Pu-erh Tea 101: What It Is, How It's Made and How to Start

Pu-erh is a tea from Yunnan, China, made from large-leaf tea and usually pressed into cakes. It comes in two styles: raw (sheng), which is pressed soon after picking and changes slowly over years, and ripe (shou), which is pile-fermented before pressing and is mellow from the start. This guide explains what pu-erh is, how each style is made, what it tastes like, and how to brew, store and choose your first tea.

We are Chen Sheng Hao, a pu-erh producer in Menghai, Yunnan. Everything below is how we explain pu-erh to people tasting it for the first time.

What is pu-erh?

Pu-erh is made from the large-leaf variety of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis var. assamica) grown in Yunnan, in southwest China. It takes its name from the old tea-trading town of Pu'er. Today pu-erh is a protected geographical-indication product: it can only come from specific areas of Yunnan. The main producing areas are Xishuangbanna, Pu'er City (formerly Simao) and Lincang.

Tea from Yunnan was carried along the Tea Horse Road for centuries, and pu-erh was sent as a tribute tea to the Qing court. Pressing the leaf into cakes and bricks made it easier to transport, and the shape is still used today.

What sets pu-erh apart from other teas is that it keeps changing after it is made. Green tea is meant to be drunk fresh. Black tea is fully oxidized by the leaf's own enzymes during processing and then stays fairly stable. Raw pu-erh keeps transforming slowly in storage for years, and ripe pu-erh goes through a deliberate fermentation with moisture, heat and microbes before it is pressed.

Raw vs ripe in one minute

For a longer comparison, read Raw vs Ripe Pu-erh: Which One Should You Choose?

How pu-erh is made

Step one: maocha (both styles)

Every pu-erh starts as maocha, or "rough tea". Pickers take a bud with two or three leaves. The fresh leaf is spread out to wither, then pan-fired in a large wok to stop most enzyme activity. It is rolled to shape the leaf and release its juices, and then dried in the sun. At our factory we use "no-ground-contact" processing: from withering to pressing, the leaf never touches the floor.

Raw pu-erh

For raw pu-erh, the maocha is sorted, weighed, softened with steam and pressed into shape. The pressed tea dries slowly on racks before it is wrapped. That is all. The rest of the change happens in storage, slowly, over years.

Ripe pu-erh

For ripe pu-erh, the maocha first goes through wo dui (pile fermentation). The leaf is piled, moistened and covered, and the pile is turned regularly for about 45–60 days. Heat and microbes inside the pile darken the leaf and soften its bitterness. Afterward the tea is dried, sorted, steamed and pressed. This method was developed in Yunnan in 1973.

Cakes, bricks and tuocha

Most pu-erh is pressed. The classic shape is the round cake (bing), most often 357 g. You will also see rectangular bricks, small bowl-shaped tuocha, and loose leaf. The shape does not decide the quality, but it does affect how easily you can break the tea apart and how it ages. Read more in Cakes, Bricks and Tuocha Explained.

What does pu-erh taste like?

• Young raw pu-erh: pale yellow to yellow liquor, high aroma, often a floral-honey aroma. Some bitterness and astringency that turns into huigan, with salivation (a fresh, mouth-watering feeling).
• Aged raw pu-erh: orange-yellow to orange-red liquor, an aged aroma, and a smoother, thicker, more mellow taste. The bitterness has softened.
• Ripe pu-erh: red to deep red liquor, smooth and thick, mellow, with an aged or woody aroma and little bitterness.

The mountain the leaf comes from changes the taste too. See What Does Pu-erh Tea Taste Like? and our tasting vocabulary for the words tasters use.

How to brew pu-erh

Use water just off the boil (100°C / 212°F) for both raw and ripe pu-erh.

Gongfu style (gaiwan or small teapot)

1. Use about 5–7 g of tea in a 100–120 ml gaiwan or small pot. If you are starting from a cake, gently pry off a piece with a tea knife.
2. Rinse once: cover the leaves with boiling water for 5–10 seconds, then pour it away.
3. Brew the first infusions for about 5–10 seconds, then pour all the liquor out.
4. Add a few seconds to each new infusion. Good leaf gives 8–15 infusions.

If the tea tastes too bitter, shorten the steep or use less leaf. Do not use cooler water.

Mug or teapot (Western style)

Use about 3–4 g per 250 ml. Rinse once, then steep 1–2 minutes for the first cup and a little longer for each later cup. You will get 3–4 cups from the same leaves.

Step-by-step guides: gongfu brewing, breaking and rinsing a cake, and common brewing mistakes.

How to store pu-erh

• Keep it at about 20–25°C (68–77°F) and 60–70% relative humidity, in the dark, away from strong smells, with some airflow.
• Leave cakes in their paper wrappers and keep them in a cardboard box, bamboo or unglazed clay, off the floor.
• Don't use the fridge, silica gel or airtight bags for long-term aging. A sealed tin is fine for the small amount you are drinking now.
• Fuzzy or colored spots, or a musty smell, mean mold. Don't drink it.

More detail in How to Store Pu-erh Tea.

Aging basics

Raw pu-erh changes over years and decades. The bitterness softens, the liquor turns from yellow toward orange-red, and an aged aroma develops. Ripe pu-erh changes less: it mellows and the pile aroma fades over the first few years. How a tea ages depends on the leaf and on storage, so no one can promise a particular result. Pu-erh is for drinking. Prices are not guaranteed to rise, so buy what you enjoy.

Our 2009 Emperor and 2018 Emperor raw pu-erh. The older tea gives the deeper orange-red liquor and darker leaves.

To learn more, read how time changes the flavor of pu-erh.

Caffeine

Both raw and ripe pu-erh contain caffeine. The amount in your cup depends on the leaf, how much you use and how long you steep it. The U.S. FDA cites 400 mg of caffeine a day as an amount not generally linked to negative effects in healthy adults, so count pu-erh along with your coffee and other caffeine. If you are sensitive to caffeine, drink it earlier in the day and use less leaf. If you are pregnant or have a medical condition, ask your doctor about caffeine. See Pu-erh Tea Caffeine for more.

How to choose your first pu-erh

• Pick a style. If you like a dark, mellow cup, start with ripe pu-erh. If you like green tea or oolong and enjoy aroma, start with raw pu-erh.
• Start with samples. A few small portions teach you more than one big cake. Browse our tea samples, or try the Raw Pu-erh Tasting Flight.
• Climb step by step. Our Find Your Tea guide moves from gentle, sweet Na Ka to strong and thick Lao Ban Zhang in five steps, with a 3-question finder.

Ready for your first cup? Our tea samples are the easiest place to begin.