Yunnan Pu-Erh

Pu-erh tea, also spelled as Pu’er tea, is a variety of fermented dark tea produced in Yunnan province, China.123 Fermentation is a tea production style in which the tea leaves undergo microbial fermentation and oxidation after they are dried and rolled.4 This process is a Chinese specialty and produces tea known as Hei Cha (黑茶), commonly translated to dark, or black tea (this type of tea is completely different from what in West is known as “black tea”, which in China is called “red tea”). The most famous variety of this category of tea is Pu-erh from Yunnan Province, named after the trading post for dark tea during imperial China.5
Pu’er traditionally begins as a raw product known as “rough” Mao Cha (毛茶) and can be sold in this form or pressed into a number of shapes and sold as “raw” Sheng Cha (生茶). Both of these forms then undergo the complex process of gradual fermentation and maturation with time. The recently developed Wo Dui process (渥堆) pioneered by both the Menghai 6 and Kunming Tea Factories 7 has created a new type of pu-erh tea of which some traditionalists dispute the legitimacy. This process involves an accelerated fermentation into “ripe” Shou Cha (熟茶) which is then sold loose or pressed in various shapes. All types of pu-erh can be stored for maturity before consumption and that is why it has become common for the products to be labelled with year and region of production.