熟普洱 - Shu Pu Er

For more information about the Shu Puerh tea ,please refer to Shu Puer Masterclass on our blog page.  

Grade

"Jin Ya" - Golden tips ( medium or bigger tips ) , "Gong Ting "  - small tips , 1st. grade - tip and small leaf. Other grades down to the 7th grade are about the ration of tips - leaves - stems - old leaves - Huang Pian ( yellow leaves ) , which most of it is obvious by visual.

Huang Pian also could be sold loose or pressed as separate product.

Processing

The depth of fermentation has impact on final taste and further ability to change with time ( mistakenly associated with ageing ). Dark, medium and light fermentation terms are not set exactly so the association with final product might vary from the producer or vendor. ( for example : what we call medium fermentation , for somebody else this could be light fermentation and vice versa )

There are few concepts of fermentation. Apart big tea factory production making many tons batch in one go , there is also small private production ,  above the ground fermentation ( tea is in bags sitting on pallets avoiding contact with ground ) or basket fermentation (  fermenting in bamboo baskets. These are very small batches ).

Processing is also related to area as the climate conditions vary ( particularly heat and humidity ) which are important factors for the fermentation. Some areas are also significant for shu production with intensive smokey notes.

Shu puerh also can be blended with flowers ( like jasmine or nuo mi ) or just be steamed with.

For search of shu based on tasting notes, please refer to Tea Taste at the footer of our website.

Shape

Apart of the loose form also in various shapes either natural way  like " Lao Cha Tou " or  manmade like cakes , bricks , tuo , balls called " Long Zhu " . Some other alternative forms are available like shu puerh stuffed into the mandarine, shu puerh granules called Silver Nuggets or shu puerh dense extract  " Cha Gao "

Trees

Shu puerh is mostly made of "tai di cha" - tea bushes from plantations  or from " Qiao Mu " arbor tea trees growing in tea gardens . The most expensive is production from old tea trees called " Gu Shu " ( we call it also Old Arbor ).

Varietal

Camellia Sinensis var. Assamica , var.pubillinba, and many others.Aside of cultivated tea plants there is also production from wild tea trees like Camellia Taliensis ..etc.

We do not state varietal on the product unless we can trace it. Many vendors use it as marketing tool or just guessing without having solid evidence of the varietal.

Origin

The location is very important for single origin products as some places , mountains or even villages might be significant for specific taste or other qualities. In pu erh tea production is also common ( in fact back in past it was the main concept ) blending / mixing mao cha from different locations or different trees ( bushes with arbors ) .

Harvest

Shu puerh is mostly made as the cheaper product than sheng. Late spring , summer or autumn harvests ( or mix of them ) is generally used for production. In taste and quality of brewing the right  / suitable fermentation ( and appropriate kill green for sheng before gone to processing of shu ) plays big role and might cause that product made of summer material might be actually better than spring one. 

Brewing

Brewing parameters ( volume , amount of tea , time of brewing ) depends on personal taste preference and desired strength of the tea. Temperature is recommended 100C boiling water , in order to get the most out of the shu.

In brewing the shu the size of the leaf ( grade )  , depth of fermentation , previous storage ( humidity ) or  shape ( loose / pressed and soft or hard pressed ) factors also need to be concerned.

The products listed below is a representative selection of the elements written above , helping you to understand the differences by trying particular examples.