What do you savour in raw Pu-erh tea?
After a long winter, spring has finally arrived. For tea lovers, the silent sprouting of tea bushes is the finest symbol that spring has come.<\/p>\n
Whether it is ripe tea or aged tea, they all begin their journey as raw tea. How do we appreciate the beauty of raw Pu-erh?<\/p>\n
As the saying goes: “Tea trees growing in different environments produce distinct flavors: sweet, fragrant, bitter, or astringent, each with its own character; mellow or stimulating, each with its own taste. These vivid regional personalities are especially pronounced in new raw Pu-erh. The right time to appreciate them is now, savouring aroma, freshness, and mountain character.”<\/p>\n
Let us follow the eyes of senior tea engineer and National Tea Craftsman Master (Pu-erh Tea), Zheng Jixiong, to discover what we savour in new raw Pu-erh.<\/p>\n
Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea<\/em> states that “the nature of tea changes with the soil.” Zheng Jixiong, who has visited virtually every tea-growing region in Yunnan, wholeheartedly agrees. He says with interest: “Even within a single mountain, tea leaves from different sites produce distinctly different flavors. We have conducted extensive testing and fieldwork to confirm this. Take Yiwu, for example: the soil at the mountaintop contains borax, and areas with higher boron content have fewer pest problems, resulting in overall better tea quality.”<\/p>\n Soil is just one factor influencing the internal composition of tea leaves. Large-leaf tea trees rooted deep in the mountains draw life energy from the interplay of sunlight, wind, and rain every moment. Sunlight, temperature, humidity, and altitude all shape each tea tree, and this growth connects directly to the tea’s quality and flavor. Tea trees growing in different environments produce distinct sweet, fragrant, bitter, or astringent profiles, each with its own character. These vivid regional personalities are especially pronounced in new raw Pu-erh. The right time to appreciate them is now, savouring aroma, freshness, and mountain character.<\/p>\n “The flavor differences among new raw Pu-erh teas are considerable. Take the three classic regions of Menghai, Mengku, and Yiwu: Menghai teas, with relatively higher polyphenol and lower amino acid content, are often described as bold and powerful. In the Mengku region, the Mengku large-leaf variety, with relatively lower polyphenols and higher amino acids, yields a sweeter, more fragrant cup; the spring tea has a clean woody aroma, fresh and sweet. Yiwu teas fall between the two in both polyphenol and amino acid content, giving them excellent overall balance.” Zheng Jixiong explains.<\/p>\n Zheng Jixiong believes that for relatively new raw Pu-erh, a clean, fresh aroma should be the overall foundation. Fruity or honey notes emerge only after aging and fermentation. “This is our experience and data summary from years of frontline tea production.”<\/p>\n The definition of fresh aroma is complex yet simple. Like a spring symphony where all things awaken and flowers bloom, scents that give a sense of freshness, such as floral or mushroom notes, are all fresh aromas, with different fragrance types reflecting regional characteristics. Pure single-mountain teas, in particular, display more pronounced regional signatures. The ancient records of the Six Great Tea Mountains bear witness, and today the “mountain” concept has risen, with the view that “a hundred mountains yield a hundred flavors” gradually becoming consensus in the Pu-erh world. “Famous mountains have been selected through history and validated by modern science,” Zheng Jixiong says.<\/p>\n Good Pu-erh teas each have their own distinction; inferior Pu-erh teas all share a striking similarity: unpleasant sensations, hopeless taste experiences, degraded flavors. In Zheng Jixiong’s view: “No off-flavors of mold or sourness, full color-aroma-taste, a comfortable bodily experience after drinking. These are the fundamentals of good tea. Though broad, this is the best expression we can offer for now. As for the body’s reaction and acceptance of tea, one must distinguish it from the experiential sensation.”<\/p>\n This bodily reaction and acceptance is especially relevant for new raw Pu-erh. Accompanied by the richness of large-leaf variety substances and the relatively gentle sun-drying craft (as opposed to higher-temperature methods like pan-firing or roasting), new raw Pu-erh can have a cooling and stimulating nature that not every constitution can handle. Some people, after just a few cups of new raw tea, may feel discomfort in the stomach.<\/p>\n Beyond raw materials, processing, and storage, the trajectory of Pu-erh tea as it enters the broader market is also a prerequisite for a great cup of Pu-erh. In interviews, nearly everyone mentioned that as living standards have risen, people no longer look up to tea as something lofty, and price is no longer a barrier. Increasingly affluent Chinese consumers have raised their quality expectations exponentially, presenting an entirely new opportunity for seeking that perfect cup of Pu-erh.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Author: Old Tea Head · Lin Shen (LamSam) What do you savour in raw Pu-erh tea?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lamsam-tea-notes-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6494,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6124\/revisions\/6494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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