Historical Pu'er tea types
Ruan Fu's "Pu'er Tea Sayings" of the Qing Dynasty, "February picking the pistil is very fine and white called Mao Jian, for tribute tea; picking and steaming kneaded for the tea cake, the leaves are less put and tender name of the Bud Tea; picking in March and April name of the small full of tea; picking in the six or seven months name of the Valley Flower Tea; large and round name of the tight group of tea; small and round name of the daughter tea, daughter tea for women picked before the rain. The month of the name of the valley flower tea; large and round the name of the tight group of tea; small and round the name of the daughter of the tea, the daughter of the tea for women picked before the rain, that is, four two heavy round tea also" records. It can be seen, Pu'er tea in history that is divided into loose tea (i.e., Mao Jian, rough leaves) and tightly pressed tea (bud tea, daughter tea) two categories.
Two modern types of Pu'er tea
Because of the long history, appreciation, collection of many, coupled with the recent development of the tea production process, the classification of Pu'er tea has become increasingly complex.
(A) according to the system of classification
Raw tea: refers to the tea picking, the natural way of fermentation of tea products. Raw tea contains fruit acids, tannins and other ingredients that make the tea exciting, and it is only after many years that the tea becomes milder. Good Pu-erh tea is usually made in this way, and takes advantage of the extension of time to produce a more fragrant effect.
Ripe Tea: refers to the use of artificial aging process based on modern science, through the deployment of appropriate temperature, humidity, accelerating the process of tea fermentation, so that the tea nature becomes mild, the flavor of the tea has been changed.
(2) Classification according to the preservation method
Dry warehouse Puerh tea: refers to the tea stored in a clean and ventilated warehouse, so that the tea is naturally fermented and aged, with camphor aroma. If it is naturally aged for 10-20 years and properly preserved, the more it ages, the more fragrant it becomes, making it a treasured product.
Wet Storage Puerh Tea: It refers to storing the tea leaves in the basement, cellar and other hot and humid unventilated places to speed up its fermentation. Due to the destruction of more tea inclusions, the tea often tastes like mud or mold. The so-called "wet warehouse" refers to the speculator will be shorter years of Pu'er tea products aged in a high humidity environment, the use of high humidity or splash of water, so that the new tea rapid aging, the appearance of the tea can be disguised as aged tea in order to respond to the market. With this method of catalytic, processed tea products are prone to mold, and can not prohibit high-temperature brewing, more adverse to human health.
(C) according to the shape of the classification
Tea cake: flat disc-shaped, in which the seven cakes each net weight of 357g, each 7 for a tube, each tube net weight of 2500g, so the name of the "seven cakes".
Tuocha: the shape of the general size of the rice bowl, each net weight of 100g, 250g, and now there are mini-Tuocha, each net weight of 2g-5g.
Brick Tea: is rectangular or square, to 250g-1000g majority, made of this shape is mainly for the convenience of transportation.
Golden Melon Tribute Tea: pressed into the shape of a half melon of varying sizes, from 100g to several kilograms are available.
Thousand Liang Tea: pressed into tightly pressed strips of varying sizes, each one weighs more (the smallest is about 50kg each).
Scattered tea: refers to the process of tea production did not go through the tightly pressed molding, the tea leaf shape for the loose strips of Pu'er tea. Loose tea is made from the whole tea leaves with thick and fat leaf tea, but also made from the bud tip part of the bud tip tea in the form of small strips.
Understanding the classification of Puerh tea, it is easy to realize that most of the intermediate and superior Puerh teas are made of tuo teas and cake teas. The above answer comes from Only See Puerh