When it comes to Puer Tea, most people's first impression is a round “cake.” The birth of the tea cake was originally for the convenience of transportation and storage. Now, considering the aging characteristics of Puer tea itself, the cake tea remains the most classic and aesthetically pleasing style.
Puer can be divided into two major categories: raw tea and ripe tea. Raw tea is made from fresh leaves that are withered, rolled, and then dried as loose tea. If further compressed into cakes or bricks, it becomes compressed raw tea, which has not undergone the process of wet-piling fermentation. Raw Puer tea has a more intense character and can be quite stimulating, with a strong bitterness in newly produced or recently aged teas. The Infusion color is lighter or yellowish-green, making it less suitable for immediate consumption.
Ripe Puer tea is tea that has undergone wet-piling fermentation, meaning the full fermentation process occurs during its production. Therefore, after being made, there is much less room for transformation compared to raw Puer tea. The long-term storage of ripe tea is primarily to dissipate the “fiery” and drying sensation caused by the wet-piling process, as well as any miscellaneous flavors or wet-piling taste. This makes the tea taste smoother and softer. More importantly, the process for making ripe Puer tea was only solidified in the 1980s. Before this, aside from naturally aged raw Puer, there were no true ripe Puer teas in the strict sense. If someone claims to have ripe Puer that is several decades old, take it with a grain of salt.
Tea enthusiasts who enjoy drinking tea are certainly familiar with the basic knowledge about Puer mentioned above, but not all of them know how to fully appreciate Puer tea. Today, we will discuss the seven steps to enjoying Puer tea together.
Step 1: Look at the Tea
Mature production should feature stable craftsmanship, with a neat and upright appearance. The cake should be round and plump, with a natural indentation. The edges should be even without any missing corners. The thickness should be consistent, neither too loose nor too tight. The mold pattern should be clear, with a glossy and smooth surface, distinct tea strands, and a clean face. Standard Puer tea has a diameter of 19.5 cm and typically weighs 357 grams. Ripe tea cakes should have colors ranging from black-brown to brown-red. Raw tea cakes, depending on their age, transition from dark green (for younger teas) to brownish-brown (for older teas).
Step 2: Feel the Tea
Feel the compactness of the tea. Loose tea bodies will age faster under the same storage conditions, while tighter ones will age more slowly. When breaking off a piece of tea, observe both the inside and outside. Sprinkling refers to adding higher-grade tea leaves to the surface of the tea body to improve its appearance. Uniform material means that the entire Compressed tea consists of tea leaves of the same grade.
Step 3: Smell the Dry Tea
As the name suggests, use your nose to carefully smell the tea. Puer tea improves with age, but if improperly stored, it can absorb other odors, such as water-stagnation flavor, straw mat scent, smoke aroma, mustiness, or various pungent flavors from spices. Additionally, errors in the production process can also lead to various off-flavors. In summary, Puer tea with off-flavors is definitely not good to drink! Drinking such tea with off-flavors will create an unpleasant experience.
Step 4: Infuse and Smell the Aroma
Take 6-8 grams of tea, rinse it 1-2 times, and pour out the tea liquor using a fair cup. Smell the aroma at the bottom of the cup. Some cups have no fragrance, some have a faint aroma, some have a dispersed scent, and some have a penetrating and sharp aroma. For example, the ancient tree tea from Jingmai has a prominent and lingering aroma, while the ancient tree tea from Bingdao has a subtle and delicate fragrance that is more sensed than smelled.
Some aromas are due to mistakes made during production, such as grassy scent caused by insufficiently cooked fresh leaves, or a raw green flavor when the fresh leaves are undercooked. As a joke, it cannot be ruled out that some tea enthusiasts might actually like these aromas, but it would be difficult to find such tea.
Step 5: Infuse and Observe the Color
The color of ripe tea liquor changes as follows based on the degree of fermentation: bright red → bright → rich red → reddish-brown → brown → blackish-brown. The color variations of raw Puer tea are complex and pleasing to the eye over time.
Color intensity: yellow-green → wine red (1-2 years, yellow-green like a child who hasn't lost their innocence) → around 3 years, golden yellow → 3-5 years, Orange-yellow → 5-8 years, orange-red → 8-15 years, pomegranate red → 15-30 years, ruby red → over 30 years, wine red, as if destined to be a perfect match.
Clarity: turbid → crystal clear (turbid, with obvious suspended particles, common in plantation teas) → unclear (with suspended particles not clearly visible) → clear (like the Yangtze River in June, where fish can be seen swimming within a meter) → transparent (like the water of Lake Dian, revealing all aquatic life) → luminously clear (like the water of the Twin Wells in Mojiang, Yunnan, clear and shimmering) → crystal clear (like the streams of Jiuzhaigou, exquisitely refined).
Viscosity: running water → viscous (like tap water) → oily (with a silky feel) → viscous (dense and highly textured).
Step 6: Infuse and Taste the Aroma and Flavor
Infuse and taste. If the mouth is filled with odd and mixed flavors, there is definitely a problem. Common off-flavors include smoke (from the smoke of firewood used during the production process), burnt (from burning during processing), green (from the leaves being stir-fried instead of sun-dried), baked (from the leaves being oven-dried instead of sun-dried), Black Tea (from the fresh leaves being left to wilt and causing the stems to turn red), water-stagnation (from the tea being exposed to rain during processing), and mustiness (from improper storage leading to mold).
Maturity: immature → mature (fresh tea that hasn't undergone fermentation) → floral (slightly oxidized) → fruity (more fully oxidized) → honey-like (after a certain period of fermentation) → resinous (leaves from well-maintained tea trees that have been picked fewer times and have undergone a certain period of fermentation) → aged (aromatic alcohols produced after a long fermentation period) → camphor (this special aroma is not always present. It has a faint camphor-like scent, indicating a long natural fermentation period. Of course, some people may fake this for profit) → medicinal (a unique aroma produced by aromatic alcohols after long fermentation, not present in all aged teas).
Aroma complexity: single → varied (a single thin aroma) → rich (multiple aromas) → layered (different aromas emerge as the tea cools down) → changing (different aromas emerge in each infusion).
Aroma intensity: subdued → restrained (rich and harmonious, lasting) → high (sharp and lasting).
Step 7: Infuse and Taste the Flavor
Bitterness and astringency: Basic flavors of Puer tea, commonly referred to as “no bitterness, no astringency, no Puer.” Sourness (caused by processing errors) → bitter and astring