The quality of Pu-erh tea is determined by raw materials, craftsmanship, and storage; specifically:
For raw Pu-erh (new tea), the focus is primarily on the raw materials;
For ripe Pu-erh, the focus is primarily on the craftsmanship;
For aged tea, the focus is primarily on storage.
Pu-erh tea has the characteristic of “aging into fragrance.” For Pu-erh tea collectors, it is a great stroke of luck to obtain an aged tea of over thirty years; however, if there are issues with the storage of this tea, both its drinking and collection value will be greatly diminished. After all, for a thirty-year-old tea, its provenance is difficult to verify, so when it comes to aged tea, our primary concern is its storage conditions.
Dry storage and wet storage
Wet storage Pu-erh tea refers to Pu-erh tea that has completed its aging in warehouses with high air humidity, high temperature and humidity (such as coastal humid regions), or cool and damp environments (such as basements, cellars, air-raid shelters, etc.).
According to experience in tea storage, the temperature for dry storage of Pu-erh tea is generally maintained at room temperature of 20\u201326\u00b0C, with relative humidity not exceeding 80%. Humidity, in particular, is critical; if it exceeds 80%, there is a high possibility of the tea leaves deteriorating.
However, this is merely a safety margin to ensure the tea does not deteriorate. If we use this as a definition\u2014that anything over 80% is wet storage tea\u2014some wet storage Pu-erh tea might slightly exceed 80% humidity but may not necessarily deteriorate if controlled properly.
Of course, if wet storage Pu-erh tea undergoes excessive human intervention\u2014such as rushing the “ripening” process for sale with poor temperature and humidity control\u2014the tea may undergo negative transformation leading to mold growth. From a food safety perspective, such tea is not recommended for consumption.
But is drier always better?
Recently, while chatting with a tea shop owner who has been in the industry for many years, he sighed: \u201cIn the past, I didn’t know how to store Pu-erh tea. Many good teas were sealed directly in vacuum packaging bags and left in Kunming for over ten years. When we opened them recently, there was basically no transformation, and they have lost most of their value. What a pity!\u201d
The aging mechanism of Pu-erh tea
The post-fermentation of Pu-erh tea is essentially a microbial fermentation. The aging of Pu-erh tea requires specific temperature, humidity, and oxygen (and reportedly light); it is generally best to control humidity between 50% and 70%. Under these conditions, microbes are more active; the enzymes produced by the microbes themselves and extracellular enzymes produced through metabolism can act on the tea’s constituents, promoting a series of complex chemical changes. This is the aging mechanism of Pu-erh tea.
The Pu-erh tea vacuum-stored by the aforementioned tea lover lacks both the microbes naturally inoculated from the external environment and the moisture and oxygen necessary for microbial survival; naturally, no transformation will occur.
It is evident that if one understands the aging mechanism of Pu-erh tea, as long as the methods are correct\u2014controlling temperature and humidity well and providing timely ventilation to allow the tea leaves to “expand and contract” during storage\u2014even wet storage can be good storage and produce high-quality tea.
Difficulties in identification
Some tea lovers say: \u201cI can tell if it is dry storage just by smelling it. If there is a pungent, moldy odor, it is definitely wet storage tea; if not, it is dry storage!\u201d Is this really the case? Some wet storage teas do not have such an odor if the humidity is well-controlled.
There are also many tea lovers who mistake the aged fragrance of decades-old dry storage Pu-erh for mold, or describe the aged flavor as “storage odor”…
In truth, one cannot blame these tea lovers; after all, human smell and taste are limited, while the changes in Pu-erh tea are infinite. Attempting to deal with ever-changing aged tea with limited sensory perception is indeed a difficult task.
Furthermore, the amount of dry storage aged Pu-erh tea from certain years currently in existence is extremely rare; most tea lovers are not fortunate enough to taste it. In many cases, it is their first time “tasting something new,” and people always need an adaptation period for the stimulation of new flavors, no matter how beautifully others describe them.
For example, the first time eating durian, the first time eating stinky tofu, the first time eating fish mint, or the first time trying wasabi… and the reality is: the few existing dry storage aged teas have extended this adaptation period, thereby indirectly increasing the difficulty of identifying Pu-erh tea storage conditions.
So, is it true that tea lovers who have tasted little aged tea are truly unable to distinguish between dry and wet storage Pu-erh tea?
Not necessarily; at the very least, we can try the following three methods.
Three methods of identification
This article will not discuss ripe Pu-erh for now; using sun-dried loose tea or tea cakes (raw Pu-erh) as examples, we will attempt to identify them specifically through three aspects: vision, smell, and taste.
Method 1: Observe the soup color\u2014is it “yellowish”?
The soup color of aged Pu-erh tea, if stored in dry storage, is either orange-yellow or orange-red; for older vintages, it is chestnut red. This means it will more or less have a “yellow” tint, and the possibility of deep red appearing is very slim. If deep red does appear in dry storage raw Pu-erh, it is either blended with ripe material or you have brewed it too strongly.
Method 2: Smell the aroma\u2014is it “unusual”?
In fact, it is very difficult to identify the aroma of aged tea just by smelling; do not expect to recognize exactly what the fragrance is or which storage type it belongs to simply by sniffing. The main purpose of smelling is to use your nose to sense whether the odor is messy or strange. If there are obvious heterogeneous odors that are pungent and unpleasant, then it is an immediate disqualification, regardless of its storage type.
In many cases, the aroma of aged tea can only be truly perceived during the process of drinking. Therefore, if you cannot detect it by smelling, pick up the cup and take a sip to make a secondary judgment in your mouth.
Method 3: Taste the flavor\u2014does it “produce salivation”?
As a technique for identifying dry storage aged Pu-erh, tasting the flavor does not mean tasting every sweetness, bitterness, and astringency; rather, it refers to the key points. If it can still produce salivation or still retains some bitter or astringent undertones, although you cannot definitively label it as dry storage, it at least indicates that it is not too “wet.”
There is one more point to note: among the many flavors of Pu-erh tea, there is one taste that is hardest to dissipate even after storage\u2014the smoky flavor. Therefore, aged tea with a smoky flavor cannot be asserted as dry storage; conversely, if even the smoky flavor has dissipated, it is most likely the “wet” way.
The purpose of these three methods is not to determine whether a particular aged tea is from dry or wet storage, but rather to use them as a basis to judge the degree of moisture absorption and ultimately assess its aging value.
A final note: Do not be superstitious about dry storage; in many cases, the degree of dryness is inversely proportional to the aging value. Nor is it necessary to demonize wet storage; in many instances, that wonderful sensation of melting in your mouth may only be achievable through it.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
Unit 902-3, 9\/F, Mini Cube, 10 Sam Chuk Street, San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
www.zentea-shop.com Email:info@zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The quality of Pu-erh tea is determined by raw materials, craftsmanship, and storage; specifically:For raw Pu-erh (new tea), the focus is primarily on the raw materials;For ripe Pu-erh, the focus is primarily on the craftsmanship;For aged tea, the focus is primarily on storage.Pu-erh tea has the characteristic of “aging into fragrance.” For Pu-erh tea collectors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yun-tea-encyclopedia-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14191,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14180\/revisions\/14191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}