Theme - Shu - Ripe Puerh

„cha hu; 茶壶 - Tea pot. Made of porcelain, pottery or glass. Yixing pots are used for both cooked and raw Puer. Since they are pourous, the pots absorb flavours and chemicals from the tea. If one is serious about using Yixing pots, particularly for sheng Puer, one needs to be ready to get at least two pots - one for older and one for younger teas. And these should not be used for brewing other teas, and vice-versa. Yixing teapots will typically soften the flavours of sheng Puer.“

„Ripened or aged raw pu-erh has occasionally been mistakenly categorised as a subcategory of black tea due to the dark red colour of its leaves and liquor. However, pu-erh in both its ripened and aged forms has undergone secondary oxidization and fermentation caused both by organisms growing in the tea and free-radical oxidation, thus making it a unique type of tea. This divergence in production style not only makes the flavour and texture of pu-erh tea different but also results in a rather different chemical makeup to resulting brewed liquor.“

„The piling, wetting, and mixing of the piled máochá ensures even fermentation. The bacterial and fungal cultures found in the fermenting piles were found to vary widely from factory to factory throughout Yunnan, consisting of multiple strains of Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., yeasts, and a wide range of other microflora. Control over the multiple variables in the ripening process, particularly humidity and the growth of Aspergillus spp., is key in producing ripened pu'er of high quality.“