Pu Er Cha Tea

[herbsandhelpers]

Pu-erh, Pu'er tea, Puer tea or Bolay tea is a type of tea made from a "large leaf" variety of the tea plant Camellia sinensis and named after Pu'er county near Simao, Yunnan, China.
Pu-erh tea can be purchased as either raw/green (sheng) or ripened/cooked (shu), depending on processing method or aging. Sheng pu-erh can be roughly classified on the tea oxidation scale as a green tea, and the shou or aged-green variants as post-fermented tea. The fact that pu-erh fits in more than one tea type poses some problems for classification. For this reason, the "green tea" aspect of pu-erh is sometimes ignored, and the tea is regarded solely as a post-fermented product. Unlike other teas that should ideally be consumed shortly after production, pu-erh can be drunk immediately or aged for many years; pu-erh teas are often now classified by year and region of production much like wine vintages.
While there are many counterfeit pu-erhs on the market and real aged pu-erh is difficult to find and identify, it is still possible to find pu-erh that is 10 to 50 years old, as well as a few from the late Qing dynasty. Indeed, tea connoisseurs and speculators are willing to pay high prices for older pu-erh, upwards of thousands of dollars per cake.
Pu-erh tea is available as loose leaf or as cakes of compacted tea.

Health

Potential effects of tea on health
Drinking pu-erh tea is purported to reduce blood cholesterol[31]. This belief has been backed up by scientific studies not only demonstrating experimental results of lowered LDL cholesterol in rats, but discovering specific mechanisms through which chemicals in Pu-erh tea inhibit the synthesis of cholesterol. Pu-erh tea has been shown to have antimutagenic and antimicrobial properties as well.
It is also widely believed in Chinese cultures to counteract the unpleasant effects of heavy alcohol consumption. In traditional Chinese medicine, the tea is believed to invigorate the spleen and inhibit "dampness." In the stomach, it is believed to reduce heat and "descends qi".
Pu-erh tea is widely sold as a weight loss tea or used as a main ingredient in such commercially prepared tea mixtures. Though there is as yet no empirically backed evidence as to how pu-erh might facilitate weight loss, there are widely proposed explanations include that the tea increases the drinker's metabolism, or that the high tannin[dubious – discuss] content in the tea binds macronutrients and coagulate digestive enzymes, thus reducing nutrient absorption. Although evidence is still sparse, it has been shown that rats experience reduction in body weight, blood triglycerides, and blood cholesterol following a diet containing pu-erh tea.
Some pu-erh brick tea has been found to contain very high levels of fluorine, because it is generally made from lesser quality older tea leaves and stems, which accumulate fluorine. Its consumption has led to fluorosis (a form of fluoride poisoning that affects the bones and teeth) in areas of high brick tea consumption, such as Tibet.

Investment

Pu-erh tea can generally improve in taste over time (due to natural secondary oxidation and fermentation). Teas that can be aged finely are typically:
Made from high quality material
Processed skillfully
Stored properly over the years
The common misconception is that all types of pu-erh tea will improve in taste—and therefore get more valuable as an investment item—as they get older. There are many requisite variables for a pu-erh tea to age beautifully. Further, the cooked (shou) pu-erh will not evolve as dramatically as the raw (sheng) type will over time from the secondary oxidation and fermentation.
As with wine, only the finely made and properly stored ones will improve and increase in value. Similarly, the percentage of those that will improve over a long period of time is only a small fraction of what is available in the market today.
Beginning in 2008, much of the Pu'er industry suffered a tremendous drop in prices. Consequently, many have lost their fortunes and some have even decided to stop selling, growing, or distributing Pu'er as a result of the financial loss plaguing many of those in the industry. Investment-grade Pu'er has witnessed declines in price as well, although not as drastically as those varieties which are more common.

Introduction and history

Pu-erh tea is traditionally made with leaves from old wild tea trees of a variety known as "broad leaf tea" (Traditional: 大葉 Simplified: 大叶, dà yè) or Camellia sinensis var. assamica, which is found in southwest China as well as the bordering tropical regions in Burma, Vietnam, Laos, and the very eastern parts of India. The shoots and young leaves from this varietal are often covered with fine hairs, with the pekoe (two leaves and a bud) larger than other tea varietals. The leaves are also slightly different in chemical composition, which alter the taste and aroma of the brewed tea, as well as its desirability for aging. Due to the scarcity of old wild tea trees, pu-erh made using such trees blended from different tea mountains of Yunnan are highly valued, while more and more connoisseurs are seeking pu-erh with leaves taken from a single tea mountain's wild forests. The history of pu-erh tea can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Pu-erh is well known for the fact that it is a compressed tea and also that it typically ages well to produce a pleasant drink. Through storage, the tea typically takes on a darker colour and mellower flavour characteristics. Often pu-erh leaves are compressed into tea cakes or bricks, and are wrapped in various materials, which when stored away from excessive moisture, heat, and sunlight help to mature the tea. Pressing of pu-erh into cakes and aging the tea cakes possibly originated from the natural aging process that happened in the storerooms of tea drinkers and merchants, as well as on horseback caravans on the Ancient tea route (茶馬古道; pinyin: chámǎ gǔdaò) that was used in ancient Yunnan to trade tea to Tibet and more northern parts of China. Compression of the tea into dense bulky objects likely eased horseback transport and reduced damage to the tea.

Production

All types of pu-erh tea are created from máochá(毛茶), a mostly unoxidized green tea processed from a "large leaf" variety of Camellia sinensis found in the mountains of southern Yunnan. Maocha can undergo "ripening" for several months prior to being compressed to produce ripened pu-erh (also commonly known as "cooked pu-erh"), or be directly compressed to produce raw pu-erh.

While unaged and unprocessed raw pu-erh is technically a type of green tea, ripened or aged raw pu-erh has occasionally been mistakenly categorised as a subcategory of black tea due to the dark red colour of its leaves and liquor. However, pu-erh in both its ripened or aged forms has undergone secondary oxidization and fermentation caused both by organisms growing in the tea as well as from free-radical oxidation, thus making it a unique type of tea.

In China, where fully-oxidised tea ("black tea") is known as "red tea," pu-erh is indeed classified as a "black tea" (defined as post-fermented), something which is resented by some who argue for a separate category for pu-erh as many other black teas tend to be of lower standard and status.

Process and oxidation

Although pu-erh teas are often collectively classified in Western and East Asian tea markets as post-fermentation or black teas, respectively, pu-erh teas in actuality can be placed in three types of processing methods, namely: green tea, fermented tea, and secondary-oxidation/fermentation tea.

Pieces of a 1970's "Green/raw" Guang yun tribute teacake(廣雲貢餅). Note that aging has turned the previously green leaves of this cake to a brownish black colour

Pu-erh can be green teas if they are lightly processed before being pressed into cakes. Such pu-erh is referred to as maocha if unpressed and as "green/raw pu-erh" if pressed. While not always palatable, they are relatively cheap and are known to age well for up to 20 or 30 years. Pu-erh can also be a fermented tea if it undergoes slow processing with fermenting microbes for up to a year. This pu-erh is referred to as "ripened/cooked pu-erh", and has a mellow flavour and is readily drinkable. Aged pu-erhs are secondary-oxidation and post-fermentation teas. If aged from green pu-erh, the aged tea will be mellow in taste but still clean in flavour.

According to the production process, four main types of pu-erh are commonly available on the market:

Maocha: Green pu-erh leaves that are sold in loose form. The raw material for making pressed pu-erhs. Badly processed maocha will result in an inferior pu-erh.

Green/raw pu-erh: Pressed maocha that has not undergone additional processing. Quality green pu-erh is highly sought by collectors.
Ripened/cooked pu-erh: Pressed maocha that has undergone fermentation in the ripening process for up to a year. Badly fermented maocha will create a muddy tea with fishy and sour flavours indicative of inferior aged pu-erhs.

Aged raw pu-erh:A tea that has undergone a slow secondary oxidation and a certain degree of microbial fermentation. Although all types of pu-erh can be aged, it is typically the pressed raw pu-erhs that are most highly regarded, since aged maocha and ripened pu-erh both lack a "clean" and "assertive" taste.

Aging and storage

Pu-erh teas of all varieties, shapes, and cultivation can be aged to improve their flavour, but the tea's physical properties will affect the speed of aging as well as its quality. These properties include:
Leaf quality: The most important factor, arguably, is leaf quality. Maocha that has been improperly processed will not age to the level of finesse as properly processed maocha. The grade and cultivation of the leaf also greatly affect its quality, and thus its aging.

Compression: The tighter a tea is compressed, the slower it will age. In this respect, looser hand- and stone-pressed pu-erhs will age more quickly than denser hydraulic-pressed pu-erh.
Shape and size : The more surface area, the faster the tea will age. Bingcha and zhuancha thus age more quickly than golden melon, tuocha, or jincha. Larger bingcha age slower than smaller bingcha, and so forth.
Just as important and the tea's properties, environmental factors for the tea's storage also affect how quickly and successfully a tea ages. They include:

Air flow: Regulates the oxygen content surrounding the tea and removes odours from the aging tea. Dank, stagnant air will lead to dank, stale smelling aged tea. Wrapping a tea in plastic will eventually arrest the aging process.

Odours: Tea stored in the presence of strong odours will acquire them, sometimes for the duration of their "lifetime." Airing out pu-erh teas can reduce these odours, though often not completely.
Humidity : The higher the humidity, the faster the tea will age. Liquid water accumulating on tea may accelerate the aging process but can also cause the growth of mold or make the flavour of the tea less desirable. 60-85% humidity is recommended. It is argued whether tea quality is adversely affected if it is subjected to highly fluctuating humidity levels.
Sunlight: Tea that is exposed to sunlight dries out prematurely, and often becomes bitter.

Temperature: Teas should not be subjected to high heat since undesirable flavours will develop. However at low temperatures, the aging of pu-erh tea will slow down drastically. It is argued whether tea quality is adversely affected if it is subjected to highly fluctuating temperature.

When preserved as part of a tong, the material of the tong wrapper, whether it is made of bamboo shoot husks, bamboo leaves, or thick paper, can also affect the quality of the aging process. The packaging methods change the environmental factors and may even contribute to the taste of the tea itself.

Further to what has been mentioned it should be stressed that a good well-aged Puerh tea is not evaluated by its age alone. Like all things in life, there will come a time when a Puerh teacake reaches its peak before stumbling into a decline. Due to the many recipes and different processing method used in the production of different batches of Puerh, the optimal age for each age will vary. Some may take 10 years while others 20 or 30+ years. It is important to check the status of ageing for your teacakes to know when they peaked so that proper care can be given to halt the ageing process.

Raw pu-erh

Over time, raw pu-erh acquires an earthy flavor due to slow oxidation and other, possibly microbial processes. However, this oxidation is not analogous to the oxidation that results in green, oolong, or black tea, because the process is not catalyzed by the plant's own enzymes but rather by fungal, bacterial, or autooxidation influences. Pu-erh flavors can change dramatically over the course of the aging process, resulting in a brew tasting strongly earthy but clean and smooth, reminiscent of the smell of rich garden soil or an autumn leaf pile, sometimes with roasted or sweet undertones. Because of its ability to age without losing "quality", well aged good pu-erh gains value over time in the same way that aged roasted oolong does.

Raw pu-erh can undergo "wet storage" (shīcāng, 湿仓) and "dry storage" (gāncāng 干仓), with teas that have undergone the latter ageing more slowly, but thought to show more complexity. Dry storage involves keeping the tea in "comfortable" temperature and humidity, thus allowing the aging process to occur slowly. Wet Storage or "humid storage" refers to the storage of pu-erh tea in humid environments, such as those found naturally in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan.
The practice of "Pen Shui" 喷水 involves spraying the tea with water and allowing it dry off in a humid environment. This process speeds up oxidation and microbial conversion, which only loosely mimics the quality of natural dry storage aged pu-erh. "Pen Shui" 喷水 pu-erh not only does not acquire the nuances of slow aging, it can also be hazardous to drink because of mold, yeast, and bacteria cultures.

Pu-erh properly stored in different environments can develop different tastes at different rates due to environmental differences in ambient humidity, temperature, and odours. For instance, similar batches of pu-erh stored in the different environments of Taiwan and Hong Kong are known to age very differently. Because the process of aging pu-erh is a lengthy one and teas may change owners several times, a batch of pu-erh may undergo different aging conditions, even swapping wet and dry storage conditions, which can drastically alter the flavor of that tea. Raw pu-erh should not be stored at very high temperatures, or be exposed to direct contact with sunlight, heavy air flow, liquid water, or unpleasant smells, since such poor storage conditions can ruin even the best quality pu-erh.

Although low to moderate air flow is important for producing a good quality aged raw pu-erh, it is generally agreed by most collectors and connoisseurs that raw pu-erh tea cakes older than 30 years old should not be further exposed to "open" air since it would result in the loss of flavours or degradation in mouthfeel. The tea should instead be preserved by wrapping or hermetically sealing it in plastic wrapping or ideally glass.

Ripe pu-erh

Since the ripening process was developed to imitate aged raw pu-erh, many arguments surround the idea of whether aging ripened pu-erh is desirable. Mostly, the issue rests on whether aging ripened pu-erh will, better or worse, alter the flavor of the tea.
It is often recommended to age ripened pu-erh to "air out" the unpleasant musty flavours and odours formed due to maocha fermentation. However, some collectors argue that keeping ripened pu-erh longer than 10 to 15 years makes little sense, stating that the tea will not develop further and possibly lose its desirable flavours. Others note that their experience has taught them that ripened pu-erh indeed does take on nuances through aging, and point to side-by-side taste comparisons of ripened pu-erh of different ages. Though the storing period increases the value of the tea, it is not often that such actions will be taken as it is not economically efficient.

Preparation

Preparation of pu-erh involves first separating a well-sized portion of the compressed tea for brewing. This can be done by flaking off pieces of the cake or by steaming the entire cake until it is soft from heat and hydration. A pu-erh knife, which is similar to an oyster knife or a rigid letter opener, is used to pry large horizontal flakes of tea off the cake such as to minimize leaf breakage. Steaming is usually performed on smaller teas such as tuocha or mushroom pu-erh and involves steaming the cake until it can be rubbed apart and then dried. In both cases, a vertical sampling of the cake should be obtained since the quality of the leaves in a cake usually varies between the surface and the center of the cake.

Pu-erh is generally expected to be served Gongfu style, generally in Yixing teaware or in a type of Chinese teacup called a gaiwan. Optimum temperatures are generally regarded to be around 95 degree Celsius for lower quality pu-erhs and 85-89 degree Celsius for good ripened and aged raw pu-erh. Steeping times last from 12–30 seconds in the first few infusions, up to 2–10 minutes in the last infusions. The prolonged steeping techniques used by some western tea makers can produce dark, bitter, and unpleasant brews. Quality aged pu-erh can yield many more infusions, with different flavour nuances when brewed in the traditional Gong-Fu method.

Because of the prolonged fermentation in ripened pu-erh and slow oxidization of aged raw pu-erh, these teas often lack the bitter, astringent properties of other tea types, and also can be brewed much stronger and repeatedly, with some claiming 20 or more infusions of tea from one pot of leaves. On the other hand, young raw pu-erh is known and expected to be strong and aromatic, yet very bitter and somewhat astringent when brewed, since these characteristics are believed to produce better aged raw pu-erh.

Judging quality


Spent leaves of badly stored shou pu-erh. Note the crumbling leaf faces that are barely held together by leaf veins
Quality of the tea can be determined through inspecting the dried leaves, the tea liquor, or the spent tea leaves. The "true" quality of a specific batch of pu-erh can ultimately only be revealed when the tea is brewed and tasted. Although, not concrete and sometimes dependent on preference, there are several general indicators of quality:

Dried tea: There should be a lack of twigs, extraneous matter and white or dark mold spots on the surface of the compressed pu-erh. The leaves should ideally be whole, visually distinct, and not appear muddy. The leaves may be dry and fragile, but not powdery. Good tea should be quite fragrant, even when dry. Good pressed pu-erh often have a matte sheen on the surface of the cake, though this is not necessarily a sole indicator of quality

Liquor: The tea liquor of both raw and ripe pu-erh should never appear cloudy. Well-aged raw pu-erh and well-crafted ripe pu-erh tea may produce a dark reddish liquor, reminiscent of a dried jujube, but in either case the liquor should not be opaque, "muddy," or black in colour. The flavours of pu-erh liquors should persist and be revealed throughout separate or subsequent infusions, and never abruptly disappear, since this could be the sign of added flavorants.

Young raw puerh: The ideal liquors should be aromatic with a light but distinct odours of camphor, rich herbal notes like Chinese medicine, fragrance floral notes, hints of dried fruit aromas such as preserved plums, and should exhibit only some grassy notes to the likes of fresh sencha. Young raw pu-erh may sometimes be quite bitter and astringent, but should also exhibit a pleasant mouthfeel and "sweet" aftertaste, referred to as gān (甘) and húigān(回甘).

Aged raw puerh: Aged pu-erh should never smell moldy, musty, or strongly fungal, though some pu-erh drinkers consider these smells to be unoffensive or even enjoyable. The smell of aged pu-erh may vary, with an "aged" but not "stuffy" odour. The taste of aged raw pu-erh or ripe pu-erh should be smooth, with slight hints of bitterness, and lack a biting astringency or any off-sour tastes. The element of taste is an important indicator of aged pu-erh quality, the texture should be rich and thick and should have very distinct gān (甘) and húigān(回甘) on the tongue and cheeks, which together induces salivation and leaves a "feeling" in the back of the throat.

Spent tea: Whole leaves and leaf bud systems should be easily seen and picked out of the wet spent tea, with a limited amount of broken fragments. Twigs, and the fruits of the tea plant should not be found in the spent tea leaves, however animal (and human) hair, strings, rice grains and chaff may occasionally be included in the tea. The leaves should not crumble when rubbed, and with ripened pu-erh, it should not resemble compost. Aged raw puerh should have leaves that unfurl when brewed while leaves of most ripened puerh will generally remain closed.

Practices

In Cantonese culture, pu-erh is known as po-lay (or bo-lay) tea. Among the Cantonese long settled in California, it is called bo-nay or po-nay tea. It is often drunk during dim sum meals, as it is believed to help with digestion. It is not uncommon to add dried osmanthus flowers, pomelo rinds, or chrysanthemum flowers into brewing pu-erh tea in order to add a light, fresh fragrance to the tea liquor. Pu-erh with chrysanthemum is the most common pairing, and referred as guk pou or guk bou (菊普; pinyin: jú pǔ). Pu-erh is considered to have some medicinal qualities.
Sometimes wolfberries are brewed with the tea, plumpening in the process.