Palace Grade Organic Shu (ripe) Puer Tea

Time can only improve the taste and aroma of Palace Grade Organic Puer Shu (cooked) Tea. Palace Grade has a distinctive earthy and vegetal aroma, with a deep wine-red color. The real strength is the enveloping and smooth taste, with no trace of bitterness. This organic tea comes from Mount Jingmai in the famous Puer Autonomous Province, Yunnan.

Tasting – Sight and smell

Palace Grade Organic puer shu tea leaves are very small and delicately rolled, with various shades of brown, rusty tips and matte surface. As soon as infused, they release enveloping, sweet aromas of grape must, underbrush, leather and sweet pipe tobacco. The color in the cup is a very dark red tending to mahogany with ruby highlights, an appearance reminiscent of the color of a good wine.

Tasting Notes

GONG FU CHA

The first infusion of Palace Grade Organic puer shu tea has notes of damp wood and underbrush, with hints of wet earth and very faint hints of mushrooms, closing with an intense leather flavor. With the second infusion, this tea really takes us into the thick of the woods: hints of moss and bark emerge, while the sweetness increases and the body becomes increasingly enveloping and velvety on the palate. Notes of grape must can also be discerned, adding a slight acidity to the basic sweetness. The third and several subsequent infusions have a character that is always very woody, with notes of damp wood and underbrush well present to which is added a hint of coffee and on the finish a hint of licorice wood.

WESTERN

The first sip of Palace Grade Organic puer shu tea brings with it the typical scents of the undergrowth: damp earth, wet wood, moss. The taste is sweet and notes of worked leather and licorice also appear in the second, evolving later into more complex hints of barrel wood and red wine must. A note of bitter cocoa is evident on the finish. The body is dense and enveloping, and the persistence proves sweet and long, characterized by notes of damp wood and underbrush.

Place of origin

Yunnan, China

Production

After harvesting, the leaves of Palace Grade Organic shu puer tea are left to wither in the sun for some time depending on the producer before going through the “green killing” stage, which is purportedly similar to that used to produce green tea. In this case, however, the leaves are heated in the iron wok with a lower temperature than the usual standards for a green tea so it is possible to preserve some enzymes capable of changing the the taste of the tea through the time. Once cooked, the leaves are taken in large quantities and stacked to form large piles. The vegetable mass thus arranged is then moistened and covered with cloths in order to retain heat and to start the fermentation process.

The producer here have to move and wet constantly the leaves in order to achieve an homogeneous fermentation on all the vegetal mass. Once this process is completed, which can last from 20 to 70 days, the leaves are spread and left in contact with air so that the microorganisms responsible for the fermentation dry up and die leaving the finished product. Once here, one can (eventually) proceed to press the puer in order to give it the best conditions to be transported and aged.

How to prepare

We strongly recommend infusing Palace Grade Organic shu puer tea in the traditional Chinese method (gong fu cha) to best enjoy these leaves. Following this preparation, 3 grams of leaves (about 2 teaspoons) can be used in a gaiwan of about 100 ml to make several infusions with different tastes. After a quick rinse of the leaves in water at 95°C, an initial infusion of 30 seconds can be made, and after that, keeping the water at the same temperature, the time can be increased each time by 5 seconds from the previous infusion (15 – 20 – 25…).

This tea has a longevity of about 7 brewings.

For a classic preparation according to the Western style, we recommend 3 grams of leaves (approx. 2 teaspoons) in a 150 ml cup with water at 95°C for an infusion time of one and a half minutes.

The tea can be filtered for greater ease at the moment of tasting, and also the infusion times indicated above are intended to be purely indicative, so you can also adjust according to your personal taste.

Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.