Pu-Erh Tea

 The remarkable Pu-Erh tea may not be as popular as its other tea counterparts. We guarantee though that after you have taken a taste of it yourself, you may well be convinced that this is how tea should truly be!

 Pu-erh–also known as Pu'er tea, Puer tea or Bolay tea–is a type of tea that is made primarily from the "large leaf" variety of the Camellia sinensis plant. Its name comes from the Pu'er county near Simao, in Yunnan, China.

 Pu-erh tea is available either as the raw, green sheng form, or as the ripened, cooked shou. These two different varieties are dependent on the method of processing or aging used to produce them. Sheng pu-erh is further classified in terms of tea oxidation level as a green tea, with the shou variant being classified as a post-fermented tea. The fact that pu-erh fits into more than one category of tea has obviously presented some challenges with regard to classification. This is why pu-erh is most often classified as a post-fermented tea product, with its "green tea" aspects simply ignored. Pu-erh can either be drunk immediately after processing or aged for many years, unlike other teas that are intended for consumption shortly after production. In fact, pu-erh teas are typically classified to the year and region of production much like wines are.

 If you are in the market for genuine aged pu-erh tea, you should be aware that there are many counterfeit brands that you should be on the lookout against. While real aged pu-erh tea can be quite difficult to find, it is still possible to find some that are 10 to 50 years old, and even a few that come from the late Qing dynasty. As you can imagine, the older pu-erh teas fetch high prices on the market, with tea connoisseurs and speculators often willing to pay exorbitant amounts, sometimes even several thousands of dollars per cake.

 Pu-erh tea is traditionally made from the leaves of the old wild tea trees known as "broad leaf tea" or Camellia sinensis var. assamica. These plants are typically found in the southwest part of China as well as the nearby tropical regions of Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and India. The shoots and young leaves that come from this plant are usually covered with fine hairs, with the pekoe or two leaf and bud section markedly larger than those of other tea plants. The leaves of the plant also differ slightly in terms of chemical composition, resulting in a different taste and smell, as well as different aging characteristics.

 Pu-erh is particularly favored by experienced tea drinkers for its compressed form, and for the fact that it holds up well to aging and produces a pleasant drink. Given adequate storage, the tea takes on a characteristic dark color and mellow flavor that makes it different from other teas. The pu-erh tea leaves are often compressed into cakes or bricks form, which are then wrapped in various materials and stored away from moisture, heat, and light in order to aid in the maturing process. This process of pressing and aging the pu-erh leaves into cake form possibly stems from the natural aging process that occurred in the old storerooms of tea drinkers and merchants, and on horseback caravans that plied the ancient tea routes in Yunnan and northern parts of China. It is thought that compressing the tea into these forms resulted in easier transport and also served to reduce damage to the tea.

 The process of preparing pu-erh tea involves separating a fairly large portion of the tea cake for brewing. This is either done by breaking off pieces of the cake or by steaming the whole cake until it softens. A pu-erh knife is then used to break off large horizontal bits of tea off the cake in a way that will minimize the risk of leaf breakage.

 In most cases, pu-erh tea is generally served in the Gongfu style, most often in Yixing teaware or a gaiwan, which is a type of Chinese teacup. The optimum brewing temperatures for these types of teas generally range around 95 degree Celsius for pu-erh teas of lower quality to 85 to 89 degree Celsius for ripened and aged raw pu-erh. The steeping times range from 12 to 30 seconds for the first few infusions, with the later infusions taking up to 2 to 10 minutes. Keep in mind that the long steeping procedures used by western tea makers is not usually a good idea for pu-erh teas, since it can result in a dark, bitter, and even unpleasant brew. Using high quality aged pu-erh can actually yield many more infusions, with different flavors arising when brewed in the traditional Gong-Fu manner.

 In fact, the prolonged fermentation in ripened pu-erh as well as the slow oxidization of aged raw pu-erh, results in a distinct lack of the bitter, astringent taste that many other teas exhibit when subjected to the same process. These types of teas can even be brewed much stronger and for several times, with up to 20 or even more infusions possible form a single pot.