普洱茶 Pu'er Black Tea

Pu'er Black Tea

普洱茶熟茶是以云南省一定区域内的云南大叶种晒青毛茶为原料，经过后发酵加工成的散茶和紧压茶。

Pu'er or pu-erh  is a variety of fermented tea produced in Yunnan province, China, and named after Pu'er City.

其外形色泽褐红；内质汤色红浓明亮，香气独特沉香，滋味醇厚回甘，叶底褐红。

Fermentation in the context of tea production involves microbial fermentation and oxidation of the tea leaves, after they have been dried and rolled.

普洱茶的产地因在清朝时属云南省普洱府（今普洱市，2007年前为思茅市），所以以此泛称之。

This process is a Chinese specialty and produces tea known as heicha (黑茶), commonly translated as dark, or black tea. This type of tea is different from what in the West is known as "black tea", which in China is called "hongcha" (红茶) i.e. "red tea".

实际上，现在被称为滇普洱茶泛指中国云南地区生产的一种茶叶。

The best known variety of this category of tea is pu'er from Yunnan Province, named after the trading post for dark tea during imperial China.

依照普洱茶的制程，又可分为生茶和熟茶。生茶直接将“毛青茶”蒸压制成型，熟茶则在蒸压制前加上一道“渥堆”的工序；所谓渥堆，就是将“毛青茶”加水加热，提高茶叶温度，利用菌种的好氧反应，将茶叶中的植物蛋白水解成氨基酸、并破茶叶的叶绿素、氧化产生茶红素及茶褐素。经过“渥堆”这个转化程序，普洱茶在二个月左右就变得顺滑甘甜适合饮用，而生茶则必需再经多年储存、经过“陈化”始宜饮用。

Pu'er is typically made through two steps. First, all leaves must be roughly processed into maocha to stop oxidation. From there it may be further processed by fermentation, or directly packaged. Summarising the steps：

Maocha: Killing Green (杀青) -- Rolling (揉捻) -- Sun Drying (晒干)

green/raw (生普, sheng cha)

dark/ripe (熟普, shu cha): -- Piling(渥堆）-- Drying(干燥）

Both sheng and ripe pu'er can be shaped into cakes or bricks and aged with time.