What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


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What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by skilfautdire » May 19th, '10, 22:34

I took for granted that a Puerh tea was a cake. Raw or cooked. Compressed tea in some sort of a cake. Of various shapes but mostly round. Compressed and eventually aged. That definition is nicely conveyed and pretty clear. But I see more and more Puerh tea that is not compressed. One could think it was once compressed and was uncompressed and then sold. That could be the case. But there's at least one tea tea called a raw Puerh tea, acutally made out of purple buds which looks like dark purple needles that does not unfold at all when steeped, that certainly does not and will never, as hard compressed as it could, be in the form of a cake. It is loose tea. And yet it is called a Puerh tea.

So then, what are the qualities and attributes of a tea that makes it a Puerh tea ? Certainly not only its compressed cake state...

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by bsteele » May 20th, '10, 00:19

Everything comes down to Pu.

Cardiovascular and lymphatic, yes, the nervous system, too!
All across the nation, we trust in defecation!
Everything comes down to Pu.

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by shah82 » May 20th, '10, 00:30

Ultimately, puerh is cheap tea from Western China using C. Assamica big leaf tea bushes (as opposed to small-leaf or C. Chinesis leaves) crafted for shipping and durability. It's quite a bit easier to send tea to some yurt in outer Mongolia with bricks with big, thick, leaves instead of sacks that grind every delicate leaf into fannings.

There was good stuff and bad stuff, but everything was bitter and active enough to be medicine as much as pleasurable drink.

Nowadays, people know how to make non-bitter pu, know how to rot pu in tasty ways, and many more consumers don't find bitterness or roughness a big problem. And now good pu is almost as expensive as good green tea, even before aging.

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by Proinsias » May 20th, '10, 00:40

This might help. I think one of our members, bearsbearsbears, is responsible for much of the article.

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by bearsbearsbears » May 20th, '10, 02:43

shah82 wrote:Ultimately, puerh is cheap tea from Western China using C. Assamica big leaf tea bushes (as opposed to small-leaf or C. Chinesis leaves)
Actually, it appears with a little research that Yunnanese have several varieties of Camellia they use for pu'er and have had them for some time. Sorry to confuse the issue even more :)

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by shah82 » May 20th, '10, 08:19

Oh, but I can guess, as well as many other places with their local wierdo variety that's more a seperate species. Tropical fruits are another hobby, and there are plenty of families that have brothers and sisters confused with cousins and nephews/nieces.

I was just thinking of the shortest possible story to tell, tho' probably just pointing to the wiki is fastest.

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by rabbit » May 20th, '10, 09:04

bsteele wrote:Everything comes down to Pu.

Cardiovascular and lymphatic, yes, the nervous system, too!
All across the nation, we trust in defecation!
Everything comes down to Pu.
T_T .................... again

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by Rithmomachy » May 20th, '10, 18:23

Doesn't the Chinese government have an official definition of pu erh? I know it has to be from Yunnan (as noted in the Wikipedia article), but there are other requirements as well, I assume.

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by entropyembrace » May 20th, '10, 19:02

I often wonder what exactly distinguishes puerh maocha from green tea...

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by Maitre_Tea » May 20th, '10, 19:08

entropyembrace wrote:I often wonder what exactly distinguishes puerh maocha from green tea...
IIRC, if the initial kill-green is done at too high a temperature it becomes green tea...not pu-erh. If the farmer takes too long before processing his harvest, letting the leaves wilt in his basket the tea is "oolong'ed"

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by Rithmomachy » May 20th, '10, 20:12

If it wilts before the kill-green, wouldn't be "whited"?

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by gingkoseto » May 20th, '10, 21:30

By Yunnan Province Standards for Puerh, official document (issued in 2003) DB53/103-2003,

"The raw materials of puerh comes from Yunnan big-leaf tea tree cultivars grown in certain regions of Yunnan. The leaf materials are sun-dried and processed (my notes: Based on context and practice in reality, I believe the "processing" here include both fast-fermentation of modern shu puerh and slow-fermentation during the course of traditional storage.) with post-fermentation (my notes: this is in contrast with pre-fermentation/oxidation in red tea. In puerh, fermentation happens after the enzymes in tea leaves are partially killed.) to become loose tea or compressed tea of puerh. Puerh products are of brown to red color; the liquor is dense, bright red, with unique aged aroma, rich flavor and sweet aftertaste; the spent leaves are of brown to red color."

What do you think of this definition? :D

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by gingkoseto » May 20th, '10, 21:34

entropyembrace wrote:I often wonder what exactly distinguishes puerh maocha from green tea...
Some say puerh maocha is a type of green - sun-dried green. But some others say No, no, no... :D

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by chrl42 » May 21st, '10, 00:14

I often wonder what exactly distinguishes puerh maocha from green tea...
There is a difference during 'rubbing' procedure,

Maocha is rubbed weakly then sun-dried

Green tea is rubbed hard then machine-dried

So there's a saying Maocha sees the aging more positively and quickly..

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Re: What makes a Puerh tea a Puerh tea ?

by chrl42 » May 21st, '10, 00:30

shah82 wrote:Ultimately, puerh is cheap tea from Western China using C. Assamica big leaf tea bushes (as opposed to small-leaf or C. Chinesis leaves) crafted for shipping and durability. It's quite a bit easier to send tea to some yurt in outer Mongolia with bricks with big, thick, leaves instead of sacks that grind every delicate leaf into fannings.

There was good stuff and bad stuff, but everything was bitter and active enough to be medicine as much as pleasurable drink.

Nowadays, people know how to make non-bitter pu, know how to rot pu in tasty ways, and many more consumers don't find bitterness or roughness a big problem. And now good pu is almost as expensive as good green tea, even before aging.
Historically, there are records Puerh had been drunk among the aristocracy and officials in Beijing and regarded very highly. There was also a tribute sent over to Beijing court reguarly. They were young leaves mostly sent from Yiwu, also good Gushu leaves I don't find much bitterness in them they are very pleasurable drink even when young IMHO. Today, the priciest camellia sinensis is expected to be Puerh (like Tribute Melon Tea), the one records highest these days at auction, also is Puerh.

There are Small-Leaf-Variety and Middle-Leaf-Variety in Yunnan made for Puerh as well, but doesn't see many popularity and some dispute its weakness is not appropriate for aging. I also heard some Chinese says it's var. macrophylla that is used for Puerh, not var. assamica. :mrgreen: I've noticed it's var assamica (Mast.) Chang credited many time..this is hella confusing for me....but looks like they were trying to say Puerh Big-Leaf-Variety is basically offspring of Indian camellica sinensis or visa verce.. :mrgreen:

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