subject: What Is Puerh Tea? [print this page] What Is Puerh Tea? What Is Puerh Tea?
Green Pu-erh also known as "sheng" or "raw" Pu-erh, is without doubt one of the ancient teas in the far east it has been drunk for nearly 2000 years. It's many unique characteristics and complexity helps to make green Pu-erh one of the preferred Chinese teas with tea connoisseurs. Premium aged green Pu-erh tea is often as old as 20 and sometimes 50 years or more. These teas Like this are highly valuable commodities and in some cases are worth their weight in gold, often more.
The high demand for green Pu-erh tea has lead to many factories churning out vast amounts of barely average teas to make quick profits. While modern production methods offers more efficient means of processing, the majority of premium green Pu-erh teas are usually made in the age old method. Individual teacakes are formed by stone moulds and following that are sun dried.
Ageing is a common element linked with chinese Pu-erh, there are the young teas that contain ferocious tannins giving off harsh and raw characters. Most green Pu-erh connoisseurs normally age their stock for at least 5 to 10 years before consumption. As puerh ages the color darkens with age. The maturing process helps remove the less desirable flavours found in a young tea and bringing on more desirable flavors and mellowness. Ageing is a time consuming process and one that can not be rushed. The ageing of green Pu-erh can be profound and involves extensive changes to the teas flavours and aromas as well as to the body and texture of the tea. A well aged antique tea will have a soft and mellow body with a uniquely smooth and silky feel to the mouth.
In China, possessing a green Pu-erh tea collection is the pride of the Chinese people. Tea collections for many Chinese are formed out of personal enjoyment. That said with the steep rise in value of Pu-erh tea recently many collections have been started as a future investment.
Pu-erh tea is an important part of Tava tea's powerful formulation, it provides many health giving benefits along with effective weight loss properties.
