Puerh January 2015
Thank you for Reading! I'm so excited to share this new evolution of Tea for Me Please. The blog will still continue just as it always has but love being able to share more in depth information with you all. Feel free to drop me a line at nicole@teaformeplease.com and let me know what you think! This journal is a labor of love. It is yours to share with your tea loving friends. I only ask that you recommend that they sign up for the mailing list too! All content used with permission of the respective authors.
Sheng - Raw -vegetal, earthy, complex -leaves are allowed to retain natural enzymes so it ages slowly over time -invented 700 or 800 years ago
Sheng vs Shou Shou - Cooked -dark, earthy, sweeter -leaves undergo fermentation over several months -invented in 1973
A Beginner's Guide to Puerh by Nicole Martin While many of my readers are as addicted to puerh as I am, I thought that I should include a bit of an introductory article in this inaugural journal. Fermented teas can be really scary when you’re first starting out. These recommendations are based on my own tastes and experiences. Although I’ve been a serious tea drinker for a long time, puerh was my last frontier until the last two years or so. I was pretty convinced that I hated the stuff. In hindsight, I realize that many of the first samples I tried were rather bad quality and not really representative of the category. Fishy shu or musty, poorly stored sheng has incited the same reaction in many a tea drinker. I’m here to tell you that there is hope. At the beginning of my tea journey I brewed almost everything using an infuser basket and a teapot or teacup. While there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with this I find that puerh will sometimes not perform well, especially if you aren’t accustomed to its unique taste. I never really enjoyed puerh until I started using gaiwans and smaller gongfu sized teapots. Here are some tips that really helped me out.
Break It Gently
Believe it or not I have never owned a puerh knife until fairly recently. After years of bear handing it, I’ve realized that I was being a bit too rough on my leaves. Breaking them into smaller pieces makes them much less pretty but can also release more bitterness. I highly recommend using a blunt puerh knife (or a letter opener in a pinch) to break the cake apart horizontally rather than digging through it. It can take a bit of a practice to get the hang of this but it will make a difference in the taste of your tea.
Weigh It
I never really enjoyed puerh until I started using gaiwans and smaller sized teapots. Part of this was because it’s really hard to measure out teaspoons of a compressed tea. Gongfu preparation usually calls for weighing the tea. This is more accurate and a much easier way of measuring your tea. I use about 5g or leaves when using a gaiwan and around 8g when I’m brewing in my yixing teapot. At first, that won’t look like much at all but as you brew the leaves will break apart and expand quite a bit.
Brew It Quickly
Another problem with brewing puerh tea in a western fashion is that the brew times are way too long. In switching to the gongfu method, you’ll be amazed at how much flavor can be achieve in a 30 second infusion. The longer the infusion, the more tannins will be released from the leaves. Tannins are polyphenols that cause an astringent, bitter feeling. It's the same substance that causes the mouth-puckering affect of red wine.
Buy Quality
As I mentioned earlier, some of the first puerhs that I tried were very bad quality. The bing that you pick up in Chinatown for $5 just isn’t going to cut it. There are a lot of great companies out there who can help you to discover the world of fermented tea. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and shop around before making the leap. Order sample sizes to start off rather than buying expensive cakes. There’s no such as thing as the right way to make tea. All that matters is that you enjoy the end result!
What's in a Name? Why puerh is called puerh? By Glen Bowers and Dawa Lamu of Crimson Lotus Tea If you are into tea in any capacity you have undoubtedly heard of puerh. The last decade has seen a great explosion in popularity of puerh tea in the Western market. Tea merchants and tea educators often define the categories of tea as: White, Yellow, Green, Oolong, Black, and Puerh. Puerh is described as a category of tea that is post-fermented. Many would be surprised to realize that puerh is not a category of tea at all. Puerh is generally considered a regional product. The dictionary definition of puerh describes a post-fermented tea processed to specific standards and originating in a geographic sub-region of Yunnan province in Southwestern China. It's not as simple as just that though. Defining puerh has been the cause of many arguments both online and off, past and present. Part of what I love about puerh is the complexity of it all. The history is so deep, and the spectrum of flavor and aroma possible is so diverse that it truly fascinates me. The fascination comes with frustration as well. We in the West like to have everything in neat, little, organized boxes. A place for everything and everything in its place as the saying goes. That doesn't really exist in China and I'm finding it doesn't really work in the world of puerh. One example is the term 'post fermented tea'. In China post-fermented teas are called 'Hei Cha' ⿊茶. This means 'dark tea'. Not to be confused with 'black tea', which the Chinese call 'red tea'. Since puerh is a post fermented tea it would make sense that puerh is heicha. We contacted a number of puerh vendors we work with in China and asked this simple question: "Is puerh heicha?". Some said "Yes puerh is definitely heicha!". Others said "Puerh is not heicha! Puerh is its own category of tea.". One said "Puerh used to be heicha, but it isn't anymore". Then others said "Maybe it's heicha". Despite these arguable differences there seems to be a global consensus towards putting teas like puerh into the larger category of 'post fermented teas'.
There is more confusion in the spelling of puerh. Is it pu-er, pu-erh, puer, puerh, pu'er, pu'erh, or maybe even pu-ehr? To be honest it really doesn't matter. The only correct way to spell it is in Chinese: 普洱. All the Roman alphabet spellings are phonetic representations of the sound of the Chinese term. The Western spellings are equally correct. I prefer the spelling 'puerh' myself. The added 'h' helps people with dyslexia like myself. I often read 'puer' as 'pure' and it gets confusing. I don't like adding dashes or apostrophes because in the digital age these confuse search analytics. So I stick with 'puerh'. You are free to spell it however you feel you wish. Even in China puerh can be westernized in different ways. They do however stick with the spelling "Pu'er" when talking about the prefecture/city. There is even debate on the true history of the term 'puerh'. Some feel the term originated with the Wa minority and others with the Hani. We do know that Pu is a general name for a few different minorities. The Pu people were some of the earliest to begin cultivation of tea. A very long time ago puerh used to be called Bu-Ri (sounds like Boo-Jher). This was a greeting that meant something like "Hey brother!". In the Qing Dynasty the term Puerh became more popular. Pu'er prefecture, also called Simao, is much smaller than it was in the past. It used to contain what is now Lincang and Xishuangbanna, which both produce puerh. With the rising popularity of the term in the past two decades the Yunnan local farmers, processors, and vendors of puerh worked with the government of the province of Yunnan to petition the Chinese government to protect the term puerh as a regional product unique to Yunnan. In 2008 the Chinese government recognized the work of the minorities in Yunnan by establishing with their National Standards Commission and their equivalent of the FDA, the AQSIQ, a standardized definition of puerh that included regional product protection status. The document GBT22111-2008 defines puerh as a post-fermented tea picked from big leaf tea tree varietal (camellia sinensis v. assamica) that is sun dried. All picking and processing must be done south of Latitude N26°22' inside the borders of Yunnan. This line is just north of Dali, but south of Lijiang and includes Kunming. Not much quality leaf is grown that far north in Yunnan, but large, commercial puerh processing facilities are close to that line. The most well known would be Xiaguan in Dali.
It seems to me that if you have gone to the effort to protect the term puerh as a regional product that you cannot in good conscience then call it a category of tea. If puerh is a category of tea then anyone outside of Yunnan should be able to make puerh. The promotional efforts of the puerh tea industry in Yunnan may have been too successful. Puerh is very popular right now. Without hard guidelines set at a global level there will be even more confusion. Now that puerh is a household name in tea houses around the world you have eager purveyors of tea outside of Yunnan hoping to catch a ride on the puerh popularity train. The popularity is only going to increase. You'll see more teas reaching the market calling themselves puerh that don't come from anywhere near Yunnan. I imagine that someday someone will try making puerh from trees in North America. They will have definitely made a 'post fermented tea'. Is it puerh? Is it heicha? It is my opinion that it would be heicha. Closer to Yunnan it gets arguably tricky. Bordering Yunnan are the neighboring countries of Burma, Laos, and Vietnam. Forests disregard international borders. In some cases the same old growth tea forests on the Yunnan side continue over the border. Unscrupulous farmers and merchants on both sides of the borders sometimes take foreign maocha leaf material into Yunnan to sell it as puerh. That's unfortunate for everyone involved because the farmers outside Yunnan won't get adequately compensated for their work. It's my hope that tea growing communities outside the borders of Yunnan can work together to create products unique to their geographic region and work to market these to the world. It is also my hope that tea drinkers will recognize the hard work done by the Yunnan locals to promote and share puerh with the world and respect their efforts.
Crimson Lotus Tea is a Seattle area puerh tea import and education company. Puerh tea is the fuel that drives our passions; both literally and figuratively. We spent three months this Spring in Yunnan, China sourcing high quality puerh teas. You can find out more at http://www.crimsonlotustea.com.
Tea from ancient trees are imperfectly perfect with a range of large leaves along with the precious new buds that appear white.
Sourcing Tea in Jingmai by Jeff Fuchs of Jalam Teas The shade ripples as the figure up in the tree shimmies to another branch, disturbing the bolts of sunlight. This shape, a woman tea harvester has a wicker basket tied to her back that brims with leaves and from her mouth a song comes out in high tones into the hot air. This centuries old tree that she is straddling is a centuries old tea tree and where I stand watching is in Yunnan’s deep southwest not far from Burma’s lush border. Around this tree that I stare at is a forest of similar ‘ancients’ that roll and splay in every direction into the horizon. Similar bodies stride effortlessly along branches through the trees singing their own tunes, laughing, or simply screaming across the tree tops. The tea trees aren't things of great esthetic beauty. They are bent, powerful things that remind of fruit trees. For some ethnic minorities to prune and ‘cut’ is to desecrate on of the sacred plants that the earth has provided. In the words of one tea producer “Why would I cut the arm of a friend?” Here tea is akin to a kind of benevolent provider from the earth. Economic powerhouse, nourishing medicine, and stimulant green, it is an everything.
A tea picker in one of the ancient trees. In the indigenous strongholds of tea in southern Yunnan there has been a longstanding tradition of not over harvesting and that has ensured the quality and health of the tea trees themselves.
My own journey here is to both source tea and pay my annual tribute to a geography that is a mecca to many who need Jingmai’s epic subtleties in our liquid life. Jingmai’s name (or teas) doesn't yet give off ecstatic vapors to tea drinkers the way Yiwu or Bing Dao might, but for local drinkers of the eternal green and Puerh sippers who seek something special, it is a classic. This very fact to many is something reassuring. The less known a tea, the less trendy its name, the less it will be ‘faked’ or copied. Jingmai is also a tea that I've had my own longstanding and very satisfying relationship with for years, but the trip to the source is something that is precious to knowing a tea. My present state of giddy joy has also benefited from a rampant session of sipping Jingmai’s green leaves in a local home. Nothing is done, few words said, and certainly no business completed before cups are tipped and sips are sipped. Store fronts don’t really exist here. One goes into a home, a kitchen, tea room or simply perches down at a table and samples anything and all things until one is sated. A bed is provided for as many days and nights as it takes to decide. It is the way and it suits us all fine. Business yes, but informality still runs the way of the green here, regardless of the cost. There are few other reasons for journeyers to be here other than the famed Puerh that is produced seasonally. The local Dai and Bulang minorities share traditions, linguistic traits, and they have also long shared the magnificent forests of la (tea in local language). In a long standing agreement between the dominant Dai and Bulang, along with the Hani and local Wa people, the forests can be harvested by all of these ethnic groups and sold as Jingmai ancient tree tea (gu shu cha in Mandarin).
On the winding streets of this village corners are packed with women sorting tea leaves, men running riot on motorbikes delivering huge sacks of freshly picked tea, and errant dogs trying to avoid a ferocious sun. It is technically winter time though only fractionally dryer and cooler than any other time of year, and I have made my way here for the late harvest collection. Cheaper and slightly stronger in flavour composition it brings the traditionally mellow Jingmai tones up a notch in strength making it something that comes close to that ever evasive (and subjective) notion of ‘divine’ in the world of teas. Being of a slightly different cultivar, Jingmai’s tea leaves are slightly smaller than the traditional and magnificently large Yunnan Big Leaf. Differing in size, the same principle applies to ‘aged’ teas. Those precious leaves from tea trees older than 80 or so years will be designated with the formidable “ancient tree tea” making it something of a divine item for collectors or those simply looking to sip something that isn’t simply a tea, but rather a fluid of the earth. Pacing through the underbrush of the ancient tea trees amidst harvesters, and their piles of freshly snipped leaves there is that in the surroundings that the process, the essence of what is happening hasn't really changed. Sprays, pesticides, and other human ‘intervention’ tools have never been used here in this ancient tea tree sanctuary, which is one of the largest on the planet. The tea producers here adhere a kind of ‘code’ and Jingmai is known for its consistency of process and of the resultant teas. Three hours ago in Mama Bo’s kitchen – one of the producers of the region – she said words that resounded with a simple truth, “Quality isn't about words, it is about procedure. Great teas need to be made”. .
A Dai elder sorting tea leaves as she has done seasonally for most of her life. Hand sourced teas are treated with hands (and not machines) from the clip off the stem until the first sip of ‘la’ (tea in local language).
Like so much in the small communities that cultivate tea, sorting is a community and social affair.
When she spoke those words I was sitting on a small wicker stool Mama Bo and her husband and friends cooked and spoke of tea in a way that emphasized perfectly the vital nature that this commodity still has. It was as though they referred to a benign and wonderful relative who’s health and every ache was of obsessive importance. This relative, though wondrous needed massaging to emphasize its character. At one point when speaking of the future, Mama Bo simply pointed to the very forests that I now wandered, explaining with a laugh to a prospective buyer who wanted to know how the forests’ health were, “They still give us life and we still give them love”. This certainly seems a forest that continues to give life and it does so precisely because of the adherence to sustainable practices and that word that Mama Bo liked to use “procedure”.
Jalam Teas is a monthly club that features 100-gram tea cakes. Each puerh is handsourced in limited quantities by Jeff Fuchs from remote villages in Yunnan Province of China. You can find out more at http://www.jalamteas.com
Waking Up In A Tea Village by Nicholas Lozito of Misty Peak Teas It's 5am and a rooster wakes us with it's crowing. The window lets in the morning's sky with every star as bright as the moon. The chill of the mountain air and the chirp of crickets and animals drifts into the room I share with piles of dried tea leaves. I used to sleep alone here, but since the puer tea economy has grown so much, I now share my room with about 3,000 kilograms of loose and compressed tea leaves. The smell is so so strong, one could steep my clothing and taste the tea. The window looks out onto the mountains, covered with mist and tea trees that seem as ancient as time itself. One can't help but think that this view may have been the same for thousands of years. I slip my sandals on and follow the smell of roasting tea leaves. Here, tea is most often fired in the early mornings, about now, as it is left to wither as we sleep. The family is already hard at work as I walk up and grab a banana to feed the pet monkey. In this mountain, where electricity may be as scarce as a tea that is not puer, we live simply but with purpose. The turtles near the stove act as scrap disposers and the morning brew of tea acts as our elixir to fire us into work. Puer tea may be the only tea that carries such a strong culture. This is more than a beverage, more than a leaf, it can be used to tell the history of all tea and of the land from where it grows. This leaf has carved borders and been gifted to emperors; it has been compressed under stone then strapped to the backs of mules as they cross mountains into enemy territories. All this, while we sit over a wok with fire glowing under and working diligently on our task at hand. The window looks out onto the mountains, covered with mist and tea trees that seem as ancient as time itself. One can't help but think that this view may have been the same for thousands of years.
Once we fire our harvest from yesterday, 40 kilograms, we roll it, then spread the hot leaves onto bamboo trays that will dry under the sun that seems to be only a bit brighten than the countless stars. Dozens of trays of raw puer are carried to dry atop the deck, and we replace our slippers with shoes and walk the 1/2 km to the morning market. 7:30 am. The market is crowded and chicken are thrown from one side of the street to the other. That woman with the red scarf is known for foraging the finest mushrooms; the man with the cane understands tofu better than any. Nothing is for show, just like the turtle tied up to the kitchen sink, this market is not cute. Here, it is easy to tell that each individual is a master of her or his craft and is here to trade and provide. Hard work and life are synonymous here, so one is careful to be kind and pay, then return home. Refrigerators are not yet common, so this single market in town is always active and one learns to buy what is needed and not a thing more. Unlike this precious leaf, meat and veggies do not get better with time. We buy our breakfast, congee for me and noodle soup for the family, then walk back to the factory. It's about 60 degrees now and the mist that sat at the foot of the mountain has made it up to the waist. The roosters that said good morning are now fighting over grains of rice. Today we are taking a long ride to a village about 35 kilometers away to trade tea. They are known for their spring water which comes from the earth and is used to prepare tea with and water the ancient trees, many as old as 500 years. This journey will take over 5 hours as the roads are still unpaved and driving too fast could cost you. To the villagers, each mountain is respected as much as a fellow human. One has their favorites and gets to know them and their teas very quickly. However, just as one marries one individual, these farmers dedicate themselves to only one tea.
I have made the mistake of bringing teas from nearby mountains to the farm to sample. Their taste is for their tea and this is why Misty Peak Teas has adopted that same philosophy. One can know their neighbor, we can know our friends, but we will know our spouse the very best. Just as there are men who have dozens of acquaintances, but no great friends, there are those who have many a teas, but few worth spending time with. To really master anything, we must almost be obsessed with it until we understand it. With this, we have devoted ourselves to this tea only, along with its story. With this connection, one can sit with the village, the family, and the story each time a pot is prepared. 830am. Breakfast is slurped down and talk about tea prices takes up most of the meal time. I run to the deck to turn the tea leaves while the father and mother strap on their baskets to walk to the tea trees. Harvest season is coming to a close, so these final days are relaxed but not without purpose. Myself and their son pack the truck with snacks and water for the long drive ahead. Before we leave, they remind us, "Don't die on the drive. Their water doesn't make their tea taste that good." We throw a few sacks of yesterday's harvest into the back seat to pass out once we arrive. Today the drive will take us to another mountain with other teas and other people and, if we are lucky, other stories. We will pass villages that have their own crops and tea trees that have their own flavors. We will blast music and I'll translate the English songs. We will pull over for too long to chat with old friends and maybe even longer if they ask me for my story. All this, in the spirit of sharing. All this, in the spirit of tea.
You can find out more about Misty Peak Teas at http://mistypeakteas.com. In case you missed it, you can also see my interview with Nicholas on Podcast Episode 9.
Wrapper Design Reframing Puerh Tea for the New International Tea Culture by Paul Murray of White2Tea
When Chinese state owned factories wrapped cakes several decades ago, there were but a few common options for wrappers. Aside from color variations and a few standard designs, the wrapper landscape was more or less a barren wasteland. Fast-forward to 2015. There are print shops scattered all over Yunnan. Most shops can print a huge variety of packaging, limited only by your imagination and abilities in Photoshop. When I was first faced with the choice of how to design the White2tea wrappers, it was a decision I considered very seriously. After seeing a market flooded with wrappers depicting monks, dragons, and village elders in traditional garb, I decided the White2tea wrappers would try to incorporate more modern, personal elements into Puer wrapper design. The influences that held the biggest influence on my worldview weren’t ancient writings or myths from centuries ago, but albums and electronic media from recent history. That’s not to say that I haven’t browsed historical Chinese texts regarding tea, but I’d be telling some hefty lies if I said my historical text viewings rivaled my hours playing World of Warcraft or watching The Wire. So, bearing in mind that I spent more time gaming and listening to music that studying monk theory 101, how do I design the White2tea wrappers?
Start with one of my better-known wrappers, the 2013 New Amerykah. The design was a blend of modern and traditional elements. For the modern, the design and text are pixelated in style, using a character from a Super Nintendo RPG and the name of a recent Erykah Badu album that was on constant repeat when I made the tea. For the traditional, the snake being held by the character is a reference to the year of the snake in the Chinese zodiac calendar. Another wrapper that I recently made was simply a stamp on white paper for a previously unwrapped brick of Puer tea. The White Whale was a reference to the Half-Dipper’s (Hobbe’s) comments on his blog likening me to Ahab, and the little whale cartoon was just a playful illustration I drew. I liked the idea of incorporating a reference to a famous American novel, a U.K. based Puer blogger, and a silly cartoon whale as a way to present a tea.
Though it is nothing revolutionary, I like the idea of coaxing Puer out of the “monk and tea master fairytale� realm and bringing it into a modern, international discussion. My interaction with the Puer world has always been very segmented. On the one hand I host a lot of traditional style tea tastings in China, which are invariably focused on Chinese tea and Chinese tea culture. On the other hand, most of my tea time is spent discussing with Puer drinkers from all over the world via e-mail, while sitting alone in front of my tea tray and listening to music. My experience with the latter is what led to my love of Puer, and I want my wrapper design to reflect that. My hope is that the White2tea wrappers reflect Puer tea in the context of an evolving and international tea culture, with the caveat that dragons and monks are admittedly pretty badass, so I might put some on my wrappers anyhow.
The White 2 Tea Company was created by passionate puer devotees. We conduct business with a simple philosophy: If we would not drink it, we will not sell it. Our approach to sales is minimalist. No flowery descriptions of flavors. No fairytale stories about monks and tea masters. No bullshit. You can find out more about White2Tea at: http://www.white2tea.com.