Collection: Ripe Pu’er

Ripe pu’er is the tea I reach for when I want something quiet. It’s dark, silky and smooth, with no bitterness.

How it came to be. For hundreds of years, Yunnan only made raw pu’er, which needs years of aging before it turns mellow. Tea drinkers in Hong Kong wanted aged pu’er faster than time could make it. So in the early 1970s, tea makers at the Kunming and Menghai tea factories tried something new. They piled damp tea leaves and let them ferment under controlled warmth for about six to eight weeks. The tea came out tasting like it had aged 10 to 15 years. Full production began in 1975. That’s ripe pu’er, or shou cha (熟茶), and it’s one of the youngest teas in China.