Pu’er: The Final Frontier

Pu’er is a tea sub-type that I don’t often write about. And when I do, it’s usually with a sense of confusion, as in this post of a few years ago.

I was approached by Nicholas Lozito, of Misty Peak Teas, which is a pu’er boutique supplier, with a proposal to offer some education to my readers via a guest blog or interview. I have only heard of Misty Peak because my great friend and tea blogger  Geoff Norman speaks highly of them, and that’s good enough for me.

‘Interview’ seemed to me to be the best idea, mainly so I could add some jokes, I mean additional material.

So, here goes, I put my journalist hat on (which I bought secondhand) and hit Nick with my hard-hitting, insightful questions:

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 You have thirty seconds to explain to me exactly what this stuff is, what’s your pitch?

 Pu’er tea is the first tea the world ever cultivated and is grown on bushes or, more often, trees in Yunnan Province of Southwestern China. It is a tea unlike any other because it is picked from a large leaf variety of the tea tree and is processed in a way that allows the microflora on the leaves to continue to mature the tea for years, even decades, after it is picked. There are three kinds of Pu’er:

1. Raw or Sheng Pu’er, which is what we offer;
2. Ripe or Shou Pu’er (dark, artificially aged); or
3. Aged Pu’er (at least a couple of years old, never put through an aging process, just stored in natural conditions to mature the leaves).

So, can one buy it raw and age it oneself?

The beauty of tea, and especially Pu’er tea, is that there is so much work, love, and mastery put into making the tea great. After that, it is up to us, the tea drinkers, to bring out the full potential. 

This is the fact once we purchase a tea and call it our own. From where we store it to the air conditions, to how we prepare the tea and what water and vessels we use, there is so much that is in our hands. The aging process is the exact same. 

Often people will ask me how to store the tea and to me this question also is asking, “How do I age the tea?” I HIGHLY recommend aging your own tea because of the connection that is gained and the money that is saved. My father collects classic cars, but he more often buys a car that needs to have work done on it, then puts his love and energy and money into that car. After years, it is his own dedication and mastery that makes that car what it is. Tea is the same. 

I love tea – green, white, black, flavoured – and there are thousands for me to try. Why should I bother adding pu’er to my rotation?

Pu’er Tea is unlike these other teas in so many ways. Firstly, the main reason one should drink any tea is because of what it does FOR you. Tea is a beverage to most Western tea drinkers; but to the folks in the East, it is a tool, and a medicine. Pu’er should not only be added into a rotation of other beverages, it shall be the dominant beverage.

In our medicine cabinets we have Advil and Tylenol and Claritin and we know well what each of them do for us. Let’s allow our tea cabinet to be the same. When you reach for the green tea, it should be because you are looking for something, besides just taste, that that tea will give you. Pu’er is the same. It is a tremendous tea for health, from weight loss to digestion to stress-reduction to enhanced focus. This tea should be part of any tea drinker, or non-tea-drinkers’, daily routine. It is not merely a beverage, it is a lifestyle and a tea that carries a tremendous amount of culture with it.

But what does it taste like?

Tea has so many taste profiles to it, one would think it is all coming from different trees. Imagine if spinach didn’t always taste like spinach, depending on the family or altitude or region. 

A high-quality raw Pu’er should taste like earth. It won’t often taste like flowers or candy, but it will taste like mineral or stone fruits or dried fruits. There is so much that goes into taste, but most often it is the soil, the weather, the nearby plant/tree life, and the process after the tea is picked. Our Spring tea tastes like springtime: blossoms, light, cool, energetic. Our Autumn tea taste like Autumn: bold flavors, stone fruits(that once were blossoms and now have grown fruits), darker colors, more mellow feeling. Both teas have tremendously smooth notes and enhance a lot of salivation, a great sign for distinguishing quality in a Pu’er. 

How did this particular branch of tea become your obsession?

I am fascinated by history and have traveled since I was able. I have never cared for the must-see sites, only for the cultures and the peoples. Studying languages, learning recipes, staying on farms with strangers in distant lands, this is the bulk of my life. When diving into any culture, we learn so much about them by what they eat.

After the first time someone poured real Pu’er for me, I was hooked. Not particularly because I loved the tea, but I was a sucker for the story. I ended up, through fate, spending years on a family’s tea farm in Xishuangbanna Yunnan, now their tea is the tea that we offer.  At Misty Peak Teas, this is the whole mission of our company: to share tea, and to share a story. Authors and screen writers dedicate their lives to a story; people read stories and go pay $20 for a 90 minute story; we are all fascinated by stories and going somewhere we have not. With this tea, I saw something I loved in it, then I brought tea into my life and my personality. I slowed my life down and found myself thinking more clearly; I started to talk to people I wouldn’t normally and started to find myself connect to people in a new way, either over tea or otherwise.

Obsession is a must when wanting to really understand something fully.

What are your other obsessions?

I appreciate the question, thank you.  It is always a joy and a challenge for me to think about our lives. One day we will be no more, and this time we have is such a gift. We get to eat ice cream and drink great teas and hug our children and swim in the ocean. I am really obsessed with life, I think about it so often. 

I supposed my next best obsession is food. My wife is from Laos and everyone knows Thai/Lao food is phenomenal, and I am from Italian descent and have always been surrounded by great pastas and homemade pizzas. I have never cared about cars or lavish living; the cheapest and most enjoyable way for me to feel alive and spoiled is to sit in front of a great meal…either that I made or someone dear to me prepared. 

How different our lives would all be without taste buds…

I can buy toucha / peach pu’er / “genuine high quality best grade Emporer’s Choice super dooper I promise you Sir pu’er” for $2 at my local Chinese grocer. Is that a good place to start?

No. The reason is because Pu’er is the most counterfeited tea in the world. Pu’er MUST meet 3 criteria in order to legally be called Pu’er Tea.

1. Be picked in Yunnan
2. Be sun dried
3. Come from Large Leaf Tea Tree

If the grocer on your corner is selling tea. Firstly, there is no story and absolutely no accountability. I’ll even go one bold step further to say that a lot of tea shops are no different. They often carry 200+ teas, how could they possibly be experts in all? They buy from a wholesaler who buys from a wholesaler, then they mark it up and say it is whatever the last guy said it was. It could be marketed as 2001 Lao Banzhang First Flush Spring, when in fact it is coming out of Bangledesh and was picked a few months ago and steamed to make it appear older.

In short, we must buy from people who specialize. Buying bread from a baker is better than buying it from a grocery store. Tea is the same. Misty Peak Teas offers ONE tea from ONE family. We admittedly know little about Oolongs or whites, but we are the best when it comes to Pu’er.

If one tries something that is not great, or not even good, you not only have a bad experience, you will mostly give up on that tea entirely. Try the best the first time, that way you really give it a fair chance. Then, and only then, can we really know the true potential and beauty of what we are getting into.

How can  a vendor demonstrate that their pu-er is genuine?

Great question. 

In the West we are interested in taste and very rarely how the tea looks. In China, they are first observing the teas figure and how it presents itself dry, and in the cup. There is SO much to be learned by pulling a leaf out and staring at it. This is why I offer two seasons of the tea, from the same family and same trees. This allows a true vertical tasting of our teas and to really educate oneself on the difference between Spring vs Autumn; or fresh vs. three years old. These comparisons are essential to learning. 

In short, the only way to learn is to educate oneself on tea so that you do not get misguided by vendors. The vendors often don’t know what they are selling and they are simply telling a story another person told them.  To answer your question, I think the vendors do not HAVE to demonstrate this yet because the consumers are still unsure and are not yet asking the hard questions. However, it should be going on. So, a vendor can demonstrate that their Pu’er is great by:

1. Sending Samples
2. Educating the people on the process this tea underwent, the family/producers, and the region it is from
3. SPECIALIZING in as little teas as possible so that that they can really say they care about having a great Pu’er and are not hoping the customer will prefer the flavored teas that are often easier to sell. 

We must put our vendors, our grocery stores, our farmers, and our leaders in a position to explain and further educate all of us. 

Thank you, Nicholas.

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Phew, there’s a lot there.

I should also point out that’s nearly 2000 words – admittedly most of them not mine – on my blog without any sniping, carping, whining or character assassination. So, in the finest Australian tradition of our last Prime Minister*, I’m going to interview myself about that interview. Here goes:

Is that Nicholas guy a bit nuts? Are his claims a bit wild?

Good question, me. I think he is and they are. But I’m OK with that. More than OK. Any of us who are deeply committed to tea have our little quirks, and we choose which of the competing creation myths/alternative histories/taste claims we believe. For example, I know many otherwise fine folk who think that Yerba Mate is drinkable, and who would deliberately select a Japanese Sencha over a fine Darjeeling. It makes no sense to me, but it’s their sense, so I don’t get a say.

Why put this interview on your blog? Where’s your usual rant or funny story?

My blog is to educate and entertain. Nicholas approached me, and it was a chance to share some information that I would not otherwise have.

What have you learned?

I’m not the only one who feels tea can be very medicinal. And not to buy $2 pu-er. And I’m going to steal this line: “Buying bread from a baker is better than buying it from a grocery store. Tea is the same.” 

How will you use this information?

I am now obsessed with the idea of getting some raw pu-er and ageing it myself. I live in a place that is wine-obsessed, and I might pick up a barrel and age pu-er in that. Stay tuned.

I also like the idea of personal responsibility for what we buy.

Are you going to turn up on Nicholas’ blog?

Yes. Let’s see how that works out for him.

Will you be back to your normal sarcastic self next week?

Yes. Or no. You’ll find out shortly after I do.

 

That’s all folks.

 

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*Mr Kevin Rudd was/is famous for asking himself questions at press conferences. He also swears like a trooper, but I am too genteel to take that road.