To be fair, puer tea can be difficult. The flavors and aromas don’t lend themselves to the obvious charms of sugars and salts. It’s not mysterious in a mystical sense, but quality information is elusive and this tea doesn’t fit neatly into a commoditized category like black tea or green tea. Its simplicity adds to its complexity, hence the trouble with giving it a firm definition.

puer with Mr. Zhao at his home in Nan Nuo Mountain in Yunnan" style="margin: 5px 5px 5px 5px; float: none;" width="479" height="479">

But, I’m going to attempt to give it a working definition anyways. I will not address what it tastes like - it’s enough just to respond to “what is puer tea”? The below explanation assumes you have some understanding of how tea is made. I lack the skill to summarize without these assumptions.

All puer is made using the Yunnan-grown assamica leaf. If it is made with the small leaf Camellia sinensis, it is generally not considered puer.

All puer tea comes from Yunnan, particularly the southwest areas of Lincang, Xishuangbanna, and Puer (hence the name). Even if the tea making process is the same, but if the tea material is not from Yunnan (particularly those three areas), it is not considered puer tea.

To be brief, puer tea comes in two very different styles: sheng (raw) puer and shu (ripe) puer. Sheng puer is a simple non-oxidized tea whose finished product will change naturally over time. Shu puer starts out as sheng puer, but goes through one more deliberate and accelerated “post fermentation” process to speed up this change into a matter of weeks as opposed to years. However, these two styles of tea couldn't be more different.

Sheng puer is a simple tea to make and goes through some similar processes as other tea, but there are two essential distinctions. The “kill-green” step is not as thorough as green tea, leaving the elements for oxidation somewhat intact. Also, puer tea is always finished by air drying, not machine drying, so the moisture loss is always imperfect. These two facts are critical. It preserves the elements of change within the leaf that become apparent with age.

Both styles of puer tea can be drunk immediately after they’re made or can be aged indefinitely. There is no minimum age to define puer tea. However, the qualities of sheng puer will change considerably over the course of years. The change in shu puer is less dramatic.

When aging puer tea, the environmental conditions during storage can vary widely and will have a signature impact on how it changes. It’s not uncommon for puer tea to be sent to Guangdong or Hong Kong to be stored in its warm and humid climate, which will cause the changes to be faster and more intense. Yunnan is cooler and dryer and so the pace of change is slower and more subtle. There is no universally agreed upon method of which storage is better. They are just different.

Because of puer tea’s simplicity, the small details – the mountain, the tea tree, the season, the weather conditions – all play a pivotal role. It’s not hard for the puer tea enthusiast to get lost in the minutia of these details – and like baseball statistics when I was a kid; they are fun to get lost in. But it’s best not to take them too seriously. Statistics don’t always guarantee performance.

If you’re still reading, I hope this brings puer tea a little more into focus. This is not an official definition of puer. I am not qualified to give one. Any of the above parameters can and are being disputed by someone. It doesn’t matter. Always let the tea speak for itself.

-Michael

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Organic Matcha Latte

1. Whisk 1/2 to 1 tsp of Organic Matcha in 1/4 cup of 180°F (82°C) water.
2. Add 6-8oz. of 180°F (82°C) milk.
3. Sweeten to taste (optional).

Matcha Raspberry Smoothie

1. Add the following ingredients in a blender:
   • 1/2 frozen banana
   • 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
   • 1/2 cup frozen peaches
   • 1/4 cup frozen strawberries
   • 1/2–3/4 cup milk of your choice
   • 1 1/2 cups baby spinach
   • 1 tablespoon Organic Matcha
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Enjoy!

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Step 1: Use Good Tea

Using good tea almost always means using loose leaf tea. There are some reasonably decent tea bag brands- but we don't know of any great (or even very good tea) that comes in a tea bag.

This first step doesn’t necessarily mean expensive tea. There are some excellent teas that can be had for as little as 15 cents per cup, like our Empire Keemun. But buy your tea from trusted vendors.

Step 2: Use Good Water

If your water tastes good without tea, chances are it will taste good with tea. And the opposite is true also. Steeped tea is over 95% water, so this matters a lot.

A few tips:

• If your water does taste bad out of the tap, most filters available work pretty well: Britta, Pur, etc.
  
  
• Avoid distilled water, your tea will taste flat.
  
  
• Bottled water and spring waters are usually ok, although keep in mind that Evian is naïve spelled backwards.

Step 3: Measure Your Tea

Use 3 grams per 8 ounces water.

For the non-geeky tea drinker, this is about 1 rounded tsp of loose tea. We're talking about a measuring teaspoon, not the teaspoon in your silverware set. That’s why they call it a teaspoon.

If you have an extremely bulky or fluffy tea, we suggest using a heaping tsp or even two teaspoons.

If you have an extremely fine tea, like Classic Iced tea, we would only use 1 level teaspoon.  This is because a fine tea has more weight with less volume; while a bulky tea needs more volume to have the same amount of weight.

Step 4: Use the "Correct" Water Temperature

If you’ve ever had green tea that was bitter, chances are the water was too hot. Water temperature is important–you would never bake a cake 50 degrees hotter or colder than the recipe called for–you should be just as diligent with your tea.

Recommended Water Temperatures for Steeping Different Tea Types.

Tea Image	Tea Type	Recommended Water Temperature
	Black Tea	Boiling (212°F) You can hear and see the bubbles breaking the surface of the water; your kettle should be whistling like crazy.
	Dark Tea (and Puer)	200–210°F Just short of a rolling boil, "fish-eye" bubbles are forming on the surface and the kettle is beginning to hiss.
	Oolong Tea	190–203°F The steam should be strongly coming out of your kettle's spout in a steady column, but bubbles should not be breaking the surface.
	Green Tea (and Yellow)	175–185°F The steam should be coming out of your kettle's spout in a gentle wafting/wisping motion—like steam rising off the frozen surface of a Minnesota lake in February.
	White Tea	Brewing temperatures vary widely. Classic steeping is 175°F, when the very first hints of steam begin to rise from the kettle. We have also found that some white teas develop more flavor when brewed at 180–190°F.

Basically, the hotter the water, the more "flavor chemicals" (including any bitter flavors) you will pull into the steep water.

The instructions above are general guidelines, and there are many exceptions. All TeaSource packages come with steeping suggestions printed on the label. These are simply meant to be starting points. Feel free to experiment and find what suits you best.

Step 5: Time Your Steep

Another reason a green tea might turn bitter is it may have been steeped too long.

Basically steep the tea until it tastes good to you. Here are some very general guidelines (and there are lots of exceptions to this).

One observation: typically the smaller the tea particles (like Classic Iced Tea) the quicker the tea will infuse and steep. And the larger the leaf particles (like Ceylon Lumbini OPA used in our Ceylon Seafarer) the longer the tea will need to steep and infuse.

Step 6: Allow for Full Leaf Expansion

Traditional tea balls are terrible tea-steeping-vessels because they don’t allow enough room for the leaf to expand.

At its most basic, tea is just a dried leaf. As when you re-hydrate any dried food, it will expand, sometimes dramatically so. Tea leaves will expand 2-5 times in size when they’ve re-hydrated after steeping. You have to allow room for that full leaf expansion, or you will not be taking full advantage of what the tea leaves has to offer.

Our suggestions:

• Steep your tea in an infusing basket or cup infuser. They work great and they can fit into individual mugs or teapots.
• Steep your tea in T-sacs (individual, do-it-yourself tea bags). They also work great and are made of unbleached teabag paper. You simply put your own tea in them, and then put them to use on-demand.
• If you must use a tea ball, use the largest honking tea ball you can find, even for a single cup.

The bottom line: use some method that allows the leaf to fully expand during the steeping time.

Steeping loose leaf tea is easy, and when done in a large enough steeping vessel, it is the best way to completely extract everything the leaves have to offer directly into your cup.

Step 7: Stop the Steep

You would never leave a cake in the oven long past the recommended time. The same logic holds true when steeping your tea leaves.

If you leave the leaves in the water too long, almost all teas will become very bitter.

We recommend:

• Steeping your tea in an infusing basket or mug infuser, and then simply removing the whole basket and leaves at the right time.
• Steeping your tea in T-sacs. They're great because you can pre-fill them, steep on-demand, and then simply pull out the t-sac and tea leaves at the same time.
• Steeping your tea directly in a mug or teapot and then pouring and straining the steeped tea into a second pot or cup when the time comes.

Using a steeping device or process that allows you to separate the leaves from the liquid at the right time is essential.

Thanks for joining us on our Seven Steps to Great Tea series. We hope this helps!

View Post About Seven Steps to Great Tea: A Tea Basics Series

You would never leave a cake in the oven long past the recommended time. The same logic holds true when steeping your tea leaves.

If you leave the leaves in the water too long, almost all teas will become very bitter.

We recommend:

• Steeping your tea in an infusing basket or mug infuser, and then simply removing the whole basket and leaves at the right time.
• Steeping your tea in T-sacs. They're great because you can pre-fill them, steep on-demand, and then simply pull out the t-sac and tea leaves at the same time.
• Steeping your tea directly in a mug or teapot and then pouring and straining the steeped tea into a second pot or cup when the time comes.

Using a steeping device or process that allows you to separate the leaves from the liquid at the right time is essential.

Thanks for joining us on our Seven Steps to Great Tea series. We hope this helps!

View Post About Seven Steps to Great Tea: Step 7 – Stop the Steep

Traditional tea balls are terrible tea-steeping-vessels because they don’t allow enough room for the leaf to expand.

At its most basic, tea is just a dried leaf. As when you re-hydrate any dried food, it will expand, sometimes dramatically so. Tea leaves will expand 2-5 times in size when they’ve re-hydrated after steeping. You have to allow room for that full leaf expansion, or you will not be taking full advantage of what the tea leaves has to offer.

Our suggestions:

• Steep your tea in an infusing basket or cup infuser. They work great and they can fit into individual mugs or teapots.
• Steep your tea in T-sacs (individual, do-it-yourself tea bags). They also work great and are made of unbleached teabag paper. You simply put your own tea in them, and then put them to use on-demand.
• If you must use a tea ball, use the largest honking tea ball you can find, even for a single cup.

The bottom line: use some method that allows the leaf to fully expand during the steeping time.

Steeping loose leaf tea is easy, and when done in a large enough steeping vessel, it is the best way to completely extract everything the leaves have to offer directly into your cup.

View Post About Seven Steps to Great Tea: Step 6 – Allow for Full Leaf Expansion