Puer shu (cooked) tea cake 100g

This Puer Shu tea is part of the variant within the puer tea type that uses the biological activity of certain microorganisms to create a distinct flavor profile during processing. This fermentation practice has a fairly recent history and was developed to try as quickly as possible to emulate the flavors and body of very aged puer sheng (or raw). Because of its enveloping, sweet, and distinctive flavors, puer shu has won the esteem of many tea drinkers over the years, which is why it can be easily found at many retailers today.

This tea is also referred to as puer “cooked” because to allow for good fermentation, the leaves are kept covered and an attempt is made to have the exothermic chemical reactions that occur at that stage keep the plant mass at temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius.

This 2010 puer tea cake was processed and pressed in the Menghai area from small leaves(gong ting) from the mountains in this same area, in the eastern part of Xishuangbanna.

The flavors of this liquor are very distinctive: unlike many other puer shu, this tea opens with a vegetal flavor and a fairly structured body, which can be traced to the taste of the thick, white rib that some large leafy vegetables such as chard and some types of cabbage possess. After these bitterness-free notes there is a slight earthy flavor on the back of the tongue, which will slowly expand on the palate giving a clear example of the typical flavor these teas take on through fermentation.

Place of origin

Menghai – Yunnan, China

Production

After the harvest the leaves whither under the sunlight for a certain period of time depending on the tea masters evaluations before going into the “killing of the green” phase which is similar to the practice adopted for green teas. The particularity in this case is not to heat the leaves as much as it is done for a green tea in order to preserve some enzymes that can change the flavors over time. Once the leaves are cooked they are taken in large quantities and stacks of them are made about 40 to 50 centimeters high then covered with a cloth where the fermentation process will take place. 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 processing is finished, which can take 20 to 70 days, the leaves are expanded and left in contact with air so that the microorganisms dry out and die, leaving the finished product. Once we get here the mass of leaves will be pressed in order to facilitate better transport and aging conditions. To press the leaves they are invested by a strong jet of steam which is able to soften them externally without changing their internal humidity and, once this state is reached, it will be enough to put them in a bag and close it very tightly around them to give them the desired shape. In order for this structure to remain fixed over time, the bag is left for hours under a stone or a mechanical press while the leaves lose that steam with which they had been in contact in the previous phase.

How to prepare

We highly recommend infusing this tea in the traditional Chinese method (gong fu cha) to best enjoy these leaves. Following this preparation, 5 grams of leaves can be used in a gaiwan of about 150 ml to make several infusions with different tastes. After a quick rinse of the leaves in water at 95°C, an initial infusion of 15 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 (15-20-25-30 …).

These leaves could be steep about 9 times.

For a classic preparation in the Western style, we recommend 3 grams of leaves in a 200-mL cup with 95°C water for a 3-minute infusion time.

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.

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