Wu Liang Shan Ripe Pu-erh gives dried fruit flavor and long lasting flavor. Its smooth and gentle taste travels deep down into the chest. The quality of good tea is defined by after taste. In Yunnan, it is so easy to find ripe puerh. Despite ripe puerh has very short history, it is massively produced by the factory and every tea shop including the shop in the airport is selling ripe puerh. Usually ripe puerh is produced by the factory, while raw puerh, especially those from old tea tree, is produced by minority people. Factory has to commit for production quantity and therefore they source material from the garden. In Yunnan, the garden tea is planted in less than 40 years ago. The tea tree is very young. That is why most of the ripe puerh available in commercial tea market has very less after taste. When we look for ripe puerh, we determine to look for tea with very thick body and deep after taste.

I was very interested in this tea even before I tried it. It was because that this tea was made from old tea tree. This is very rare when of ripe pu-erh tea. Usually old tree tea is processed into raw puerh as they can sell it at better price. In a way, this is a very special ripe tea.

Wu Liang mountain range		Tea grows inside the mountain

Wu Liang Shan ripe pu-erh is made of tea aged about 200-300 years old. Tea is not planted in the garden, but at the slope of the mountain. Thanks to the limited extent of trimming, the branches become very slim and the size of tealeaf is small and consistent. The minority people has to climb up the tree and pluck tea by hand.

 

Effects to our body

Tea that gives long finishing in taste and flavor is very rich in iron. Once you drink this tea, you feel warm, your face blushes and you feel very relax. The iron also contributes in formation of blood, circulation and good sleep. Thanks to improved blood circulation, you feel relax and once you fall into sleep, you can have better sleep.

Plucking tea is not an easy job		There are a number of old tea trees availale in Wu Liang Shan

 

Shape VS Quality

Some customers tend to think that mini tuo cha is of lower quality. In fact, the shape after the compression has nothing to do with its quality. We purchase tea in loose leaf and send it to the factory to compress. Usually we are the one who decide the shape.

 

Brewing Tips

Please note that the brewing time for this tea is very short. I suggest to brew 1 piece of mini tuo cha with 300ml of water. Please make sure brew not more than 10-15 seconds. For second brewing onwards, you have to immediately pour out the tea after you pour in hot water. If you happen to brew too thick, this tea gives a slight bitter taste. If you feel that it is bitter, please dilute it with hot water.

Loose leaves before compression		If tea looks as thick as this photo, you need to dilute it with hot water.

If you wish to learn about pu-erh tea in detail, please click here >>

 

(1) Water

 

If you are using tap water, it is necessary to filter the water using an activated carbon filter. If not, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the authentic taste of tea. Chlorine is added to tap water in order to sanitize bacteria. This chlorinated water will also harm our body cells. Concerning about our health condition, it is very important to remove chlorine from drinking water. The most effective method in removing chlorine is to install an activated carbon filter. This type of filter is designed for removing organic substance. It will remove not only chlorine, but also other harmful substance such as contaminated pesticide. The activated carbon filter can be easily obtained from the common hardware shop in most countries. If activated carbon filter is not available, please place a charcoal inside the water and leave it for overnight. The material composed of activated carbon filter is made of ground charcoal. The difference is that activated carbon filter contains much finer particles and hence it has extremely large surface area for a better efficiency in filtration. The intensity of after taste becomes stronger if water is kept overnight. Keeping water with stones or inside clay jar will increase the content of minerals. However, you need to confirm whether or not the water kept inside particular jar or with stone is suitable with your tea or tea equipment (such as teapot). If water jar carries certain minerals like copper or zinc, it will rather spoil the taste and flavor of tea. For this, you need to confirm with experiment on try and error basis.
For boiling water, please do not use aluminum or copper kettle. It spoils the taste of water. We suggest using kettle made of iron, stainless steel, tin or glass.
In the long run, you may observe a thick layer of scale accumulated inside your kettle. Our mother usually taught us to wash and remove it with citric acid. But please do not even try to remove the scale. Scale consists of minerals that exist in the water. The mineral composition is reflected from the water you used. If you remove the scale, the mineral ion balance between scale and water is destroyed. This balance is called buffer effect in science. The flavor and taste will seriously run out and you won't be able to get previous taste and flavor for a long time. It is also important to stick to the same type of water whenever brewing tea. If source of water is changed, it carries different type of minerals. It will affect the mineral ion balance too.

 

Go to further information about suitable water for brewing tea >>

Go to further information about suitable water for brewing tea >>

(2) Quantity of tea leaves

Use 1 piece of tuo cha for 200ml of water.

(3) Temperature



It is important to use boiling water. Please do not stop as soon as water is boiled. It is advisable to keep water boiling for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

(4) Warm up teapot

It is important to pour boiling water into the teapot and leave it for about 10 seconds. Without this rinsing process, the temperature of boiling water decrease about 20 degree C when it is pour into the teapot.

(5) Warm up tea leaves

Place tea leaves in teapot and pour boiling water again. Leave it for less than a second and discard the water, and immediately pour boiling water one more time and repeat the same procedure. Without this step, the temperature of tea will reduce nearly 30 degree C.
If (4) and (5) is not carried out, your brewing temperature will be 50-60 degree C. This is too low to extract sufficient flavor and taste. Please repeat rinsing process one more time. Please do not soak tea for more than a second.

(6)Brewing Time

1st Brewing: 10-15 seconds
2nd Brewing Onwards: Less than a seconds.

You can brew up to even 8-10 brewing using the same tea leaves. From 2nd brewing onwards, it is very important to keep brewing time as short as you can. As tea leaf is wet and hot, definitely it is not necessary to brew more than a few seconds.
Note: Please remove the lid while you are waiting for subsequent brewing. If the lid is not removes, tea leaves will be over steamed and get oxidized.

 

If you wish to learn about Pu-erh tea in detail, please click here >>

 

Note: Please remove the lid while you are waiting for subsequent brewing. Tea leaf will be over steamed and get oxidized if the lid is not removed.

 

Keep tea away from moisture

Pu-erh tea lasts more than 10-20 years as long as tea is kept in dry environment. Tea must be tightly sealed before it is kept. Tea should be kept in ambient and dry conditions such as in the living room, but it must be completely kept away from humid environment. Tea should not be kept in the kitchen as the environment is very humid. Avoid enclosed area such as inside the cupboard or drawer as these places are damp. Also avoid opening the bag of tea in humid atmosphere. It is recommended to open the bag during a sunny day or under air-conditioned atmosphere. Once tea leaves absorb moisture, deterioration of tea will be triggered within a few days. Tea will then gives an astringent taste, sometime it tastes sour. Its aroma also becomes weaker.

 

Traditionally, Pu-erh tea is compressed to remove oxygen from the leaves and kept it intact. It was the wisdom of ancient people to keep tea without oxygen and let it matured very well.

From scientific point of view, oxidation does not only refer to receiving oxygen. The oxidation also takes place when it releases hydrogen and receives electron. Even if tea is kept without oxygen, it will still undergo oxidation.

In 1960's, generally Pu-erh tea was compressed tightly and shaped like a bing (flat and thin round cake). It was called “iron bing”. The tea leaf was compressed extremely tight until it became like a piece of stone; we can hardly pry it even if we use the proper tool that designed for prying the Pu-erh cake. This style of compression succeeded the elimination of oxygen from the tea leaves. If you have ever tried this kind of Pu-erh iron bing, you would know that it was very well-matured. It gives flavour like honey with fruity note and gives no earthy flavour at all. The only problem is that it is so difficult to loosen the leaves from the iron bing and the leaves are often damaged during the process.
On the other hand, nowadays most of Pu-erh cakes are loosely compressed. Some of the Pu-erh cakes can be easily break apart by fingers. Obviously there is oxygen remained in between the leaves.  If we keep loosely-compressed Pu-erh in ambient environment, tea will expose to not only oxygen but also moisture and develop unwanted oxidation that usually generates earthy flavour. To achieve the same maturation effect like the iron bing, we encourage customer to keep Pu-erh tea without oxygen. With modern technology, we are able to apply the same theory.  Some people in Taiwan intentionally keep high mountain oolong in the vacuum bag for a few years. In the beginning, high mountain oolong is green in colour and it gives a delightful fresh flowery flavour. After a few years of maturation, the leaves turn into yellow colour and it gives the flavour like ripen peach or apricot. This is exactly the same effect as what we are looking for in Pu-erh tea. Based on our experience, well-matured Pu-erh tea gives a very fruity flavour and no earthy or mouldy flavour at all.

 

Please make sure not to keep inside fridge.