Puer Tea Glossary - Zhi Zheng Tea Shop

„Pu'er; 普洱. Also Puerh, Pu - er etc. Pu'er is the modern pinyin spelling. The place name of the Old City of Pu'er through which pack horses transported the tea from Southern Yunnan. The names were recently changed; Pu'er is now Ning Er and nearby Simao has the adopted name of Pu'er. Locally, in spoken Chinese at least, Ning Er is still Pu'er. “

„Yunnan Provincial Government has stipulated that for tea to qualify as Pu er it must be:

i) of the Broad Leaf variety (Sinensis Assamica)
ii) grown in the Lancang (Mekong) River region
iii) sun dried. The third point is important as there is much tea grown in the Lancang River area that is not sun dried.

There are also increasing amounts of Small Leaf Variety (Xiao Ye Zhong /小叶种) being grown in the Lancang River area.“