I have an ongoing series on Chinese Tea, this time I turn to Pu’er tea. This tea is handled differently than all the other teas I have posted about. It is a long, slow microbial fermented whole-leaf tea, that is often molded or pressed into cakes or other forms. This tea has also been compared to wine, as it generally ages well, has evolving flavors and aromas as it is further steeped and exposed to the air, and can be considered a cultured drink.
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Pu’er Tea + Tea Horse Road
Pu’er Tea
Pu’er tea was named after the Puer village located in the northwest of Yunnan Province. This is an important location at China’s southwestern boundary, neighboring Laos, Vietnam, and Burma; sharing a 302 mile long boundary with these countries. However, this village did not make tea, but was more a trading center where teas nearby Yunnan farms sold and traded their tea. For ease of transport, they were pressed into various forms and transported on the Horse Tea Road (1, more on this below).
The tea leaves of pu’er were (and still are) mostly formed into tea-cakes, balls, or bricks, and wrapped only in paper to continue aging, although some are still sold as a loose leaf tea. To me, pu’er seems to be the only type of Chinese tea that is specifically made for aging, similar to certain wines.
I have a generic viewpoint of pu’er tea based on my tastings, and that is this tea is earthy or woody sweet, can be considered silky in the mouth, and overall it has been infused with a delicious umami taste. In some parts of China, I have read this tea is paired with rich and savory meals. Also, in the West, I have experienced some people adding milk and sugar to this type of tea.
Tea Horse Road
Chinese pu’er tea originated in Yunnan Province, in South West China, and has been traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220CE).
At some point, official trade routes were established from Yunnan Province to Tibet, and from Sichuan Province to Central China. Wikipedia writes that this occurred sometime in the Song dynasty (960-1279). Many think these routes, eventually called the Tea Horse Road, was the vehicle that spread tea across China and into other parts of Asia.
The name “Tea Horse Road”, came from the actual trade of Tibetan ponies for Chinese tea. From what I read, all indications are that pu’er tea was the tea being traded (1).
Pu’er Classification
I have been told that there are two different ways a pu’er tea has been classified, either as raw (sheng) or what I would call the old-style, or cooked/ripe (shou) or modern-style. But some think there is also a mixed way, a sort of a half-cooked pu’er which mixes the leaves from both processes (1).
Raw Processing
Tea leaves are withered, heaped into piles, and allowed to ferment. Then the leaves are gathered and partially pan-fired, as heat halts the enzyme activity. Those leaves are then lightly rolled, kneaded, and left to dry in a special storage environment that is only moist enough for the tea leaves to slowly oxidize over a given time. When right, the tea is compressed or formed into its final state or left as loose leaf.
Cooked Processing
In the 1970s, the Yunnan Kunming tea factory created a cooked processing to speed up the whole process of production. With this technique, the leaves are picked and withered, then mixed with a bacterial culture created to replicate natural fermentation. The leaves are then left ina hot and humid environment (up to 40 days) before being fired and formed.
Master Han: MT. Banzhang Farmers’ Coop Sheng 2003
Unfortunately, this particular tea is no longer available from Verdant, but I have a bag of it in my Pu’er stash. This tea has an amazing aroma that smells sweetly green, but mixed with the smoke of a campfire deep in a wet forest after a fresh rain. (How is that for describing a flavor?)
The first steeping tasted like soft leather to me, but also left a hint of molasses. And, with every steep, the flavor, or at least my perception of it, changed. Now it has some hazelnut, next something akin to vanilla. I thought it a great tea.