How to Identify Good Puerh Tea - Zhi Zheng Tea Shop

„Smokiness
The art of making tea from ancient tea trees is very old. Hand-roasting is not easily mastered. Any slight error will influence the taste of the tea. Smokiness or yan wei is one example but it should be distinguished from a burned flavour which is described as hu wei. The latter, typically arises when tea is not well roasted and is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Yan wei or smokiness is caused by oven drying. “

„Unlike green tea produced in china which is dried with hot air after the pan-frying stage to completely kill enzyme activity, leaves used in the production of pu-erh are only pan-fried and thus a small amount of enyzmes are left which contribute a minor amount of oxidation to the leaves during sun-drying“