Calling Shu Pu-erh Tea "Cooked Pu-erh" Is Inappropriate

We often come across customers who call Shu pu-erh tea "cooked pu-erh" instead of ripe pu-erh tea. Many people think that ripe pu-erh tea is made by cooking tea with direct heat. In fact, this is incorrect.

Shu has a few different meanings

The word used for ripe pu-erh in both Chinese and Japanese is 熟茶. It is pronounced "Shu" in Chinese. The word Shu carries a few different meanings, as follows.

1. Aging or maturation
2. Cooking / well done
3. Processed
4. Fermentation
5. Getting used to things
6. Sufficiently

In the case of ripe pu-erh tea, Shu means processing or fermentation. The word Shu 熟 is derived from traditional Chinese medicine, where it is often used to indicate processed herbs as opposed to the raw material. Pu-erh tea is named after the process of ripe pu-erh tea, which involves the fermentation of raw pu-erh tea leaves. The process of ripe pu-erh consists of two stages.

Neither a cooking process nor a heating process is involved

In making ripe pu-erh tea, raw pu-erh tea is used as the material. The raw pu-erh tea is piled up and moistened in order to initiate bacterial fermentation. At this stage, bacteria such as actinomycetes are involved in the fermentation. After this stage, the tea is spread over the floor in order to reduce the moisture and initiate the secondary fermentation, which is carried out by yeast and mold. The entire fermentation process of ripe pu-erh tea takes around two months.

The first fermentation

Secondary fermentation

As you can see in the process above, no cooking is involved. The reason why some people call ripe pu-erh "cooked pu-erh" is a misreading of the word Shu (熟). There is no doubt that Shu also means cooked, but this meaning is inappropriate for Shu pu-erh. In my own opinion, "ripe pu-erh" is not really a good name for Shu pu-erh tea either. I think "matured pu-erh tea" or "fermented pu-erh tea" sounds more appropriate if we follow the way it is processed.

For more about ripe pu-erh tea, please see About Ripe Pu-erh Tea. Our ripe pu-erh teas are available in our ripe pu-erh tea collection.