About Ripe Pu-erh Tea

What Is Ripe Pu-erh Tea?

Ripe Pu-erh tea is made from raw Pu-erh tea leaves through fermentation by microorganisms.

The tea leaves are piled up and moistened, and fermentation proceeds through anaerobic bacteria, actinomycetes, and fungi. In a short period of time, the tea develops a sweet aroma reminiscent of dried fruit.

The leaves turn black to brown, and the liquor shows a deep brown to yellowish-red color. Ripe Pu-erh is characterized by a mild mouthfeel and a smooth texture.

While raw Pu-erh has a long history of 700 to 800 years, ripe Pu-erh is a relatively new tea, developed in the early 1970s. Because it is easy for beginners to enjoy, it spread quickly overseas. Most of the brown Pu-erh tea commonly available outside China is ripe Pu-erh.

Raw Pu-erh Is the Raw Material for Ripe Pu-erh

Ripe Pu-erh tea is made from raw Pu-erh tea.

The process of making raw Pu-erh tea can be summarized as follows. (It is basically almost the same as green tea.)

Raw Pu-erh tea is sold either as loose leaves or as compressed cakes, depending on the seller's purpose. To make ripe Pu-erh, loose-leaf raw Pu-erh is used as the raw material and fermented by microorganisms. The fermentation of ripe Pu-erh consists of two stages: primary fermentation and secondary fermentation.

The fermentation of ripe Pu-erh actually follows the same method as making compost. Therefore, if you want to learn more about how ripe Pu-erh is fermented, we recommend reading about composting.

For details on each step of making raw Pu-erh, please see "What Is Raw Pu-erh Tea?"

Primary Fermentation of Ripe Pu-erh

First, the finished raw Pu-erh tea is piled up and sprinkled with water. The moist tea leaves are then covered with a sheet.

This keeps the inside of the sheet hot and humid, and the tea leaves begin to ferment. Anaerobic microorganisms multiply first, followed by aerobic microorganisms, mainly actinomycetes. As a result, the temperature rises as high as 60 to 80°C.

The tea leaves are left for 45 to 50 days, but they are turned every 5 to 7 days so that the moisture is evenly distributed.

When fermentation is complete, the tea leaves are spread on the floor of the fermentation room and left to dry naturally. After this step, the leaves are loosened and spread out.

Secondary Fermentation of Ripe Pu-erh

The spread leaves dry gradually, and during this time fungi multiply. This stage contributes to the aroma and flavor of ripe Pu-erh.

The leaves are turned once every 5 to 10 days to even out the moisture. Depending on the weather, natural drying takes 2 to 4 weeks.

Compressing Ripe Pu-erh

Ripe Pu-erh is sometimes sold as loose leaves, but it is also often compressed into cakes or brick-shaped tea.

To compress the tea, the leaves are placed in a metal mold and steamed to soften them, then transferred into a cloth bag. After the cloth is twisted and tied, pressure is applied to shape the tea. Raw Pu-erh can be shaped with relatively little steam and low pressure. However, microbial fermentation reduces the stickiness of ripe Pu-erh leaves, so ripe Pu-erh needs more steam and higher pressure.

The most typical shape for compressed tea is the 357g cake. Traditionally, seven cakes are wrapped together in bamboo leaves to form one tong (bundle), which is called qi zi bing cha (seven-cake tea). Seven cakes of 357g weigh 2,499g, which is almost exactly 5 jin in the Chinese unit where 1 jin equals 500g. It is said that the weight of 357g per cake came from this calculation.

Ripe Pu-erh can also be shaped into many other forms, such as mini tuo cha, pumpkin shapes, and bricks.

Ripe Pu-erh Is Usually Made in Factories

Unlike raw Pu-erh, ripe Pu-erh involves microbial fermentation, which makes the process complicated. For this reason, individual farmers have rarely produced it, and production has mainly taken place in factories.

Factories, of course, have employees. Their salaries and equipment costs must be paid whether or not the tea sells. In other words, compared with individual farmers, who only need to cover their own living costs, factories have high fixed costs and must sell in volume to recover them.

As a result, factories prioritize mass production. While an individual farmer produces from a few hundred kilograms to 1 to 2 tons of raw Pu-erh a year, ripe Pu-erh is generally produced in factories on a scale of tons.

Ripe Pu-erh production used to be the exclusive domain of factories, but small-lot production is becoming a trend in Yunnan. We also work with a producer who has made it technically possible to produce batches of a few hundred kilograms, and together we make our own original ripe Pu-erh.

Judging the Quality of Ripe Pu-erh Is Difficult

Buying ripe Pu-erh is not particularly difficult, even for non-experts, and not only in Yunnan.

Many tourists visiting China or Taiwan buy Pu-erh tea as a souvenir, and most of it is likely to be ripe Pu-erh. You often hear people say, "I bought it in China, where Pu-erh comes from, so it must be very good tea." In reality, much of this tea is not worth its price.

Judging the quality of ripe Pu-erh is very difficult for beginners. With green tea or black tea, products made from inexpensive plantation leaves are strongly bitter and astringent, so you can tell right away that the quality is low. Raw Pu-erh is the same: low-quality raw material makes it very astringent.

Ripe Pu-erh, on the other hand, is made by microbial fermentation, which breaks down the tannins that cause astringency. Therefore, even when low-quality raw material is used, the astringency is not noticeable. Even inexpensive leaves plucked in midsummer end up with the smooth taste typical of ripe Pu-erh.

Because astringency is not noticeable in ripe Pu-erh, every tea seems reasonably mellow at first sip, which makes quality very hard to evaluate.

However, the quality of ripe Pu-erh is actually judged in the same way as other teas: by the clarity of its flavor and aroma, the presence or absence of astringency, and the length of its aftertaste. High-quality leaves from naturally cultivated, high-altitude, old tea trees grow slowly over a long time, which increases their cell density and produces tea with a deep aftertaste that lingers for a long time.

Spring-Harvested Ripe Pu-erh Is Extremely Rare

Spring tea is expensive because of its high quality. For this reason, most ripe Pu-erh factories blend spring, summer, and autumn tea to even out quality and price.

However, once tea lovers have experienced the flavor and aroma of spring tea, it is hard to go back to summer or autumn tea.

To secure ripe Pu-erh made only from spring tea, we deal directly with producers, and every tea we sell is made only from the first spring flush.

High-Quality Ripe Pu-erh Does Not Have an Unpleasant Smell

Some people dislike ripe Pu-erh because it smells like "old furniture," "rotten wood," or "mold." When a ripe Pu-erh has an unpleasant aroma, the cause is almost always a problem with the fermentation or the raw material. Ripe Pu-erh made from good raw material with proper fermentation has a sweet, dried fruit aroma.

The musty smell comes from the raw material. The raw Pu-erh used as the base is sometimes smoky. For example, raw Pu-erh dried over a fire at a farmer's house during a long spell of rain, or raw Pu-erh scorched during pan-frying, is sometimes used as raw material. After fermentation, raw Pu-erh with such smoky or burnt notes becomes ripe Pu-erh with a distinctive, mold-like aroma called zhang xiang (camphor aroma). Many people find this aroma unpleasant, but in some regions, such as Southeast Asia and Taiwan, it is actually preferred. For this reason, some producers in Yunnan intentionally use smoked raw Pu-erh as the raw material.

Aging Ripe Pu-erh

Ripe Pu-erh is fermented by microorganisms for about two months, so it is already highly oxidized even when newly made.

Considering that aging is a form of oxidation, ripe Pu-erh, which is already highly oxidized, does not change as dramatically as raw Pu-erh. However, aging in the right environment makes the dried fruit aroma and sweetness even stronger. For this reason, ripe Pu-erh that is three years or more past production is ideal in terms of flavor and aroma.

Through many experiments, we have found that ripe Pu-erh, like raw Pu-erh, is best aged in an oxygen-free environment, and we strongly recommend it. Aging without oxygen refines the aroma and gives it a clean, clear character without off-flavors. All our teas are packed without oxygen, so if you wish to age them, keep them unopened. Higher storage temperatures speed up aging, so we recommend storing the tea in a moderately warm place.