Evaluating Liquor Color: From Yellow-Green to Deep Red
Liquor color is the most intuitive of the five evaluation factors; you can see it without any training. But reading liquor color well means distinguishing three things: color (what hue it is), brightness (how much light passes through), and clarity (how clean it is). Color tells you the tea's type and age, while brightness and clarity reveal the state of its processing and storage.
How to Look Accurately
- Use white porcelain or clear glass cups: Colored cups skew the liquor color.
- Look in natural light: Yellow lighting makes the liquor look redder and darker.
- Look while it's hot: Liquor color changes with temperature and time, and tends to darken or turn hazy as it cools.
- Pour the same amount when comparing: Different depths of tea in the cup make the color look different.
In evaluation, the first infusion's liquor color is the main reference, because it best reflects the tea's true color; later infusions gradually get lighter.
How Raw Tea's Liquor Color Changes
Raw tea's liquor color is closely tied to age and storage, roughly following this path:
| Stage | Common liquor color | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Current-year tea | Pale yellow-green, yellow-green | A green tint, clear |
| 2–5 years | Golden, yellow | The green fades into a bright yellow |
| 5–10 years | Orange-yellow, deep yellow | Starting to show orange |
| Over 10 years | Orange-red, amber, chestnut red | Getting ever darker, approaching red |
This is a general direction; the actual pace depends heavily on the storage environment: more humid storage changes color faster, dry storage more slowly. So liquor color can only serve as a reference for age, not as proof. Two cakes from the same year stored in different places can differ greatly in color after 10 years. The related transformation process is covered in How Pu'er Ages.
Reading Fermentation from Ripe Tea's Color
Ripe tea goes through wodui pile fermentation, so its liquor is red-toned from the start. The depth of color roughly reflects the degree of fermentation:
- Light fermentation: Reddish brown with a hint of orange, fairly translucent; sometimes you can still taste a little of raw tea's freshness.
- Medium fermentation: Deep red and bright, like red wine or dark amber; the most common ripe tea color.
- Heavy fermentation: Deep red approaching blackish brown, heavy in color with poor translucency.
The national standard describes the liquor of quality ripe tea as "deep red and bright": red and deep, yet letting light through. A dull, blackish liquor that you can't see through may indicate over-fermentation; if it also tastes burnt and the spent leaves are hard and black, it may be carbonized. Details on fermentation levels are in Ripe Tea Fermentation Levels.
What Does Cloudy Liquor Mean?
Cloudiness has several causes; some are harmless, some deserve attention:
- Lots of fine bits: Broken leaves and dust from prying are poured out with the tea, making it hazy. A strainer solves this.
- Cream-down: The milky haze that appears when strong tea cools, caused by components in the tea combining and coming out of solution at low temperature. It's common in teas rich in compounds and usually clears when rewarmed.
- Steeped too long and too strong: Over-steeping makes the liquor dark and opaque.
- Fine down from tips: In bud-rich teas, the white down floats in the liquor and looks slightly hazy; this is normal.
- Moisture during storage: If the liquor is cloudy and dark and also smells moldy or sour, there's a storage problem.
Judge in combination with aroma and taste: if it's just hazy, with a clean aroma and a normal taste, it's most likely one of the first four; only cloudiness plus off-flavors calls for caution.
Does Brightness Matter?
Very much, even more than the color itself. Evaluation terms often pair color with brightness, as in "yellow-green and bright," "deep red and bright," "orange-yellow and clear." A bright liquor means the tea is clear with few impurities, and processing and storage are mostly sound. Of two cups of the same color, one bright and one dull, the ratings will differ greatly.
Some tea drinkers say good tea has an "oil sheen," meaning the surface of the liquor seems to have a glossy luster. It's an intuitive description, related to how much has dissolved into the tea, and can serve as a reference.
Practice
- Brew two teas at the same time and pour them into two white porcelain cups side by side; the differences will be very clear.
- Photograph the liquor color by a window with your phone and note the date; photograph the same tea again in a few years, and you'll see the color shift.
- Practice describing it with standard vocabulary; common terms are in A Small Dictionary of Liquor Color Terms.
Taking a young raw tea like the Bingdao Old Village Dragon Pearls as an example, the brewed liquor is mostly a bright yellow-green to pale gold, exactly what a young tea should look like.
FAQ
How does raw tea's liquor color change? Yellow-green when young, golden at 2–5 years, orange-tinged at 5–10 years, and moving toward orange-red and amber after 10 years; the pace varies with the storage environment.
How can I read fermentation from ripe tea's color? Light fermentation is reddish brown with orange and fairly translucent; medium fermentation is deep red and bright; heavy fermentation is deep red near blackish brown with poor translucency.
Does cloudy liquor mean it's gone bad? Not necessarily. Fine bits, cream-down, and white down can all make tea hazy; only cloudiness with a moldy or sour smell indicates a storage problem.
Does brightness matter? Very much. Of two teas of the same color, the bright one usually reflects better processing and storage, while a dull one gets a lower rating.