Are you looking for a healthy morning coffee substitute? My customer, Kevin, substituted a 20-year-old pu’erh tea for his morning coffee. Each morning he brews two strong cups and meditates for 30 minutes. The tea gives him energy and mental clarity without the jitters. He also noticed that pu’erh, which he discovered at a Boutique Teas exotic tea tasting, cleanses his intestinal tract.
What is Pu’er or Pu’erh tea? It is a fermented Chinese tea. Kevin frowned the first time he smelled organic pu’erh tuo cha. He thought it smelled like a fishy, muddy river bank. As he sipped it, though, the sweet earthiness and cocoa bean notes came through. While he sipped the first few infusions, he learned more about its production process and health benefits.
Grown and manufactured exclusively in Yunnan, China, pu’erh tea is fermented in humid rooms. Traditionally, raw or green pu’erh leaves are plucked from ancient wild-grown tea trees. Raw pu’erh production involves plucking, withering, frying, fermenting, and steaming. Before steaming the leaves, tea workers stack the leaves into big piles and spray on bacteria. The internal heat generated within the piles encourages bacterial fermentation inside the leaves. The bacteria influence the earthy flavors. Workers rotate leaves from the inside of the pile to the outside for even fermentation. Leaves are then lightly steamed and either compressed or left loose. Steaming creates moisture for the bacteria to grow. The leaves are stored in a humidity-controlled room for 10 years or more. Healthy microbes are growing, developing the rich flavors and turning the leaves brown. Usually, raw pu’erh is compressed into flat discs. Wealthy Chinese businessmen pay high prices for the discs, creating pu’erh collections. Collectors scrape a little from the disc each year, enjoying the subtle flavor and aromatic changes.
In the 1970s, demand for less expensive pu’erh teas increased and tea artisans developed a quicker method to ferment the teas, thus inventing “cooked” or “ripe” pu’erh. This pu’erh uses the same tea leaves, but oxidizes the leaves before fermentation. After they are plucked, the leaves are withered, rolled, oxidized, and stacked into piles. Rolling the leaves releases the natural juices, resulting in wet leaves. The extra moisture encourages faster bacteria growth and internal fermentation. After the leaves are rotated in the piles a few times, they are steamed and compressed into small cakes. This pu’erh is usually called “tuo cha.” These cakes are aged 1-3 years before being sold. The cooked pu’erh teas have a pungent earthy aroma and flavor.
The bacterial activity happening inside and outside the leaves gives pu’erh its unique flavor and health benefits. Called the “skinny girl” tea in China, pu’erh is believed to help with weight loss and to decrease bad cholesterol. Many find the tea cleansing; a few cups cleans everything out of the intestines.
Learning about these benefits, Kevin decided to buy a bag of organic pu’erh tuo cha. For the next few weeks, he drank two little tuo cha cakes in the morning. He felt energetic, clear headed, motivated, and cleansed. He became hooked. However, he wanted a smoother, mellower pu’erh. He requested the oldest loose-leaf pu’erh Boutique Teas carries, a rare 20-year-old loose-leaf pu’erh, which is characterized by its smooth mellow flavors and aroma.
Kevin now enjoys life without coffee, but needs a constant supply of pu’erh tea.
Would you say that pu’erh acts like a probiotic? My husband always drinks it when his stomache is bothering him but I hadn’t realized why it may be helping?
Michelle-Yes I think the puerh bacteria is similar effects as probiotics. I like to drink puerh when i have a stomachache too. I also enjoy a cup after a heavy meal.
Great post, I enjoyed ready reading it, Keep posting good stuff like this.
Thank you!
I wrote a bit on our website, MISTYPEAKTEAS.COM, about the health benefits and weight loss theory of Pu’er. We specialize in Pu’er and are based in Xishuangbanna, where Pu’er, and all tea, originates.
Tiffany, I would read this before drinking too much after a meal.
Cheers!
The tea is often promoted as a weight loss. I agree with this statement, and there is plenty of data to prove this. Be reminded though, that this is also a way to sell this tea to the Westerners who may not be interested otherwise.
The amazing thing about this tea is its ability, unlike the other teas, to reduce the bad cholesterol and fat lipids in the body; therefor, reducing the weight and improving overall health of the drinker. Now that that has been said, in order for that to really be affective, the tea MUST be a Sheng Chaa, or Raw/Green Pu’er, not the Cooked/Black Pu’er. The freshness of the uncooked tea promotes the cleansing far more than that of the cooked Pu’er.
The reason I told you that it could aid both of you is quite interesting actually. I grew up in a family that did not encourage drinks with our meals. We are not to drink with meals as it dilutes the natural acids/bile our body secretes to break down our meals. If you are thirsty or needing water/liquid during your meal, you are eating the wrong thing or do not have enough foods with natural liquids still present in them(i.e. greens, raw veggies, fruits, ect). So I would never recommend drinking this tea, or any tea, with your meals. Drinking tea with a meal is actually hazardous to your health, moreso than water!
Seeing that this tea reduces the fat lipids and cholesterol count in your body, if YOU were to drink it before you ate(no closer than 30 minutes or so before you eat), you will be cleansing your blood and clearing the fat deposits in your body; therefor, you will be MORE hungry, and eat more than you would otherwise. Now, if your brother were to drink Pu’er after his meal(please wait at least 40 minutes or so), it will completely cleanse and remove the fatty greases and unhealthy fat deposits that he just consumed. It will simply rid his body of that, quite quickly.
There have been countless studies proving the weight loss benefits, usually showing within a few weeks of starting to drink the tea.
I will recommend you one more thing. This is a precious and delicate tea, do NOT invest in cheap Pu’er, or you might as well drink hot water. The tea is the oldest and first tea the world ever saw. It is processed with perfection, when carefully handled. However, the surge of the tea bag and the Driver Thru’s of the world, have forced poor quality teas on to the market.
The tea that we have available is cheaper than any you would find at a store or dealer. We sell nearly a pound of tea, one disc, for only 55 dollars. Unlike every tea in the world, the beauty of the Pu’er tea, is that it ages to perfection. Our tea is ready to drink today, or will be priceless and delicious in 20,30,40,80 years.
Our disc of tea, called a Bing, will last you. Each Bing will make nearly 600 cups, which puts each cup at LESS than a penny($0.01), whereas tea bags are usually $0.50-$2.00 per cup. The Tea is also very easy to separate and it would save you money to buy one Bing once, then a bunch of small amounts over and over. You can separate it and save some yourself, send some off to others, and still have much to spare.
The world of tea is forever evolving, and it is wonderful to learn along with the world. Living in China and having tried thousands of teas, I chose to promote ONE tea, not 200 like many distributors do. This will be a very special gift for yourself and anyone who enjoys sitting down to a meaningful conversation, mindful preparation, and wonderful tea.
http://www.MistyPeakTeas.com