Seven Castles

Pu'er Tea

                                      

May 13, 2008

 

Pu'er tea is a type of tea made from a "large leaf" variety of the tea plant and named after Pu'er County near Simao (now named Pu'er City), Yunnan, China. It has been famous as a medicinal tea. Modern medical science has shown that the health benefits of the tea may be more than just Chinese folklore. It helps to reduce cholesterol in the blood stream; reduce body weight; reduce high blood pressure, heart and liver diseases related to high saturated fat diets; detoxify the liver; prevent intestinal infection, digestive problems and constipation; and prevent the formation of cancer cells in the body due to its anti-oxidants

 

The tea is traditionally made with leaves from old wild tea trees of a variety found in southwest China as well as the bordering tropical regions in Burma, Vietnam, Laos and the very eastern parts of India. Due to the scarcity of old wild tea trees, the tea made using such trees blended from different tea mountains of Yunnan are highly valued, while more and more connoisseurs are seeking the tea with leaves taken from a single tea mountain's wild forests.

 

The history of the tea can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty. In Tang Dynasty, it was the favorite tea of the nobleman of the time. The tea over the centuries has been used as a form of currency in China and an important international trading item.

 

It is said that the unique taste of the tea was developed because it took weeks to transport the tealeaves by horseback to the town to be processed. During this transportation period the tealeaves would begin to ferment in the humidity and release a strong, fragrant aroma, which people found quite pleasant. A special technique of tea fermenting developed and the tea was thus created.

 

The secret of making the tea has been closely guarded in China for centuries. The tealeaves are collected from growers of a special broad-leaf tea tree, related to ancient prehistoric tea trees. The leaves go through two types of fermentation, which gives this tea its unique characteristics; a mild, but distinctively earthy flavor. The tea requires a minimum of ten years to mature and gets only better with age. The teas are much like fine wines, which become smoother and more balanced with age. The teas are much lower in tannins than other teas due to the special processing method that it undergoes.

 

The tea can be purchased as either raw/green or ripened/cooked, depending on processing method or aging. The tea can in turn be roughly classified on the tea oxidation scale as either a green tea or post-fermented tea, respectively. Unlike other teas that should ideally be consumed shortly after production, the tea can be drunk immediately or aged for many years. As such, the teas are often classified by year and region of production much like wine vintages.

 

The tea is typically available as loose leaf or as cakes of compacted tea. While there are many forgeries of the tea on the market and real aged tea is difficult to find and identify, it is still possible to find the tea that is ten to fifty years old, as well as a few from the late Qing Dynasty. Indeed, tea connoisseurs and speculators are willing to pay high prices for the older tea, upwards of thousands of dollars per cake. A couple of years ago, tens of thousands of people in South China's Guangdong Province collect the tea, traditionally dubbed "grandpa's tea" there for being gentle on the stomach, seeing it as an investment, something that will appreciate in value. Some traders are hoarding as much as tens of tons of the tea each.

 

The tea is well known for the fact that it is a compressed tea and also that it typically ages well to produce a pleasant drink. Through storage, the tea typically takes on a darker color and mellower flavor characteristics. Often the tealeaves are compressed into teacakes or bricks, and are wrapped in various materials, which when stored away from excessive moisture, heat and sunlight mature the tea. Pressing of the tea into cakes and aging the tea cakes possibly originated from the natural aging process that happened in the storerooms of tea drinkers and merchants, as well as on horseback caravans on the Ancient Tea Route used in ancient Yunnan to trade tea to Tibet and more northern parts of China. Compression of the tea into dense bulky objects likely eased horseback transport and reduced damage to the tea.

 

It is best to use boiling water with the tea, so that it will release its earthy flavor. Steeping two to three chrysanthemum blossoms with the tea adds a natural sweetness to the tea and will smooth the earthy flavor of the tea. 

【作者: zhangliping】【访问统计:】【2008年05月13日 星期二 05:53】【注册】【打印】