There are different transliterated ways of spelling it. Here’s the wikipediaentry. It’s a fermented, aged black tea that seems to have a natural statin in it.
I’ve been reading about it and I gather there is a specific way of preparing it, namely, you break off a chunk of tea leaves (it sometimes comes pressed in a cake) and pour boiling water over, let sit for about 10 seconds, then pour this water off. This is supposed to rinse off any mold, as it is aged like cheese. Then you pour boiling water over the leaves again and steep for only about 30 seconds. You can re-use the leaves for successive cups of tea 8-10 times.
When it’s prepared in the standard way (tea leaves, hot water, steep, drink) without step one, some people say it tastes like fish food.
Also, apparently all brands are not created equal and some only contain a small amount of puerh mixed with other stuff.
That’s all I know from two days of internet research. Other knowledgeable people, please correct/enlighten/inform me. Thanks.
I’ve had some from Adagio. It tasted like tea brewed from ground-up mummies, to me. No desire to drink it again. But there were no such special brewing instructions, and it came loose like any other tea. Not pressed into a cake.
I’m very fond of Camel’s Breath from Holy Mountain Trading company. I don’t do anything special to brew it, I just add boiling water and let the leaves sink to the bottom. Large Leaf from Old Trees has a lovely bronze color and tastes like autumn. It’s amazing in one of those glass tea pots with the warming candle.
Holy Mountain is my favorite tea supplier. They have a wide selection, the site is informative, and the quality has always been excellent.
This is what one of the amazon reviewers said: “This is great tea, but you need to know how to brew it. There is a viedo on Youtube. Westerners let it steep for 3 minutes creating bitter taste at times. You should pluck some of the cake 2 teaspoons of dry leaves, put it in a cup, pour hot boiling water on it, let it soak for 10-20 seconds then discard the “first tea” prepare your serving cups, pour fresh boiling water over perviously steeped leaves let it steep for 20-30 seconds then strain tea into serving cups. make sure all the water is gone and none left in the leaves as this will oversteep the tea. You can re steep the leaves up to 8 times.
great health benefits, enjoy.”
Another amazon reviewer: "First I break off a suitable size chunk of it (I like to taste my tea, so I use more leaves). Then, I rinse this in my infuser with freshly boiled water. I then steep the tea in freshly boiled water for the following times:
1st infusion: 65 seconds
2nd infusion: 75 seconds
3rd infusion: 95 seconds
4th infusion: 210 seconds
The first two infusions taste pretty strong, the third is noticeably weakening and the fourth is about half as strong as the first."
In mandarin, it is “pu’er cha.” Cantonese are big drinkers and it’s pronounced “bolei” but I’m not sure the spelling. There is a segment of the Hong Kong population that are pu’er maniacs. That’s where I learned to drink it.
Many many many different ways of preparing it. it’s been a while, but the standard is to do the quick rinse and pour off, then it’s up to personal preference on the next stages.
Pu’er is the espresso of tea.
Do you get it in pressed bricks? Aged for how long? 20 years is a good starting point…kinda like single malt scotch.
Pu is like Winnie the Poo
Er is like the first sound of artisian
I have never tried to buy it in the US. Chinatown tea shop? I always got mine in Hong Kong or in China. In fact, since I’m going to Shenzhen Thursday, I might even get some since it’s been quite a while.
Pu’er tea comes from Yunnan province in SW China. It got really popular aroung 5-8 years ago and there was a big boom bust cycle like Dutch tulips.
I’ve been an Upton Tea customer for a few years. I tried one of their small samples of Pu-Erh and I did like it. Smooth yet earthy flavor. But it wasn’t special enough to supplant my usual varieties.
I have found that timing my teas by what’s recommended on the packet does optimize the flavor. I may have to try some of their other Pu-Erhs and mess around with some of those interesting steeping protocols.
What an interesting coincidence. I’m teaching a class about pu-erh (puer, pu-er, puerh…) tea on Monday. I wrote a blog post called “Champagne, Tequila, Darjeeling, and Dark Tea” that gives a lot of the background.
The name of the tea comes from the town of Puer in the Yunnan province of China. Black tea is often incorrectly referred to as “fermented” when it’s actually just oxidized. Pu-erh actually is fermented, and has traditionally been pressed into flat discs (beeng cha), bird nest shapes (tuo cha), bricks, or logs for ease of transportation. If it isn’t grown in Yunnan and processed through the town of Puer, it is technically called “dark tea” instead of pu-erh, just as distilled agave is called mescal rather than Tequila if it doesn’t come from the Tequila region of Mexico.
There are two types of pu-erh tea.
Sheng (a.k.a. “raw” or “green”) pu-erh tastes somewhat like a strong, complex, earthy green tea. It is fermented slowly, and usually isn’t considered fit to drink for at least 3-5 years. I have some in my shop dating back 15 years or more. Flavors vary by origin (terroir) and how it’s prepared and aged. Most hardcore pu-erh collectors and aficionados favor sheng.
Shu (a.k.a. “ripe” or “cooked”) pu-erh uses a bacterial “kick start” to accelerate the fermentation, allowing it to be consumed in a matter of months instead of years, although shu pu-erhs are often aged longer as well. The taste and smell are closer to a black tea than a green, but much earthier – almost compost-like.
You can re-use the leaves over and over. Personally, I love shu pu-erh, and I tend to use pretty short steep times. I was just in a shop in Oregon where they steeped a strong pu-erh for five minutes. It doesn’t get bitter like a black tea, but it does get pretty overwhelming. That was a bit hard to drink.
Let me correct a few misconceptions from the OP:
Yes, it’s fermented. No, it’s not a black tea. There are five primary styles of tea:
White (barely processed)
Green (steamed or pan-fired to halt oxidation)
Oolong (partially oxidized)
Black (fully or near-fully oxidized)
Pu-erh (fermented)
It’s not about rinsing off mold. Your tea shouldn’t have mold on it. The rinse is to moisten the leaves and pull that first harsh external infusion off.
There are multiple styles of pu-erh, and there are a lot of differences. Think single-malt scotch. There are also many flavored pu-erhs and blends. Who knows what you’re getting there?
I stock over a dozen pu-erhs in my shop, and I’d be glad to work with you. Otherwise, I’d recommend looking for someone who specializes in Chinese tea and avoid the trendy overflavored places like Teavana. Where do you live? I might know a good shop near you where you can go in and taste.
China Guy is correct, although in America I hear the second syllable pronounced as everything from the sound at the beginning of “erstwhile” to “air.”
I’m a little embarrassed to admit (as a huge Sherlock fan) that my go-to tea really is the Baker Street Afternoon Blend. I love the slightly smoky flavor from the small amount of lapsang souchong added to keemun and darjeeling. My other two staples are Bond Street English Breakfast, and the lovely Finest Russian Caravan.
I regularly try their other teas in the small sample packets for one or two dollars, but I always end up with those same three. The pu-erh was the closest a sample has come to breaking into the rotation, and I think this thread will inspire me to try some again (I tried the loose Jia Ji which is out of stock; they have nine other pu-erh teas right now).
I’ve had really good service from them. Don’t bother with the decaf teas, which are unspecial.
