May also be due to the fact, that laocha is among the priciest teas in Taiwan. Time is money!
According to common knowledge among Taiwan tea aficionados, aged gaoshan is more digestable and actually better for your health as opposed to the more greener/younger teas. Which you can easily see when drinking tea on an empty stomach, not a good experience with most "young” teas, no problem with laocha (still speaking of Taiwanese aged tea).
Most old people here drink old tea
May also be due to the fact, that laocha is among the priciest teas in Taiwan. Time is money!
Re: Does aged tea only lose content or gain some too?
so in short the answer to your question is not to loose or gain, it simply changes. Different content. Provided that the original material was god quality and properly stored, otherwise aold tea is just that, old.
Re: Does aged tea only lose content or gain some too?
Fresh tea has EGCG and other polyphenols that decompose with time. Green teas should be consumed quickly or refrigerated. Japanese sencha is great for you, but has a very short shelf life once you open the bag.
Green tea is so good for you. Fresh oolong tea and raw pu erh maocha would have similar benefits. Aging pu erh makes the tea easier to drink and the levels of probiotics might increase and then wane as well in older stuff since pu erh is basically actively decomposing.
Aged oolongs get easier to drink; as far as health benefits? Less than with fresh tea. Unless you get an aged tea that is actively decomposing like pu erh, and I have seen aged oolongs like that
All teas, unless loaded with pesticides and fertilizer, are good for you.
All teas, when consumed in excess, are also bad for you. You don't want stuff that is too moldy either--I've seen some horrible wet storage in the last few years.
Green tea is so good for you. Fresh oolong tea and raw pu erh maocha would have similar benefits. Aging pu erh makes the tea easier to drink and the levels of probiotics might increase and then wane as well in older stuff since pu erh is basically actively decomposing.
Aged oolongs get easier to drink; as far as health benefits? Less than with fresh tea. Unless you get an aged tea that is actively decomposing like pu erh, and I have seen aged oolongs like that
All teas, unless loaded with pesticides and fertilizer, are good for you.
All teas, when consumed in excess, are also bad for you. You don't want stuff that is too moldy either--I've seen some horrible wet storage in the last few years.
Re: Does aged tea only lose content or gain some too?
It's an interesting question, not completely unrelated to others I've considered before, so looked around to see what turns up for detailed answers. There is this paper, not freely available though:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf2015733
(Abstract) Pu-erh tea is a popular beverage in southwestern China and South Asian countries. To explain the differences of aged pu-erh tea and ripened pu-erh tea, the chemical constituents of these teas were identified by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn. In addition, HPLC was used to determine the contents of the major polyphenols, gallic acid, caffeine, and theobromine, in various types of teas. These results showed that the majority of chemical constituents in ripened pu-erh tea and aged pu-erh tea were similar, but the contents of catechins and gallic acid presented significant differences between these two teas. After fermentation by microorganism, the levels of catechins in ripened pu-erh tea were decreased, but the contents of gallic acid and caffeine were conversely elevated compared with aged pu-erh tea.
Next one might wonder what the health effects of catechins and gallic acid are, especially related to how that category of compounds varies by specific versions, and if their effective properties vary. Who knows. There is a database that attempts to lay out the health properties of various compounds found in tea but of course that would surely just be an early work in progress, there is no way they've mapped it all out (associated with the Anhui Agricultural University, in Hefei, China):
http://camellia.ahau.edu.cn/TBC2health
It was down just now, but Google had a saved page version available to view:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... vAT9qZeQCw
This research paper measures the microbial community found in aged samples of sheng pu'er, versus in shou, with some commentary on negative compounds present, the development of limited amounts of toxins related to fermentation:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0157847
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf2015733
(Abstract) Pu-erh tea is a popular beverage in southwestern China and South Asian countries. To explain the differences of aged pu-erh tea and ripened pu-erh tea, the chemical constituents of these teas were identified by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn. In addition, HPLC was used to determine the contents of the major polyphenols, gallic acid, caffeine, and theobromine, in various types of teas. These results showed that the majority of chemical constituents in ripened pu-erh tea and aged pu-erh tea were similar, but the contents of catechins and gallic acid presented significant differences between these two teas. After fermentation by microorganism, the levels of catechins in ripened pu-erh tea were decreased, but the contents of gallic acid and caffeine were conversely elevated compared with aged pu-erh tea.
Next one might wonder what the health effects of catechins and gallic acid are, especially related to how that category of compounds varies by specific versions, and if their effective properties vary. Who knows. There is a database that attempts to lay out the health properties of various compounds found in tea but of course that would surely just be an early work in progress, there is no way they've mapped it all out (associated with the Anhui Agricultural University, in Hefei, China):
http://camellia.ahau.edu.cn/TBC2health
It was down just now, but Google had a saved page version available to view:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/s ... vAT9qZeQCw
This research paper measures the microbial community found in aged samples of sheng pu'er, versus in shou, with some commentary on negative compounds present, the development of limited amounts of toxins related to fermentation:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0157847