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P’UERH TEA

Also know as PU-ERH and PU-ER

P’UERH is the original spelling but it has been anglicized several times during its westward expanding use. It is manufactured in the P’uerh tea district of southern Yunnan Province in China. It takes its name from the small city of Pu-er and is only a few hundred miles from the Laos and Burma border.

This tea is well known throughout the medicine shops of China, and is highly regarded for its medicinal qualities as a digestive and nerve stimulant. The leaves have a marked bitterness. They are plucked, panned, sun-dried, and steamed; after which they are either allowed to remain in leaf form or they are pressed into circular cakes of varying diameters. Cake tea is the most ancient form of manufacture of tea and it has come down through hundreds of years to the present time. A method of preparing this tea was described by Lu Yu in the first book on tea, published in China about the year 780 A.D. In cake form it is interesting to note that the cake tea of Lu Yu was wrapped in bamboo for the sake of transportation and is still done that way to this date for the high quality P’uerhs.

P’uerh tea liquor has a flavor unlike any other tea in the world. It is somewhat earthy in flavor (not repulsive at all) and has a long lasting flavor profile within the mouth or palate area. Poor grades can become very harsh and, as mentioned above, bitter. Top grades are smooth, pleasant and sweet.

P’uerh is one of "The Tea Man’s" favorite teas and certainly the world's most unique.

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Copyright © November 1999