普洱茶-Pu'er tea

Pu’er Tea
Pu’er tea, also known as Dianqing tea, derived its name from Pu’er County in Yunan Province, which is a tea distributing location. Pu’er tea enjoys a history of over 1,700 years. Tea plants are arbores or arbor-form tall trees, bearing very robust and fleshy leaves and buds, thick hair, which are tender and of supreme quality. Pu’er tea is processed through green tea fermentation methods with eight procedures including: “green-killing”(sha qing), first rolling, first piling, second-rolling, re-piling, first drying, re-rolling and drying. The tea gives off sharp and sustained fragrance with a special type of aroma unique to Yunnan’s large-leaf tea. The taste is strong and stimulating; it can be steeped for five or six times while still keeping its fragrance; the tea soup looks thick and orange in color. In ancient times, Pu’er tea was used as medicine, having the effects of warming the stomach, losing weight, reducing fat, preventing arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease, reducing blood pressure, senile-resistant, anti-cancer, reducing blood glucose and relieving alcoholism; the tea can also clear heat, detoxify, help digestion, de-grease, assist purge and diuresis effects, eliminate phlegm, expel pathogenic wind from the body surface, relieve cough, generate body fluid, replenish qi and lengthen people’s lives. Studies show that tea polyphenols can raise the level of antioxidation on people’ skin and directly absorb ultraviolet radiation so it helps retain youthfulness and protect the skin. Meanwhile, large number of hydrophilic radicals in tea polyphenols can easily absorb moisture in the air to keep moisture in the skin. Pu’er tea has the highest content of tea polyphenol among all types tea, so regularly drinking Pu’er tea could have special effects of keeping youthfulness, protecting skin, whitening and removing speckles.
【Storage】
“Fragrance of aging tea floats across large piece of fields; the love for Pu’er taste goes on for a thousand years”. Pu’er tea is recognized as the “drinkable antique”; unlike other types of tea that freshness is treasured, Pu’er’s value lies in its “old age”, which is widely known as the most distinctive feature that sets Pu’er apart from other types of tea. In Pu’er County, a saying goes that “Grandson sells tea made by grandfather”.
Proper storage is the key of collecting Pu’er tea.
1.The tea has to be aging in dry barns
“Tea likes cattail while hates spices; it likes moderate dryness and hates cold humidity”; as noted in “Tea Records” written by Cai Xiang in Song Dynasty. Dry barns mean that tea leaves should be stored in ventilated conditions with moderate humidity and temperature for fermentation.
Preventing mold growth, dry barns can slow the converting process and maintain true nature of Pu’er tea.
2.Abrupt temperature changes not allowed
High temperatures or abrupt changes of temperature in the barn affect the lively taste of the tea soup. Too high temperatures in the barn would turn the original raw tea into ripe tea, which is
often seen in tea warehouses in Hong Kong.
3.Avoid contamination of other smells
Tea leaves are prone to absorb different smells; a fistful of tea leaves can absorb all peculiar smells in the air, so it is important to store tea in environment free of different smells. According to Cai Xiang of Song Dynasty, “[tea] likes coolness and hates steamed sultriness; it likes separate places while dislikes various smells”. Wenlong in Ming Dynasty noted that, “tea can be easily affected; smelly and dirty things should not get close to it; even aromatic things should also keep
a distance. ”
4.Wrapped in special materials
“Tea should be solidly pressed and tightly sealed with thick bamboo skin; another seal of bamboo skin is needed at the jar mouth before wrapping it with genuine leather paper.” Says in the “Script on Tea”by Xu Cishu in Ming Dynasty. The traditional wrapping material texture and method help the post-fermentation of Pu’er tea and filter various smells to ensure its pureness. Based on the original storage method, Taisu Linglan Traditional Chinese Medicine Institute innovated methods by combining new techniques with traditional ones. They select Dongba paper from Lijiang in Yunan, a material that is rarely-seen and widely known in the world for its enduring quality for a thousand years. The paper is manually made into exquisite Dongba paper boxes that are of high collection value. Made from Yanpi(thymelaeceae canescent wikstroemia), Dongba paper is manufactured by combining different papermaking techniques and using special manual pressing skills so the paper can meet the needs of fermentation during storage of Pu’er tea while at the same time effectively filter foreign smells and humidity to ensure its clean conversion.
5.About tea age
There is no confirmed document on the age of Pu’er tea, be it sixty, one hundred or several hundreds of years; its aging degree can only be judged by the tea taster’s instinct. The aging taste of Fuyuanchang and Tongqinglaohao Pu’er tea has reached its peak and should be stored in tightly sealed conditions to prevent further rapid fermentation, which could erode the tea nature and destroy its taste. The Golden Melon tribute tea stored in the Forbidden City enjoys aging period of one to two hundred years; “the soup is with color but it tastes thinly aged fermentation.”
Bulang Mountain is located in southern Menghai County, Xishuang Banna of Yunan Province, near the China-Myanmar border. Covering over 1000 square kilometers, the mountain is home to generations of Bulang, Wa and De’ang ethnic group residents. Bulang ethnic group is the world’s earliest people to grow, make and drink tea; thus, Bulang Mountain became one of the world’s earliest producers of tea leaves. The supreme quality Pu’er tea is produced here.
According to myths of Bulang people, their ancestor Bayanleng left the will at his death bed that “if I leave cattle and horses to you, I fear they may die in disasters; if I leave gold, silver and
treasure to you, I fear they may not be enough; so I leave tea to you so it won’t run out in all generations to come.”Therefore, Bulang Mountain became the one of the world’s earliest places producing tea leaves.
Taisu Linglan ancient-tree tea leaves are gathered from the wild tea plants in Bulang Mountain at an altitude of 1600—1800 meters. The tea trees have sturdy trunks and thin branches with fleshy buds and leaves; veins are complete and it’s difficult to see the bud heads. Tea leaves were left to dry in semi-shade, semi-sunshine conditions and started natural aging in 2007. The bright orange-ish red tea soup generates fluid, tastes mellow and gives sweet after-taste. It is truly the rare supreme quality large-leaf ancient tree tea leaves grown in Bulang Mountain.
【Tea set】
It’s best to use specialized eggshell china produced in Jingdezhen or Yixing dark-red enameled pots when tasting Pu’er tea. Using these wares to steep tea would not change its original taste and can keep Pu’er tea’s fragrance and flavor. It’s best to use special china cups for drinking.
【Water selection】
Soft water should be used, such as purified water, mineral water or running water that’s up to drinking water standards; it’s best to use mountain spring water. Water temperature can greatly affect the fragrance and taste of tea soup, so Pu’er tea has to be steeped by 100℃completely boiling water to extract true aroma of Pu’er tea, and this is the correct way of drinking Pu’er.
【Cutting tea cake】
【Making tea】
To keep genuine tea fragrance, it is important to warm the tea; namely, the first steeping boiling water has to be poured out immediately; it’s best to have one to two times of tea-warming, which should be done fast to avoid affecting the soup taste.
【Drinking】
When drinking and tasting Pu’er tea, after about one minute of steeping, the soup could be poured into cups. Tea leaves remain to be steeped further. As drinking times increase, the steeping time should be gradually extended, up to several minutes, so that the soup taste would be even.。