ATTIC Tea

The end of January seems to have a lot of negative associations, with the previous month’s celebrations a distant memory, and the enthusiasm of a new year and fresh start wearing thin. In fact, so notorious is late January for being, well, a bit grim, they’ve even scientifically calculated the most miserable day of the year, “Blue Monday”. Thankfully, that was two days ago, so we can now move on knowing that the worst is over. (Incidentally, just to balance out all that negativity, it’s been calculated that June 19th is the happiest day of this year, so we can look forward to that)!

To try and lift the mood a little, I’m going to coin today as “Tea Wednesday”, the most tea-tastic day of the year, and talk about many of the lovely and positive qualities of tea!

The focus today will be on Pu’erh teas, which prove a worthy and fascinating subject to devote this feature to.

With a name that shares a similar curse of a certain spiky plant in lending itself well to comedy catchphrases, Pu’erh teas often catch people’s attention due to it being the most, well, unpronounceable (it’s pu-urh, since you ask!).

However, Pu’erh teas deserve to receive attention beyond just their name. They have a rich and fascinating history, and have recently begun to gain more widespread recognition due to it’s health giving properties. This will be explored in more detail towards the end of the post, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy discovering more about China’s great mystery tea.

Pu’erh teas are so called because they were named after the thriving market town of Puerh, located in the major tea producing province of Yunnan, near the Vietnam border. This is not the place they are produced, but where they were heavily traded, and the town is also the main starting point of the ‘Ancient Tea-Horse Road’ - a route carved out over generations of feet and hooves trading tea between China and Tibet. Pu’erh teas were particularly popular in Tibet, as they allegedly make the best flavoured ‘butter tea’.

There are debates as to what exactly qualifies as a Pu’erh tea, but it is generally accepted that if the leaves have gone through a fermentation process, and is produced from the Big Leaf (Da Yeh) tree, a hybrid variation of the Camellia Sinensis known as Sinensis Assamica, grown in the Yunnan province. This variety, as the name suggests, has much larger leaves and is a lot more resilient than it’s Camillia Sinensis cousin, with many trees living to be over 100 years old.

With its cloud veiled mountains, Yunnan provides the perfect ecological conditions for these trees to thrive, producing high quantities of amino acids, chlorophyll, cartenoids and other phytonutrients (thought to have health-giving properties) which saturate their broad leaves.

The region from which the tea is cultivated plays an important role in the integrity of the tea, and The Yunnan Provincial Government has gone as far as to state that for truly authentic Puerh tea, it must have been grown in one of the eleven named areas from the Lancang (Mekong) river basin region.

Pu’erh is unique compared to other teas, in that it is not drunk fresh, but aged before it is consumed. This is done through either natural or aided fermentation, implemented once the leaves have been picked, naturally withered, heated, hand rolled, and then dried.

Our Pu’erh Tuo Cha goes through the aided fermentation process, also referred to as ‘cooked’ Pu’erh, which was a method created during the 1970s. This process speeds up the aging process by adding a controlled amount of water to the leaves, to aid fermentation. The dampened leaves are then wrapped in cotton and allowed to mature for up to 90 days in warm and humid conditions. There is uncertainty as to wether a special bacterial culture is added to aid the fermentation, sometimes rumoured to be old, ground pu’erh, but this is where much of the tea’s mystery lies!

The fermented tea is then sorted and graded, and either left loose or pressed into various shapes, including disks, squares and sometimes into elaborate moulds, creating an embossed pattern in the tea. Pu’erh teas have been pressed since they were first produced, but this was because they were the first teas to be heavily traded throughout China and it’s neighboring countries, so were compacted into bamboo baskets to aid transportation, rather than carried loose in tea chests.

~ An embossed 'brick' of Pu'erh ~

Pu’erh teas come in many more decorative shapes and sizes, and are usually named after their shape; ‘Tuo Cha’ literally means ‘Bowl Tea’!

As well as for more practical reasons like easy storage and transportation, Pu’erh teas are also compressed to help preserve their ‘Qi’ - the ‘life energy’ that resonates in all things according to traditional Chinese belief. We love the idea that our tea has a ‘spirit’, so couldn’t resist getting them tested by a local kinesiologist, who discovered that they resonated on the highest scale, meaning their ‘Qi’ is still going strong!

Of course, on a slightly less esoteric and more sensory note, they also taste delicious! The large bricks and disks of tea are drunk by chipping off portions using a knife, whereas the smaller Tuo Cha is simply unwrapped and used whole, the leaves breaking apart as their dark and flavoursome nectar infuse into the hot water. It is often recommend that when drinking Pu’erh, it is best to rinse the leaves first by infusing for 30 seconds, then discarding the fluid before making the infusion you intend to drink. This can be easily done using one of our Tea-Makers.

Pu’erh tea is well known for its very distinct smell and taste, which is characteristically strong, rich and earthy. Pu’erhs range from producing a pale yellow, golden nectar, to the redder, darker colours, like our Tuo Cha.

Pu’erh teas significantly improve with age, if stored correctly, and like fine wines are often bought as investments and some of the finest vintages commanding significant price tags. However, this tea is held in such high esteem throughout China, it is a price many people are prepared to pay, and have been doing so since its early production when it was the tea of preference amongst those of regal and empirical status.

Another significant reason Pu’erh tea is held in such high regard in China, and possibly the main reason to it’s growing popularity worldwide, is it’s perceived health benefits and long standing use in Chinese Medicine. Just start typing it into Google, and before even finishing you’re presented with a list of suggestions, all along the lines of “health benefits” and “weight loss tea”.

In traditional Chinese Medicine, Pu’erh teas are believed to have the highest ‘Yin’ energy, making them grounding and stabalising. They are also believed to be beneficial for the liver, spleen and digestive system, all organs which aid the removal of toxins from the body, hence why it is often marketed as a ‘detox’ tea. It is also believed to help dispel the effects of alcohol, and we often use it as a hangover preventative by drinking a few cups beforehand!

Pu’erh, like many teas, contains the antioxidant flavanoids, which have been associated with helping to lower cholesterol and reduce blood pressure. Perhaps most notably, French researchers from St Antoine Hospital in Paris found that drinking three cups of Pu’erh tea a day for one month reduced lipids down 25% in 20 hyperlipidemia patients, whilst those on other teas showed no change.

Findings like these help to give Pu’erh it’s reputation as a ‘weight loss’ tea, by helping to metabolise fat. However, we never sell Pu’erh on the basis of it being a weight loss aid, and always state that a healthy diet and exercise is the simplest, safest and most effective way to lose weight. Perhaps drink a cup of pu’erh after meals, to aid digestion and settle the stomach.

We strongly believe that tea should be drunk to be enjoyed, and the health benefits that it may bring are only a part of what makes it such a special drink. We feel that the history, the colour, the taste, aroma and stories are all pivotal in what makes each tea drinking experience unique and special to each person.

With that, we hope you enjoyed discovering more about Pu’erh tea (I certainly did!) and are keen to try some. You can either pop into our Tea-bar and we’ll be happy to show you our teas and let you experience the unique aroma we mentioned, or take advantage of these last few days of January where you can buy any of our Pu’erh teas (including the ATTIC Tea Pouch)at a special discounted price.