Puerh Tea

About

Puerh Tea Famous for their history and curative properties, Pu er teas are post-fermented teas whose oxidation is not enzyme related. Also known as "aged teas", "post-oxidized teas," "black teas"(by the Chinese) or even "dark teas," they owe their specific properties to their processing method, which gives them the advantage of improving over time. They can be traced back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), when tea was boiled and added to soup as a flavoring. They derive their name from the town of Pu er in Yunnan Province (in southwestern China), where growers from the neighboring mountains brought their harvests to be sold and sent elsewhere in China or in more far-flung regions, such as Tibet and Mongolia. Because of the high demand for tea and the fact that it was transported on horseback, the local population devised a processing method that consisted of compressing the tea into cakes of different sizes and shapes. During the Song dynasty, the town of Pu er was a major trading center for tea: all the teas sold there were called "Pu er;" whatever their particularities. Today, although Pu er teas are still produced mainly in Yunnan Province, other regions, such as Guangxi, Anhui, Guangdong and northern Vietnam produce them too. In a bid to prevent others from usurping the appellation, the Bureau of Standard Measurement of Yunnan Province (2003) defined Pu er teas as "fermented green tea products obtained from the large leaves of tea trees harvested in Yunnan Province." Although not all experts agree with this definition, it is justified in part by the variety of tea tree, Da Ye ("large leaves"), grown in Yunnan. The best Pu er teas come from the famous mountains located in Xishuangbanna. Some of these mountains, including the well-known Youle, Banzhang, Manzhuan, Yiwu, Mensong, Banpen and Yiban, are still renowned for their tea production. Considering it takes several years for the aging process to improve the taste of these teas, aged Pu er teas are becoming ever mo