Fengqing Golden Buds Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2005

Ripe Puerh is made from Green maocha (毛茶), with the addition step of wet piling (the wet piling process was first developed in 1973 by Kunming Tea Factory, so the Ripe Puerh is a product after1973).  Pu-erh tea cake is made into tea cake shape, size ranges from as small as 100g to as large as 5 kg or more, with 357g, 400g and 500g being the most common.  Aged Pu-erh teas are known for their ability to break down fats, and to help with weight loss, so they are often served in China after a heavy meal.  Puerh tea is mild, it is good for nourishing stomach.

Where is this tea produced

This Ripe Pu-erh Cake is from the representative Pu-erh production area Fengqing.  Fengqing is a place in Lingcang which is one of the four famous Pu-erh production areas (Xishuangbanna, Pu’er (Simao), Lincang and Baoshan).  Fengqing located in the northwest of Lincang, east longitude 99°31′～100°13′, northern latitude 24°13′～25°03′.  It has a distance of 580 kilometers from Yunnan province Kunming.  Fengqing is also the original place of the world-wide famous Dian Hong Tea and also one of the original habitats of planting tea all over the world.  Fengqing is also an important place of the north part of Ancient Tea Route. There’s a biggest old tea tree named “Jing Xiu Cha Wang” found in Xiang Zhuqing village in Fengqing.  It is a representative tea tree cultivated in Fengqing which is more than 3200 years old with 1.84 meter in diameter.

The highest altitude is 3098 meters while the lowest is 919 meters.  It is subtropical monsoon climate with average 13-15℃ temperature.  The lowest temperature is -5℃.  The annual precipitation is 1200mm.  The relative humidity is 70%.  The soil is red.   The raining is synchronous with the high temperature.  The temperature is warm and sunshine is sufficient.  The rainfall is concentrated.  

Fengqing Scene

Introduction of the tea tree and tea leaves

The tea trees in Fengqing belongs to Fengqing Large-leaf vaviety, a kind of Sexual variety, Arbor, quite large.  Original in Fengqing, tea tress very big, some even up to 6 meters high, the leaves 12.6 to 20.5 cm length, width 5.2 to 8.1 cm.  In 1984 China identified the Fengqing Large-leaf as national improved variety, named “Hua Cha No. 13 (GsCTl3)”.  It contains high content of the tea polyphenols and catechin.  Usually the spring one bud and two leaves contains amino acid 2.9%, polyphenols 30.2%, caffeine 3.2% and catechin 13.4%.

The tea leaves used to make this Gold Buds Puerh cake tea 2005 are picked from 30 to 40 years old Large-leaf Arbor Tea Trees.  The trees are naturally growth without any fertilizer and pesticides, only need manually loosen the oil and trim branches and leaves.  To compare with our Tribute Pu-erh Cake Tea 2007, this golden buds puerh cake contains more tender buds to ensure its better and deeper mellow taste.

Characteristics of this piece of Puerh tea cake:

Introduction of the tea farmer

The founder of Yunnan Sanning Tea Factory Mr Zhou Zhirong, who is an authentic Yunnan people, has been in tea business for more than 20 years.  He established Sanning tea in 1998 which was authorized famous brand by Yunnan province.   We deeply felt his insist of traditional tea process by communicating with him.  He said: “Most of my time is spent on tea mountain.  I think the most important is the essential quality inside the tea.” “There’s the best tea trees and best environment in Fengqing.  What we need to do is to bring the natural of tea to all the tea lovers”.

Mr Zhou in his tea garden

The big tea trees in Mr Zhou’s mountain, they are over 60 years old

The most important things decide the Puerh quality:

1 Place: The high quality Puerh should use the Yunan Large-leaf variety.  The main traditional Puerh production areas are Xishuangbanna, Pu’er (Simao), Lincang and Baoshan.  The tea from different area has different characteristic.  And each place also has their own representative places, for example, the representative places in Lingcang are: Fengqing and Mengku.

2 The quality of tea tress: Although all the Puerh tea trees are Yunnan Large-leaf tea trees variety, this variety also has many subcategories.  There are many ways to distinguish the tea trees.  In order to understand easily, we can judge the quality by the age of the trees.  The older the tea tree is, the deeper the root is, so it can absorb more nutrient and mineral substance which can ensure the high quality of the tea.  Generally speaking, the 60 years old tea tree (also called big tea tree 大树茶) is better than the 30 years old tea tree (also called arbor tea tree 乔木茶) which is better than 10 years old or less than 10 years old tea tree (also called tableland tea tree 台地茶).  Of course, there are also some tea trees more than hundred years old which is quite rare.

3 Picking time: For big tea tree, the Spring tea and Autumn tea both have their own characteristic which are better than Summer tea.
For tableland tea tree, the Spring tea is the best, then Autumn tea, Summer tea is the worst

4 The grade of tea leaves: The thick branches and big leaves don’t mean it is bad quality.  Usually the grade only means the tenderness of the maocha.  It can be divided into ten grades by the tenderness.  The super grade is the most tender which contains tiny buds with golden tips.  The worst is the tenth grade which contains big leaves with stalk.  The appearance of higher grade maocha is elegant and the also contains more inclusions.  But the higher grade also has bitter taste.  The lower grade taste roughly and clearly, and also contains much fragrant which make the tea rich taste.  So it is better to choose puerh by the taste you like but not only focus on the grade.

5 Storage time: Under the condition of dry storage, the taste changes with the length of time it stored; the longer it stored, the better it tastes.  With fine Pu-erh tea, the longer it is stored and aged, as long as it is stored properly, the more complex the flavor and the more valuable the tea gets.  But it need to note that it is under the condition of good place, tea tree and proper picking time, it can’t be only emphasis the storage time but ignore the tea inner quality.

Besides the above factors, there are also some other aspects which can affect the puerh quality like the tea process.

You can get more useful Puerh information from the following articles:

How to Properly Loosen and Pry Pu-erh Tea
The Four Main Pu-erh Tea Production Areas of Yunnan China

Miracle Weight Loss Tea from China – How Pu-erh Tea Can Help You Shed Pounds

How to Brew an Enjoyable Pu-erh Tea