The Culture and Marketing of Tea, C.R. Harler, 1956, Oxford Press. His first edition was published in 1933. This edition updates till the post war. On pages 206-208 he discusses pickled tea. "In Burma, the pickled tea, is called Leppet-so, while dry or green tea is called Leppet-chauk. In Siam the Lao tribes pickle the leaf which is called Lao tea or Miang. In South Yunnan the dry tea is called Pu-erh, after the town of that name although it is grown and prepared in the I-Bang district." He desribes where Leppet-so is compressed and buried in the ground for up to six months. "Leppet-so has the smell of wet organic matter which as decomposed in a limited air supply, as of retting jute. It also has a distinct leathery smell and a slight sweet smell as of alcoholic fermentation The whole aroma is not unpleasant and might easily become an acquired taste". Sounds like some of our posts. This might be called your grandfather's pu-erh. He also postulates that the area from North East Indian, Burma, Thailand, to south Yunnan was the historical source for making "Jungle" tea and not China where it was first recorded.
Jim