Shengcha
Pu’er teas that have not undergone post-fermentation are sometimes labelled as “raw” puer.
“Raw puer” is a transliteration of the Chinese expression “sheng-cha” ( Chinese: 生茶 ). As an adjective, the word “sheng” means not cooked, not ripened, or alive. The expression “shengcha” initially refers to the dried tea leaves of the puer variety that were meant to go through further processing, such as steaming for compressing or post-fermentation for darkening.
As people began to popularly consume puer tea at this stage, in order to differentiate it from traditional varieties that are darkened either “naturally” or through an induced process ( i.e. oudui 漚堆 ), a few names were employed to refer to such teas. They were: shaiqingcha ( 曬青茶 ), qingcha ( 青茶 ), shengpu ( 生普 ), and maocha ( 毛茶 ). In the end, shengcha came out as most popularly accepted. It is actually more accurate in conceptual meaning. It now refers to both the loose tea and the compressed tea that have not gone through post-fermentation.
The term raw tea has been used by some traders when using English as a communication medium. The term raw tea is quite misleading and we therefore recommend the use of the term shengcha instead.
The term shengcha can be found in the following articles:
- “Raw” Puer or “Cooked” Puer?
- Bulang Shengcha cha bing
- Bulang Shengcha Pu’er
- Bulang Shengcha Puer
- Categorization of Teas
- Eight Immortals
- From Shengcha to Shu Cha, a Microbial Change
- Green Tea Production: Sun-drying
- Huoba Cha, Bundled Maocha
- Huoba Cha, Bundled Maocha
- Infused leaves of three laos shengcha
- Infused Tealeaves of Shengcha Pu’er
- infusion Colour, Matured Shengcha Pu’er
- Is Pu’er Cha Bing an Investment Tool?
- Laos maocha for making pu’er shengcha
- Laos maocha for making pu’er shengcha
- Laos Maocha, semi-dark white tea
- Laos Phongsaly shengcha: closeup of a few leaves before infusion
- Laos Shengcha
- Laos Shengcha from the Phongsaly region
- Laos Shengcha from the Xayabouly region
- Laos Shengcha from upper altitudes of Xieng Khouang
- Making Tea with the Mug
- Maocha
- Master Zou Bing Liang inspecting two batches of maocha for blend
- Mengku Shengcha Pu’er, aged dark tea
- Nausea After Green Tea, But I Want It for Health…
- Pu’er: Myth of Origin & Reality of Blending
- Puer, a Post-fermented Tea
- Renaissance of Dianhong Part 1: the War
- Shou Cha or Shu Cha?
- Shu Cha
- Statin content comparison between matured premium shengcha puer products and lab made puers
- Streptomyces galaxy
- Tea Against the Cold
- Tea and Your Health: an Orientation
- Tea Compression: Making of a Cha Bing
- Tea discuses made with Fuding White Peony
- Tea in the Thermos
- Tea Infusion Colour, Shengcha Pu’er vs Shu Cha Pu’er
- Tea List Gallery: Pu’er and other Dark Teas
- Tea List Gallery: White & Other Lightly Oxidized Teas
- Tea of the Resistance — Dianhong
- To blanch or not to blanch? That is the question
- Tong Qing Blue Label Shengcha Cha Bing
- Tong Qing Shengcha Bing, photographed at 3 yrs
- Tong Qing Shengcha Bing, photographed at 3 yrs
- Tong Qing Shengcha Bing, photographed at 3 yrs
- Tong Qing Shengcha Bing, photographed at 3 yrs
- Two puer discus ( cha bing )
- Uji Gyokuro, Classic Representation of Japanese Green Tea
- What Really is a White Tea?
- White Peony, Real White Tea
- Wild tea maocha, Laos
- Worker with freshly compressed cha bings
- Yiwu Daye, Matured Shengcha Pu’er
- Yiwu Daye, Matured Shengcha Pu’er
- Yiwu Daye, Semi-shengcha Pu’er
- Zhenghe White Peony, Matured for 8 Years