What kind of tea does Pu ‘erh belong to? Why there is no Pu ‘erh tea among the top 10 famous teas in China?
Two days ago, I wrote an article about “China’s top ten famous teas”, the readers’ response was very strong, the comment section has up to more than 1,000 mixed comments, with a variety of different voices, which shows that everyone is still very concerned about tea. For the netizens asked more questions: why is the famous Pu’er tea not selected as one of China’s top ten famous tea? Today I will answer for you in detail, I hope to be able to solve the doubts in your mind! First of all, let’s take a look at the “Yunnan Pu’er tea” in the end belongs to what kind of tea?
Pu’er tea in the end belongs to what kind of tea?
Our country is the hometown of tea, tea in our country’s history can be traced back to thousands of years ago, after thousands of years of long development, according to incomplete statistics, now on the market a variety of tea almost a total of thousands of kinds of tea, even if it is a little bit of fame of the common tea there are hundreds of kinds. Various tea names are also varied, according to the name of the origin of the tea, according to the shape of the tea to the name, but also according to the history of the tea to the name of the ……, and a lot of the name of the tea, sounds will give a person a deep sense of mystery.
In the face of hundreds of kinds of tea, we have to follow certain standards to divide them into categories, otherwise it seems very messy. Therefore, we usually say that the “traditional 7 tea” is the tea according to the color and processing technology of the different divisions out, they are: black tea, green tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, white tea, black tea and flower tea seven tea. Then our Pu’er tea in the end belongs to which one of the tea system? In fact, there has always been a controversy over the categorization of Puerh Tea, some say it is black tea, some say it is green tea, and some say it is black tea, but most people still classify it as black tea.
The processing of Pu-erh tea is one of the more special types of tea, spanning a wide range of definitional standards, making it difficult to accurately categorize it as one of the 7 tea families. For example, some people say that it is green tea because Puerh tea is divided into raw tea and ripe tea, and the processing technology of raw tea is that the new tea is not fermented, and is made after killing, kneading and twisting, and air-drying, so the color of the tea leaves stays fresh and natural, and the soup color is light yellow, which is particularly similar to the standard of green tea in terms of color and processing technology, so from the point of view of raw tea, Puerh tea belongs to the green tea more accurately.
However, the vast majority of Pu-erh tea varieties belong to ripe tea, and there are many varieties of Pu-erh tea, divided into six types, which are: Pu-erh tea bricks, Pu-erh loose tea, Palace Pu-erh, Phoenix Pu-erh Tuocha, Pu-erh Tuocha, and Tangerine Pu-erh Tea. Although the processing of these six types of Pu’er tea have their own characteristics, in general they all need to go through the processes of greening, kneading, curing (steaming, sun-drying, sieving), re-kneading and baking, which belong to the heavily fermented tea. Both the soup color and the color of the leaf bottom are dark and bright, some are dark brown, some are maroon. Therefore, from the point of view of Puerh ripe tea, it is more accurate to classify it as black tea, because the color and processing characteristics of Puerh ripe tea are very close to the standard of black tea.
As for some people classifying Puerh tea as black tea, it is not without some reason, after all, the color of Puerh ripe tea is somewhat similar to black tea. So what type of tea Puerh tea should belong to, it is really difficult to classify, personally I think, Puerh is classified as black tea is more appropriate, after all, most of the Puerh is ripe tea, raw tea is less, according to the principle of majority rule, Puerh should be black tea! Let’s discuss the second issue:
Why is the famous Yunnan Pu-erh tea not among the top ten famous teas in China?
So far, China’s selection of tea activities, large and small, only five times, the five tea selection of the time are: 1915 in San Francisco, the United States held the Universal Exposition; 1959 National “Ten Famous Tea” Competition; 1999 “Jiefang Daily” Tea Selection; 2001 Associated Press and The New York Times Tea Selection and “New York Times” tea selection; 2002 “Hong Kong Wen Wei Po” tea selection.
However, in these five tea selection activities of a slightly larger scale, Yunnan’s Pu’er tea are not on the list, indeed puzzling. However, in these five tea selection activities, truly authoritative and professional only in 1959, the national “top ten tea” competition, after all, is held by the Ministry of Agriculture experts in the country’s large-scale tea review, the selection of a total of selected: West Lake Longjing, Dongting Biluochun, Mount Huangshan Maofeng, Lushan Yunwu Tea, Liu’an Gua Pian, Junshan silver needle, Xinyang Mao Jian, Wuyi rock tea, Anxi Tieguanyin, Keemun black tea the top ten famous tea in China, regrettably Yunnan Pu’er no list!
Why 5 times tea selection, are missing the figure of Yunnan Pu’er, is Pu’er tea is not good? In fact, there is only one reason behind:
Chinese famous tea is divided into “traditional tea” and “historical tea”, therefore, a tea to become a famous tea, not so simple, must have the standards and conditions of famous tea, including cultural and historical heritage, taste, market heat and many other factors to be considered! It is not the case that a tea can become a famous tea if it is excellent in one aspect.
Pu-erh tea is also a tea with a very long history, as early as three thousand years ago, there are historical records of Yunnan people to King Wu of Zhou offering Pu-erh, but the name of the tea was not called Pu-erh at all at that time, and the real use of “Pu-erh” the name of the historical records in the Qing Dynasty Ruan Fu “Pu-erh Tea Records”. Therefore, the history of Pu’er tea is said to be long, but it always gives a vague and ambiguous feeling, unlike other teas in the four famous teas, which have been famous for thousands of years. Pu-erh tea in the history of the real heyday from Pu-erh tea was favored by members of the Qing Dynasty royal family, became a tribute to the court tea only after the beginning.
After the establishment of new China, due to the emergence of new tea technology, the traditional Pu’er tea that was just developed during the Qing Dynasty was eliminated from the game, firstly, the administrative area of Yunnan was re-divided at that time, and the original cultivation and processing place of Pu’er tea was re-adjusted, and the most crucial thing is that Pu’er tea at this time is no longer known as “Pu’er”. The most critical thing is that Pu-erh tea was no longer called “Pu-erh” at this time, so the later Pu-erh tea, including the current market Pu-erh tea, the variety is as high as six or seven kinds, completely replaced the traditional meaning of Pu-erh tea in history.
See here, you should understand, although Pu-erh tea in history has been recorded for three thousand years, but the real heyday from the Qing Dynasty, and later Pu-erh tea’s fate is also a series of twists and turns, therefore, from the historical level of this pass, Pu-erh tea lost the qualification to be selected as one of China’s top ten famous teas.
Of course, today’s Pu’er tea is equally famous in China and abroad for its high quality, especially as many Yunnan locals never drink any of the top ten famous teas, only their own Pu’er tea. There are more types of Pu-erh tea, and in general they are all very precious and good teas, with the characteristic that the more it ages, the more fragrant it is. Especially ripe tea in the Palace Pu’er tea, can be called the tea in the “royal family”, taste mellow and sweet, smooth and sweet sound, with a unique fragrance; cake shape is beautiful, tight and thin cords, the golden hairs show, the color and lustre of the oolong or brownish-red, with a glossy oil.
Therefore, we usually drink tea, in fact, do not have to care about it is not a famous tea, a lot of very good tea on the market, they have not been selected as a famous tea. Their favorite tea, is the best famous tea!
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