The difference between dry picking and wet picking of bird's nest

Dry picking and wet picking of bird's nests actually refer to the processing methods of bird's nests. These are also the two more common processing methods of bird's nests. The so-called dry picking refers to selecting high-quality light-haired bird's nests, slightly wetting the bird's nests, soaking them in water, and then picking the hair without soaking them, so as to preserve a relatively complete shape. Wet picking means soaking the bird's nest completely in water and then picking out the hairs.

1. "Dry Picking"

The basic meaning is very good quality light-hair bird's nest. Because there are very few hairs, when processing, you only need to wet the bird's nest slightly or soak it in water, and pick out the hairs without soaking the bird's nest. The bird's nest grown by the dry picking method retains its complete shape, even the bird's sac fibers are kept intact.

2. "Wet Picking"

First, soak the bird's nest in water, then dry it with medical absorbent paper, and then pick out the hair. "Wet picking" is equivalent to the bird's nest having been soaked once during the process of picking hair, and there will be obvious gaps on the appearance after the nest shape has been reshaped. (The characteristics of wet-picked bird's nests are fine gaps)

3. Which of these two bird’s nest processing methods is better? In fact, this issue has been debated endlessly on the Internet and has never stopped. The process of picking out the feathers from bird's nests actually involves many aspects that ordinary consumers and even bird's nest distributors and sellers cannot fully understand.

We can compare from the following aspects:

1. Cleanliness of bird’s nest raw materials (raw bird’s nest)

The only raw bird's nest that can be picked by dry picking is the extremely light raw bird's nest, which has a very rare production. Because it contains few fine hairs and impurities, the impurities can be picked out by just dipping the bird's nest in water. However, there are still some small impurities and fine hairs stuck in the bird's nest body and base, which cannot be removed by dry picking. In addition, it is still difficult to keep the bird's net (bird's sac) intact. There are very few raw materials of bird's nest that are truly suitable for pure dry picking, and it is impossible to achieve mass production.

However, it is impossible to pick the hairy bird's nest dryly, and it can only be picked semi-wet or wetly, because there are many small hairs and black spots in the hairy bird's nest stuck in the bird's net, base, and inside the bird's body, and they cannot be removed without soaking the bird's nest. As for medium-light bird's nest and medium bird's nest, they contain more hair, more impurities, more black spots and small fine hairs, so they can only be picked using the wet picking process.

2. Cleanliness of hair picking

Cleanliness when picking out feathers is actually the most important issue, because you can use medium-light feather bird's nest or light feather bird's nest to pick out feathers, but the cleanliness will definitely not be achieved. Many factory-picked bird's nests still have hundreds of small black spots (fine hairs) in them. Of course, if the hairs are not picked finely enough, dry picking can be used for light-hair raw materials (dry picking here refers to the bird's nests dipped in water rather than pure dry picking), but the result is that hundreds of small black spots remain on the bird's body and the base and cannot be removed. Generally, such bird's nests are difficult to accept in the market.

The small black spots on the bird's nest cannot be completely removed after being dried, and this is what it becomes after being air-dried, because the small black spots are stuck in the bird's body.

Wet or semi-wet picking, soak the bird's nest thoroughly, and then look for black spots and fine hairs on the bird's body to achieve the purpose of picking it thoroughly.

3. Is nitrate qualified?

Nitrite is an issue that many regular factories consider, especially the Chinese government stipulates that the nitrite content of imported bird's nests must be below 30PPM. The nitrite in raw bird's nest is usually 100PPM. During the process of picking the feathers, it is necessary to soak and scrub the bird's nest with filtered water to dissolve and eliminate the nitrite in the bird's nest so that it can reach the standard of 30PPM.

4. Whether heavy metals exceed the standard

Since the dry picking method does not involve soaking in water, any heavy metals in the bird's nest will remain in the bird's nest. The wet picking method is used for soaking and washing several times. The bird's nest processing factory can remove heavy metals when washing the bird's nest to meet the national standards.

5. Bird's nest shape

The bird's nests grown by the dry picking method are large and thick, the original shape of the bird's nest can be completely preserved, and it is not easy to break during transportation.

The bird's nest picked by wet picking is relatively deformed, the bird's sac fibers have been removed, the bird's nest is smaller in size and lighter in weight, and is easily broken during transportation.

6. Taste

The bird's nest picked by the dry method is more chewy, elastic and more resistant to stewing; the bird's nest picked by the wet method has a soft and delicate texture and is relatively tender and smooth.

7. Hair

The growth of bird's nest mainly depends on the quality of the raw bird's nest and the water content of the bird's nest itself. For bird's nests processed from high-quality raw bird's nests, the hair length can reach 8-9 times whether it is picked dry or wet. Some extremely dry bird's nests can even have up to 10 hairs. The water content of bird's nest is regulated by the country, and the water content of premium bird's nest shall not exceed 20%. The drier the bird's nest is, the better it is. If it is too dry, it will break into pieces with the slightest touch, which is not convenient for transportation.