PU ' ER TE A An ancient tradition
Pu'er tea is one of the oldest types of tea, with a history dating back more than 2,000 years. This ancient tea originates in Yunnan province on China’s southwestern frontier, where a temperate climate and lush landscape, teeming with biodiversity, provides ideal growing conditions for tea. Until modern vegetative propagation (clonal cutting) methods were developed, all of Yunnan’s heirloom tea trees were grown from seed. Over the course of millennia, they evolved to create a rich genetic diversity. To this day, groves of ancient tea trees are still found on mountain sides around remote ethnic minority villages that transverse the subtropical regions of Yunnan. Some of the oldest living tea trees are found in this area and reach thousands of years in age. There are two distinct types of pu'er: sheng (raw, green) and shu (ripened, dark). Both sheng and shu pu'er are made from a sun-dried green tea called Shaiqing Mao Cha. Sheng pu'er teas consist of blends of shaiqing mao cha that are allowed to rest and age naturally. Shu pu'er teas undergo a controlled pile fermentation process in which tea polyphenols are transformed from pale yellow-green to reddish brown over the course of about 85-120 days. Both sheng and shu pu'er teas can be found in a loose leaf format called sancha, or “compressed” into a number of shapes such as cakes, bricks, or more exotic forms. Like Champagne or other regionally specific foods and beverages, pu'er tea is a Geographically Indicated product that can only be created and fermented in Yunnan Province with sun-dried green tea made from the broad leaf tea tree varietals found only in Yunnan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. With its bold, energizing character, pu'er is popular all over the world as a slimming tea. It has an integral place in the food cultures of Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and is often enjoyed with or after a rich and heavy meal. One of the few types of tea with a warming cha qi (“tea energy”), pu'er tea is an excellent choice for warming the body during cooler months.
PU'ER TEA 47