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Home » Styles of Tea » Pure Tea (Camellia sinensis) » Pu-erh Tea
Updated: Apr. 4, 2012
Pu-erh comes in fully oxidized varieties (like black teas), called ripe or cooked pu-erh, and green varieties, called raw or sheng pu-erh. Both ripe and raw versions are often aged. Originally, only the raw version was produced; ripe Pu-erh was developed to imitate the aging process.
Pu-erh tea originated in the Yunnan province of China, and most pu-erh is still produced there; a few other regions have produced small quantities of tea in a similar style. Disputes have arisen over whether such teas produced outside of Yunnan province should be allowed to carry the title "pu-erh".
Unlike most teas which are usually sold loose, pu-erh is commonly sold both in loose and compressed forms. Pu-erh is compressed into different shapes, including bricks, cakes or disks (called bing or beeng), and a common form called tuo cha, which means bowl-shaped.
Read more about the health benefits of tea.
Pu-erh Tea
Wikipedia: Pu-erh_tea | Wikicha: Puerh | Teaviews: puer-teaUpdated: Apr. 4, 2012
About Pu-erh Tea
Pu-erh tea (普洱茶), called bo nay (or po lei, or po lai) tea in Cantonese, and sometimes spelled Puer or Pu'er, is a type of tea that is difficult to classify and is usually considered as a category of its own. Although it can be consumed immediately after production, Pu-erh is often aged, in a process called post-fermentation. This process involves active bacteria and fungal cultures. In China, post-fermented tea is also called hei cha(黑茶), meaning black tea; what westerners call "black tea" the Chinese call "red tea".
Pu-erh comes in fully oxidized varieties (like black teas), called ripe or cooked pu-erh, and green varieties, called raw or sheng pu-erh. Both ripe and raw versions are often aged. Originally, only the raw version was produced; ripe Pu-erh was developed to imitate the aging process.
Pu-erh tea originated in the Yunnan province of China, and most pu-erh is still produced there; a few other regions have produced small quantities of tea in a similar style. Disputes have arisen over whether such teas produced outside of Yunnan province should be allowed to carry the title "pu-erh".
Unlike most teas which are usually sold loose, pu-erh is commonly sold both in loose and compressed forms. Pu-erh is compressed into different shapes, including bricks, cakes or disks (called bing or beeng), and a common form called tuo cha, which means bowl-shaped.
Health benefits of pu-erh tea
Pu-erh tea is often touted for its cholesterol-lowering properties, or for promoting weight loss. Experimental studies on rats have verified that it does lower cholesterol, by inhibiting the synthesis of cholesterol.[1][2] However, the chemicals, polyphenols, that inhibit cholesterol synthesis, GCG, EGCG, and other catechins[1], are not limited to pu-erh tea, but also occur in most types of tea, and are not necessarily highest in pu-erh. Similar results have been found for green tea.[3] Pu-erh also has also been found to have antimutagenic and antimicrobial activity.[4] However, other types of tea have these properties as well, and it is not clear whether or not there are any health benefits or medicinal properties which are unique to Pu-erh.Read more about the health benefits of tea.
New to Pu-erh?
Pu-erh can be intimidating and complex to get into. We recommend New to Pu'er? and Pu'er by Appearance: Types & Storage on bearsblog if you are interested in getting seriously into this type of tea.References:
1. Chi-Hua Lua, Lucy Sun Hwang, Polyphenol contents of Pu-Erh teas ... inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis ..., Food Chemistry, Vol. 111, No. 1, (Nov. 1, 2008), pp. 67-71.
2. Chiang, Chun-Te et al., Pu-erh Tea Supplementation Suppresses..., Oncology Research Featuring Preclinical and Clinical Cancer Therapeutics'', Vol. 16, No. 3, (2006), pp. 119-128(10).
3. C.A. Bursill, M. Abbey, P.D. Roach, A green tea extract lowers plasma cholesterol ..., Atherosclerosis. 2007 Jul;193(1):86-93.
4. She-Ching Wu et al., Antimutagenic and antimicrobial activities of pu-erh tea, LWT - Food Science and Technology, Vol. 40, No. 3, (Apr. 2007), pp. 506-512.
Varieties, Kinds, or Types of Pu-erh Tea
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Best Pu-erh Tea
The notion of the "best" Pu-erh Tea is subjective, because different people have different tastes. We present the most often-rated and highest-rated teas in this category, and allow you to draw your own conclusions.
Most Often-Rated Teas: Emperor's Puerh - Black Tea
2 Ratings  2005 Jing Mai Autumnal
2 Ratings  Da Xue Shan 2010
1 Rating  ZH75: Green Pu-Erh Tuo Cha
1 Rating  Sticky Rice Pu-erh Tuocha
1 Rating | Top-Rated Teas:We need at least 3 ratings for a tea to calculate a percentile ranking. You can help us out by rating more teas of this style. |