Pu'er :: Starting With The Raw

细看勐海茶厂2004年的七子饼茶。

I'm really not fond or keen on the pu'er. But I've to learn how to brew it, at the least, and begin on the journey of somewhat understanding it. It makes up a significant portion of one's tea education.

When it comes to the pu'er, the realm of knowledge is so vast that it'll probably take half lifetime to even begin to scratch slightly beyond the surface. I've made various half-hearted attempts to learn about it, and am still trying. This attempt began with the raw pu'er (生普洱). Not even going to go into 'cooked' pu'er till weeks later. Each session starts with a younger raw pu'er to an older, fully oxdized teacake.

A friend in Yunnan gifted a cake of raw pu'er (攸乐山司土老寨七子饼茶) from a small (what we would term 'independent') family-run factory. It was so cool. It was from a village at the foot of Youle Mountain (攸乐山) which I had coincidentally visited eons ago. Simply and quaint dwellings next to the mountain. Warm memories of the place. He said it was a good one. The proof would always been in the tasting. It was surprisingly good, like he said. No date of manufacture, but from the tea leaves and tasting, it was a 3 to 4-year old, and the tea teacher merrily sealed the rest of the teacake for me, advising that it could be kept for another 4 years and it would be even better. The nose and flavors are atypical of most raw pu'ers; very similar to the beautiful notes associated with pu'ers from YiWu Mountain (易武山普洱).

用心沏攸乐山司土老寨七子饼茶（有三岁左右）。耐了七泡。

Somewhere between all that tastings, I got to test out a fine raw cake of 2004 pu'er that has by now, become 'cooked', but without the heavy smoke. That was quite ethereal, as opposed to another factory's raw pu'er (中茶厂的七子饼茶) that has been kept for 10 years. These are examples of what's out there, and not wide-ranging. They're just some of the teas I've sampled. Every pu'er will taste different, depending on the regions the tea plants grow. Still not appreciating the characteristic earthy notes of the pu'er. :( As much as I love mushrooms, tasting them in the pu'er is weird.

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up, so mooncakes and lanterns aplenty. There will be tea too. Honestly I don't bother because I don't particularly like mooncakes. Nobody at home eats mooncakes either. Now, the pu'er is a great tea to sip after a rich meal or with sweet desserts, however, apparently mooncakes don't go best with cooked pu'er, contrary to popular belief. It goes best with raw pu'er. !!! Well. I leave you to your opinions. I'd like stick to mine for now. Superficially, since I'm not fond of pu'er's notes, very naturally, I gravitate towards my favored oolong for any reason and all occasions.

They say pu'er helps with weight loss. But how? How can it do that if one keeps drinking the tea, making no change to current diet (or horrors, increase food intake), and doing no exercise? Surely, even a ton of pu'er tea drunk over a year won't help!? It's like how they say drinking overnight-soaked raw oats will lower cholesterol levels, but left glaring loopholes in terms of the individual's body mass/weight index and dietary habits, or illnesses that affect hormones and weight gain/loss. And somewhere writes about a study that considers how coffee may lower the risk of bowel cancer. You know how this goes. Obviously, if you drink pu'er tea and streamline a new diet, it's CLEARLY going to have positive effects on balancing cholesterol levels, general health and weight. ARRRRRGH. It's annoying. I definitely draw the line at the theories put forth about pu'er curing cancer. Ask 5 tea experts a question and you'll get 7 different opinions. Ask the TCM practitioners, and they cautiously say that something-something is believed to have such properties...we know no known ill effects, and when taken in moderation, it should be fine. WAH LAU. So what do I believe in? I'll take everything with a healthy dose of skepticism.