Tea colours

In that classification, puer can be put in the *black tea* category. What you call black tea is commonly called *red tea* all over Asia.

Tea processed like wulong. Semi-oxidized.

Kuri

In Asia teas are classified according to the colour of the infusion rather than leaf colour. Hence black tea is red tea and pu-er tea is black tea (if your pu-er is red then you probably aren't brewing it as strong as in Asia - try brewing it gongfu style).

As for why oolong is known as blue tea, i think the reason is that the wuyi oolongs were traditionally baked over charcoal fires and the leaf attained a metallic tinge, reminiscent of the colour blue. But that goes against the other labelling system. Can anyone shed some light?

tea ja vu, perth, australia

Then what do you call young green puerh? What do you aged green puerh of which the liquor is truly red and never black no matter how strong you brew it ? For example right now I am drinking a late 70s green

I was taught that the (Chinese) "black tea" designation was more related to the fermentation style than the color of the liquor. Teas such as Liu An and Liu Bao are true Chinese Black" teas yet their liquor is never black.

BTW, you list vintages for your puerhs which is good, but most customers who know their puerh will want to know the factory as well. Also only a few of your puerhs specify whether they are sheng/raw/green or shu/cooked/black, which is another crucial piece of information.

Mike Petro

In Australasia maybe.

So Japanese hojicha would be sold as brown tea ? And you'd obtain a milky infusion with white tea ? There are sometimes namings of tea that refer to the color of the liquor (I've seen red wulong/golden wulong...), but that's not a classification.

The colors I was talking about definitely refered to the process (and that doesn't match systematically leaf color)and not the liquor. Now, in Japan, and I've seen it in China too, they are often replaced or followed by indication like that : red tea (oxidized) wulong tea (semi-oxidized) black tea (post-fermented)

Kuri

I would like a paisley tea, please. The plaid is not to my tastes.

--scott

Thanks for shedding some light on it. I've only ever seen pu-ers yield a black infusion and red teas yield a red to brown infusion, plus I'm sure I've read about that system of classification elsewhere. But it seems from other posts that the colour classification refers only to oxididation process, which makes more sense to me.

I'll update the information about the pu-ers soon.

Adrian, Tea Ja Vu, Western Australia

I assume from what you say then the aged puerhs on your site must be black puerhs. Is your PP006 a black puerh too? At $200 it seems awfully expensive for a black puerh. Black puerhs are just not that valuable. Only GREEN puerhs are considered to be that valuable.

You say you have only seen puerh yield a black liquor yet your own description of PP003 calls the infusion a "deep autumn yellow co lour". This is typical of young green puerhs. Do you drink your own puerhs? Or are you just using someone else's description?

There are TWO types of puerh, green and black. There is far more green puerh on the Chinese market than there are black puerhs.Take a look at

Mike Petro

snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com10/23/05

Hi Adrian,

In point of fact, what we call a "cooked" Pu'erh -- the type Mike said cannot command overly high prices -- can brew up quite opaque. Some people suggest hoever that even the cooked Pu'erh should not be brewed that heavily. However, a young "green" Pu'erh will brew up quite light, perhaps straw-yellow, perhaps a light orange, or even a musty orange, but *never* opaque, and very seldom dark. A fine old "green" Pu'erh with decades of age behind it will brew up a deep beautiful wine-red color, but will maintain its tanslucency. If this old green Pu'erh tea, which is never cheap and more often than not prohibitively expensive, becomes opaque black, is is ruined.

Mike provided you with web pages. I suggest you read them with great care. Perhaps, although you sell Pu'erhs, you haven't yet got the experience or knowledge you want.

Michael

Thanks Mike,

I came across your pages just a few months ago but haven't had time to update the info on our site yet. I'd certainly like to discuss the differences in more detail on the pages. I tasted and wrote the descriptions for all of the teas on our website with the exception of the 1989 Black Pu-er which I haven't tasted (we can't sell a broken disk).

It was interesting to read your info about the green pu-er because when we drank the green pu-er late last year we personally didn't like the taste of it unless we used small quantities of leaf (like with a green tea). We found it quite astringent and only began to enjoy it into the third or so infusion. I'm really interested in tasting it over the next

You've got a great resource happening on your website. Even just two years ago it was difficult to find any good online information about pu-er. Almost everything I've learnt about pu-er has come from a friend and collector in Hong Kong.

btw, I love your Taiwanese style gaiwan in your pu-er briefcase! Very nice indeed.

Cheers

Adrian