Raw Puer
Raw Puer (Sheng Puer, Green Puerh) is a strong natural energy drink with a vivid rich taste and invigorating tonic effect. Raw Puer is called Sheng, meaning “green”, "raw", "high-spirited" or “vivid” in Chinese. The bouquet of a sheng puer tea will highly vary depending on the quality of raw materials, the cultivation region and the tea's aging duration. However, a quality raw puer can be recognized by a characteristic commonly described as a taste and aroma reminiscent of a "dried fruit kompot" and a nice refreshing astringency and a sweet aftertaste. Younger raw puers generally have an invigorating toning effect. If the ready dry tea is allowed to age the taste as well as the effect becomes milder, deeper and rather more interesting. We do not recommend drinking raw puer late in the evening unless you plan to stay awake until morning.
Raw puer is usually sold in pressed cake (pinyin "bing") form. Today this remains a tribute to tradition rather than necessity. Qi Zi Bing Cha,七子饼茶 , lit. “Seven brothers cake tea” is one of the most famous and ancient puer packaging styles. Seven tea cakes (7 lians or 250 grams each) are joined into one package, tong 筒, and braided with bamboo leaves. In ancient times the journey of this parcel to it's destination could take a year or longer. Today an average tea cake weights from 100 to 400 grams. The cakes are packed in paper and then stacked and braided with bamboo leaves. This packaging style is named "tong", 筒. Six joined tongs are called Jian, 监. “Tuo cha” (bird's nest shape) is a form popular in Tibet and areas around it.
Very small factories and familial farms produce different puers as far as quality goes, but generally such produce is made from raw material picked at particular locations of a mountain or even from one specific tree or trees. It is not easy to acquire such tea. Collectors and buyers “hunt” for these puers travelling to secluded mountain villages. We have gone on many expeditions to the wild mountains of Yunnan and found rare puer cha bings (tea cakes) of this kind. We are happy to present raw puers produced at our own manufacturing facilities in the Jinggu mountains. Furthermore, you can buy limited series, unique raw puer tea produced by large accomplished tea manufactures and high-end collectible raw puer.
