普洱茶

Leaves at the bottom are 'cooked',
(Wuzhou Liubao Tea.)

Tea is split into six main types- white, yellow, green, black, oolong, and pu'er. They come from the same plant of Camellia sinensis. The plant has 2 sub-species that produces some 400 varieties of tea- Camellia sinensis assamica (grown in Assam) and Camellia sinensis sinensis (originally grown in China).

The differences in tea from the same plant lie in the obvious geographical location, climate, altitude and soil. The rest depends on the various ways the leaves are cultivated and processed. If you don't want to plough through a book, there's a decent summary on Fortnum & Mason's webpage.

“茶出银生城界诸山，散收无采造法。蒙舍蛮以菽姜桂和烹而饮之。” ~ 《蛮书》

In one of those ancient texts written in the Tang Dynasty, it was stated that pu'er tea originated from Yunnan, which was then known as 'Yinsheng City'. The 'barbarians' then, plucked the tea from the mountains beyond the city and drank it by cooking it with pepper, ginger and cassia. The Yunnan Provincial Government has defined pu'er to be (a) of the broad leaf variety from Camellia sinensis assamica; (b) grown in the Mekong River basin or Lanchang (澜沧); and (c) made from mao cha (毛茶), an unoxidized green tea processed from the designated plant.

The realm of pu'er tea (普洱茶) is so vast till it'll take me a lifetime to understand it. It's versatile and adopts different textures, flavors and brewing mthods. Now, I'm only beginning to taste the available types, and learning its different brewing methods in order to match the grade of the tea. Nowhere near any sort of ability to discern its grade and quality just yet.

We tasted 2 types of pu'er today. A raw (生) and a cooked (熟). Always taste the former first. Lighter in color, the raw pu'er is smokier to the nose, with a rich earthy after-taste. The cooked pu'er from Wuzhou, Guangxi, (梧州六堡茶) is strong, thick but mellow. How it will eventually taste to the palate will also depend on the temperatures used to brew, and the style and speed of pour.

I don't think I like pu'er very much. For some reason, it just doesn't appeal, and I feel like I might as well be drinking whisky instead of this. :P I've more interest towards oolong in terms of brewing methods, oolong-producing regions, and especially tasting the varieties on the market.

The cups used for this brew of cooked pu'er are as big as bowls.