The Puer Tea harvest season begins in March and continues through to November. Generally, the spring Puer tea is harvested from mid-March to early May. The harvesting of ancient tree Spring Tea usually starts at the end of March, with full-scale harvesting beginning in early to mid-April. The timing may vary slightly each year based on temperature conditions. Typically, the best time for fresh leaf picking is about half an hour after sunrise, ideally between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM, to avoid issues related to high moisture content in the leaves that could affect the withering and processing. The optimal seasons for tea picking are spring, summer, and autumn. Specifically, spring tea is picked from March to late April; summer tea is harvested from May to June (with very limited Puer tea being picked during this period in Yunnan); and Autumn Tea is gathered in September and October. There is also a distinction between the dry and rainy seasons, with the dry season spring tea being particularly prized due to its robust character before the rains come. “Spring tip” tea is considered especially favored by nature, with the first spring buds sprouting from February to March. Any tea picked from this time until just before Grain Rain (early May) is classified as “spring tip.”
During the harvest, generally one bud with two or three leaves is picked, although sometimes one bud with three or four leaves is collected. Different picking standards should be established based on specific conditions. For example, in the Xishuangbanna region, where the climate is warm, rainfall is abundant, and the Soil is deep and fertile with rich organic matter, the tea trees grow tall but have fewer branches and shoots. The buds and leaves are thick and incredibly tender. Even when new shoots grow to five or six leaves, the leaves remain soft.
The method of picking also varies by season. In spring, because the tea plants have rested over the winter and slowly sprout in the spring, the distance between the picked leaves and the stem is relatively short. In contrast, autumn tea has longer stems, which is why most autumn teas appear more aesthetically pleasing than spring teas.
