Things You Need to Know About Drinking Pu-erh Tea

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What you need to know about drinking Pu'er tea

We live in an information age with endorsements from big names, celebrity livestreams, expert lectures, and more, which leaves consumers confused. Compared with other products and fields, Pu'er tea seems even more mysterious—many claims, little real understanding—but that’s also proof that Pu'er is one of the most interesting teas. For those new to Pu'er, first decide what relationship you want with it: simply drinking it, or making it a hobby. If you only want to drink it, just understand a few basics—no need to master everything; drink what you enjoy. If you start to like Pu'er and want to dive deeper, I suggest beginning with tea character and brewing. Leave overly technical study until you’ve tasted and learned for a while. A few basic points:

• By processing, Pu'er tea is divided into two types: raw (sheng) and ripe (shou); its finished shapes include bricks, cakes, and tuo.
• Raw Pu'er does not come as loose tea—only as compressed tea. Ripe Pu'er can be loose or compressed.
• Pu'er is a post-fermented tea, with fermentation occurring naturally or artificially.
• Because Pu'er undergoes post-fermentation, it tends to improve with age and is suitable for long-term storage, though there is an appropriate drinking window.
• Sun-dried tea leaves from Yunnan large-leaf varieties are the raw material for both raw and ripe Pu'er; these leaves could also be used to make other teas. Tea leaves from varieties other than the Yunnan large-leaf cannot be used as Pu'er raw material. Beyond geographic indication, what distinguishes Pu'er is the unique characteristics produced when Yunnan large-leaf tea is processed with specific techniques.
• Claims of single-origin or single-tree Pu'er require caution. The growth environment of Yunnan large-leaf tea trees means each tree yields only a limited amount; even leaves from the same slope aren’t truly pure in the strict sense.
• In Pu'er, there is no absolute “pure” material—only relative blending.
• The grade of raw material and the quality of finished Pu'er are not directly proportional; finished Pu'er results from blending techniques.
• In Pu'er’s post-fermentation process there is a notion of aging or maturation, but raw Pu'er will never become ripe Pu'er no matter how long it is stored.
• Drinking Pu'er—especially raw—can help reduce body fat; scientific evidence is limited, but Pu'er does help cut greasiness. Long-term drinking can lead to a lighter physique because post-fermentation generates many beneficial microbes that help regulate the gut, remove greasiness, and promote digestion. Ripe Pu'er and aged raw Pu'er are particularly mild in character. We can find supporting references in Zhao Xueming’s Qing-dynasty work “Supplement to Compendium of Materia Medica,” so Pu'er is suitable for most people to drink long-term, except in special cases.
• Tea can affect sleep, but Pu'er differs from other teas in this regard: post-fermented Pu'er, especially ripe and aged raw teas, can be enjoyed even late into the night—this has been described in detail by Yu Qiuyu.
• The concept of ripe (shou) Pu'er only appeared officially after 1973.
• Pu'er tea trees include arbor-type and small-arbor-type mid- and small-leaf varieties, but not shrub forms.
• The kill-green (de-enzyming) step for Pu'er fresh leaves uses low-temperature heating—this refers to a relatively low leaf surface temperature during frying. The drying process is done by sun-drying.
• Compressed Pu'er should be “awakened” (dry waking) before brewing so the leaves fully adjust to the brewing environment’s temperature and humidity; this makes brewed Pu'er taste better.
• When brewing Pu'er, use fixed-point pouring and low, buffered pours—this technique improves the tea’s taste.
• Pu'er requires high-temperature brewing. When pouring, avoid directing boiling water straight onto the leaves; circle around first, then pour at a fixed point.
• The “mountain head” (terroir) naming convention is a concept from the past 5–10 years; historically teas weren’t named by mountain head.
• Before 2003, there were no product standards for Pu'er tea.