The History of Pu'er Tea

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The origin of wild tea in Yunnan dates back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, when people began harvesting wild large-leaf tea varieties. The utilization of tea has a history of approximately 3,000 years.
During the Three Kingdoms period, approximately 1,800 years ago, tea trees began to be artificially domesticated and cultivated, marking the initial formation of the Pu'er tea region.
The *Man Shu* records "Yinsheng Tea," the earliest written account of Pu'er tea, serving as the precursor to raw Pu'er tea. The rudimentary form of sun-dried loose-leaf tea for raw Pu'er emerged during the Tang Dynasty (863 AD), with a history spanning over a millennium. Tang Dynasty Yinsheng Tea, sun-dried loose-leaf tea, was not compressed—marking the origin of Pu'er tea and the progenitor of raw Pu'er tea. It lacked thorough fixation, often involving direct sun-drying of fresh leaves and simple rolling. This tea was not widely distributed externally.

Starting from the Ming Dynasty, the complete production process of raw Pu'er compressed tea—killing the green, rolling, sun-drying, steaming, and compressing—was established, forming the prototype of modern raw Pu'er tea. The compressed tea of the Ming Dynasty appeared in the form of tea cakes, which are the "ancestors" of tea bricks, tea tablets, and similar forms. These belong to sun-dried raw tea, not ripe Pu'er (black tea). During the Ming Dynasty, Pu'er tea began to be traded as a commercial commodity, transported to inland regions via the Tea-Horse Road.
During the Qing Dynasty, it was officially named Pu'er tea and became a tribute tea, later evolving into the seven-coin cake and Tuocha.
Modern Pu'er Tea: Modern raw tea, adhering to ancient techniques, using standardized ingredients and storage.
In 1973, ripe Pu'er tea was produced using the pile-fermentation process, marking the classification of Pu'er tea into raw and ripe categories.