“Raw” Puer or “Cooked” Puer?

Microbe growth during piled post fermentation in pu’er tea production. Menghai, Yunnan. One reason for the modern post-fermentation process to take three months is to let the microbes complete their life cycle naturally before halting it and drying the leaves. It is not advisable to let such microbes grow again in an uncontrolled condition or before you drink the tea, as in the myth of the so-called gold flower described below.

shu cha puer also needs to be matured

A shu cha improves with age. While it generally takes 10 years or more for a loose leaf shengcha, and 20 or more for a compressed one to taste smooth, a three-years good storage already gives impressive change to a shu cha. The modern post-fermentation method was developed exactly for this purpose — to dramatically shorten the time needed to mature productions that are otherwise too astringent and bitter for enjoyment.

dim sum restaurant puer: a cheap shu cha

The original demand for shu cha puer: the need of the common people. Outdoor dimsum eatery for the mass, 1960, Hong Kong.

Shu cha is the same category of tea that is what you order when you say “puer” ( or pu-erh, as in so many Chinatown restaurants ) in the dim sum restaurant, although you know virtually all such restaurants serve up unbearably low quality versions most of which taste so horrible that one would rather drink unpleasant plain hot water from their calcified water heating tanks. Nevertheless, a shu cha puer is a lot more suitable to be consumed with food and brewed to various strength, much better than a low quality shengcha. That was why tea vendors in old Hong Kong developed the post-fermentation process in the first place.

quality: priority number 1

However, one has to be aware that quality of production management is a major issue in producing shu cha. Post-fermentation involves a 3-month duration of fungus growth on the tealeaves. Lack of environmental control and the pile can easily become a hot bed for OTHER non-invited microbes or other small living things. In the China that is today, where many people’s morality can be cheaply traded for higher margins, malpractice is common place. One really have to watch out for tealeaves not properly fermented. That is why I never drink the puer served in dim sum restaurants, where normally tealeaves with the lowest cost are used. If you want to have puer tea while enjoying dimsum, bring your own tealeaves. This is an accepted practice, as long as you accept the restaurant’s “tea charges”.

A properly fermented and dried shu cha should smell the aroma of various wood, a touch of earth, with accents of hay, herbs, mushrooms, or even dried fruits. A properly matured one smell LESS than a newer one. Mouldy, ammonia, dusty smells etc are signs of malpractices in fermentation or storage. Avoid such selections.

The Myth of Gold flower

There has also been popular myth particularly in the Mainland Chinese market: that when certain “gold flowers” or “silver flowers” appear in a puer, or any other dark tea for that matter, that it tells of a high quality tea or one that has been well-matured. I have yet to hear any more nonsensical tall tales than this. These “flowers” are common moulds. Aspergillus, Acremonium, and Cladosporium can all appear orange-like against a dark colour tea background, depending on which strand of such common moulds.

Popularly, the shopkeeper will demand a higher price for such mouldy tea basing on the myth. That is China today. Don’t laugh at it. People, not just Mainlander Chinese who are more easily brain-washable because of the society they live in, but also those well educated ones outside of the border buy this. Human mind is a funny thing.

“shu” or “sheng”? choosing a tea for yourself

To compare the taste between shu cha and shengcha puer, generally a shu one is rounder, sweeter and softer, but shorter and lower on the high note. A quality shengcha properly matured, and thereby “ripened” ( i.e. to have “naturally” post-fermented ), can be sweet and dark as a shu cha, but with more pitch and depth, i.e. a broader taste gamut. However, such quality needs some search, and comes by with a few times the price.

A fresher shengcha is a different tea altogether. Expect a sharper tea. A really good one, however, can be floral or even bouquet, with a sweet, full body that is nevertheless bitter. The amount of bitterness is dependent on the harvest, processing and most importantly the make-up of the different cultivars that the tea is harvested from. Some say it is the sub-region, i.e. which “mountain”.

Whether shengcha or shu cha, however, we encourage the use of loose tea rather than compressed ones, unless there is certain strong preference. We notice that there is sales of broken up compressed teas in the market. This is an old practice when teashops want to get rid of over-stock products and those that are set at the wrong price. This is understandable because of the recent fluctuation in the wholesale market. However, attention is much needed in the hygiene of the breaking up and over-handling.

Lastly, health and TCM nature

A shu cha or a well matured shengcha is relatively neutral in TCM nature and therefore suitable for most people. They are also more versatile in food pairing and in any casual drinking.

On the other hand, a fresher shengcha is cold in TCM term and therefore a challenge to those with weaker stomachs or weaker yin energy. A person who is habitually under slept, over-worked, not-exercising, obese, low in libido, or having bowel issues are mostly weak in yin. Use this tea from this category with constrain.

However, fresher shengchas are very effective as a digestive, or moving the bowel ( when in moderate concentration ) and as a perk in the sleepy afternoon.