Organic Pu erh Loose Leaf Tea 125g Tin Steenbergs





Steenbergs Organic Pu-erh loose leaf tea comes from Yunnan Province in China and is one of the ancient and traditional types of China tea. Get more news about Puer Tea Tin,you can vist our website!

Steenbergs Organic Pu-erh loose leaf tea comes from Yunnan Province in China and is one of the ancient and traditional types of China tea.  Organic Pu-Erh black tea has a classic earthy taste and is best drunk without milk as it is a smooth brew.

Brewing tip: Use a warmed tea-pot and put 1 heaped teaspoon per person of organic Pu-Erh tea leaves into the pot, add freshly boiled water and leave to infuse for 5 minutes. Steenbergs organic Pu-Erh tea is best drunk without milk.  For more detail on brewing tea, please go to How to Make Teas?
Pu-erh tea is one of the most famous in an entire class of Chinese teas known as the post-fermented teas. These teas are becoming popular in the West because of their fascinating history and the unique depth and complexity of their taste. Like vintage wine, the taste improves with age but many tea drinkers also like the taste of young Pu-erh tea which has many taste characteristics of green tea. Aged Pu-erh tea is a highly sought after commodity and is the subject of much historical research. It is traded and collected much like vintage wine, with some rare teas fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The aged taste is the result of 3 factors working together over time. This article will explain how these factors affect the taste of your tea, how to store your Pu-erh tea to ensure the best quality and protect your investment, whether you are a casual tea drinker or serious collector.

Aging turns Pu-erh tea from bitter to sweet, from rough to smooth and from lightly fragrant to a distinctive aged taste. Aging works best with the best quality leaves but contrary to belief, cannot improve the taste of low quality leaves. However, not all Pu-erh teas age well and some can turn bad with age. Knowing something about the factors that affect the aging process can help you to know which Pu-erh tea to buy and how to store it to improve the taste.

The border area of modern day China, Burma and India is where the very first tea plants are thought to have originated. Known as Camellia sinensis, this is the original plant species from which all varieties of tea producing plants originated. In China, teas are made from the Camelia sinensis sinensis variety and in India, the Cameila sinensis assamica variety is used.

About 1,400 years ago, locals in what is now Yunnan province in southwestern China began to export tea to Tibet in exchange for horses. Large bundles of loose tea were strapped to pack animals and led through the Himalayas on treks that lasted for more than a year. After a time, traders realized that if the tea was compressed, this would allow more tea to be transported more safely and more profitably. People started to notice that the new compressed tea tasted better than the earlier loose leaf variety.

As has been done for millennia, leaves for Pu-erh tea production are grown along the Lancang River on tea estates in Yunnan province. Some of these estates have long histories dating back to ancient dynasties, of being abandoned and subsequently brought back into production many times over the centuries. The industry is highly regulated by the government, similar to wine production in other countries and many regulations must be followed for a tea to be permitted to be called a Pu-erh tea.

Tea leaves come from trees and bushes that grow wild on mountainsides or from cultivated plants. One tree is thought to be over 2,700 years old. With each estate having its own unique plants, soil and climate conditions (or terroire as wine growers would say), tea leaves with unique taste characteristics are produced. The growers send their leaves down river to the city of Pu-erh as they have for centuries where the manufacturers blend the leaves following time honoured recipes.

As in ancient times, much of the annual production is sent to the port city of Hong Kong for further distribution. Pu-erh tea became popular there centuries ago and provided important nutrients that complimented the fish-based diet of the region. Restaurants then began to order tea in large quantities, preferring loose leaf varieties for convenience. Local distributors began to store large quantities of tea in dockside warehouses where the hot and humid rainy season alternating with the cooler dry season aged the tea quickly and enhanced the taste.