Study On Yingde Tea Culture And The Quality Characteristics Of Yingde Black Tea

Yingde,which was known as Yingzhou in ancient times,became a famous place for tea long ago due to its unique location of Southern subtropical and plant resources.Many wars and turmoil in the early 20 th century made tea culture and black tea industry in Yingde seriously retrogress.In the 1950 s,the People’s Republic of China established the policy of “reducing and developing tea production vigorously”.Since then,Yingde tea industry has officially entered the development track of scale,seed and mechanization.Throughout history,Yingde tea industry has shown a spiral transformation and upgrading trend under the joint effect of science and technology,culture,economy and social development.Regarding the research of Yingde black tea,in the past,it mainly focused on the cultivation of tea varieties,cultivation and processing techniques of high quality and high yield.However,research on the quality characteristics of Yingde black tea and tea culture in Yingde is currently rare.And the research on the inevitable connection between the formation of the quality characteristics of Yingde black tea and Yingde tea culture and its analysis with the development strategy of the industry has not been reported so far.In this paper,on the one hand,through the examination of ancient books and archives materials and field trips,the development process of modern Yingde tea and tea culture are deeply explored and systematically combed;on the other hand,by comparing the quality between black tea at home and abroad and between different grades of Yingde black tea,the quality characteristics of Yingde black tea were analyzed.The chemical and human factors of the quality characteristics of Yingde black tea were further explored,which provided a theoretical basis for the improvement of quality and product innovation of black tea.Based on the research on the relationship between cultural characteristics and quality characteristics,SWOT method is used to analyze the strategic model of Yingde black tea,and some strategic suggestions for the transformation of Yingde black tea into high quality development in the new era are proposed.It is hoped to provide reference for government-related decision-making.The main findings of this paper are as follows.(1)Yingde tea began during the reign of the Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties and has been at least 1,500 years old.Throughout the history of Yingde tea industry,this paper divides it into six stages: the first stage began in the initial development stage of the Southern Dynasty(from the beginning of the 6th century to the end of the 17 th century).The second phase began in the prosperous development stage of the Qing Dynasty(1760 to 1890).The third stage began in the period of the sharp decline of the Republic of China in the late Qing Dynasty(1891 to 1949).The fourth stage is the recovery and revitalization stage(1950 to 1985)after the founding of People’s Republic of China.The fifth stage began with the structural transformation phase after the reform and opening up(1986 to 2010).The sixth phase is a high-quality development phase driven by R&D(2011 to present).The above six stages all have obvious characteristics of the times.(2)Cultural heritage related to tea culture in Yingde such as folklore,tea poetry and tea songs,tea kiosks and tea tables,temples and Taoist temples were systematically excavated and organized.Combining the social development and human history of Yingde area,it reveals the four basic characteristics of Yingde tea culture of “openness,diversity,adaptability and advancement”.These four characteristics are intertwined and depend on each other to form the unique cultural connotation of Yingde.(3)Different from the sensory quality characteristics of black tea at home and abroad,Yingde black tea has the characteristics of being as sweet as sugar cane,fragrant like orchid,lasting fragrance,fresh and rich flavor,sweet and moist,and bright red soup.Its characteristic aroma components are 11 kinds of sweet floral fragrances mainly composed of linalool.The characteristic taste mainly depends on its high content of water extract,tea polyphenols,caffeine,soluble sugar,TFs,TRs,ester catechin,catechin total,low ratio of ester/non-ester catechin.(4)The sensory quality characteristics of different grades of Yingde black tea are highly correlated with the content of the main quality ingredients,and the difference between the different grades is significant.The results showed that under the normal processing conditions,with the decrease of raw material tenderness grade,the grade and sensory quality level of Yingde black tea gradually decreased,the color of tea soup decreased from orange red to slightly red,the phenomenon of "golden circle" and " cold muddy” is gradually decreasing.The characteristics of “as sweet as sugar cane,fragrant like orchid” and “autumn aroma and tender aroma” gradually decrease with the decrease of tea grade,and the thickness and richness of tea soup gradually decrease.The content of tea polyphenols,free amino acids and caffeine in Yingde black tea decreased with the decrease of grade,and the soluble sugar content increased step by step.The contents of TFs,TRs and TB in different grades of Yingde black tea were significantly different.With the decrease of grade,the contents of TRs and TB increased step by step,and the ratio of TFs/TB decreased step by step.The total amount of catechins,ester catechins and non-ester catechins in the special graded to second grade decreased significantly with the decrease of grade.The ratio of ester/non-ester catechins and the EGCG,ECG and GCG components with astringency are the highest in the special grade.The content of linalool reached the highest in the first grade black tea,and then decreased step by step.The 16 aroma components such as phenylethanol,geraniol,α-terpineol,n-hexanol,(E)-3,7-dimethyl-1,5,7-oct-3-en-3-ol,cis-3,7-Dimethyl-2,6-octadienol positively correlated with the grade or quality level of Yingde black tea.It is speculated that linalool is the most important characteristic aroma component of high-grade Yingde black tea.16 kinds of aroma components such as phenylethyl alcohol,geraniol and α-terpineol are the main aroma components that affect the grade of Yingde black tea,which can be used as an important chemical evaluation indicator of sensory quality of Yingde black tea.(5)According to the analysis of the social and cultural background of Yingde,there are mainly six factors influencing the formation of the characteristic quality of Yingde black tea,that is,regional natural condition factors in Yingde,factors of tea tree variety,factors of planting and processing technology,factors of tea technology promotion in Yingde,and factors of humanities characteristic in Yingde,the social background factors of Yingde.All of the above six factors have a direct or indirect impact on the quality characteristics of Yingde black tea.(6)Based on the quality of Yingde tea culture,the quality of tea and the status quo of black tea industry,the SWOT analysis method was used and six suggestions for promoting the development of Yingde black tea industry in the new era are proposed.This will provide reference for how to realize the cultural value,economic value,social value and government decision-making of the Yingde black tea industry in the new era.