THE INTRIGUING WORLD OF POST-FERMENTED TEAS
Hosted by Cinnabar Wright (Phoenix Tea)
Thank you for joining us for the April 18th installment in the World of Tea Series for an exploration of the intriguing world of post-fermented teas. Although the teas under this classification range greatly in appearance and taste, they all have in common a stage of production where true fermentation is induced in the tea, which continues to impact the tea as it ages and matures.
The most well-known sub-group of this category of teas is Puer, in both its raw (sheng) and “cooked” (shou) forms. Puer is always from Yunnan, China, and can be produced in several common forms, including loose, cakes, bricks, and tuocha, which is a bowl or nest shape.
Since Puer is more widely known and is fairly easy to find and experience, we focused the tasting part of this event on post-fermented teas that are not Puer, which means they are made in areas outside of Yunnan, China, and are very different in character from Puer and from each other.
The tasting included at least six different teas, and included examples from Hunan Province in China, Japan, Korea, Anhui Province in China, and Malawi. We also had a wide range of teas on display during the event to give attendees a look at how much variation there is in appearance, shape, and aroma.