Brewing Pu-Erh Tea
Pu-erh tea is considered a fermented tea, and it's color is a deep reddish-brown tone. The taste is mellow and earthy. There are many ways in which to brew Pu-erh tea, and in the following example we will brew “ripe” Pu-erh tea as it is the easiest to brew. Due to the way Pu-erh is processed, we will first wash the Pu-erh tea to rinse away any impurities acquired during processing so that the flavor of the liquor is purely that of the Pu-erh tea itself.
How To Brew Pu-Erh Tea In Chinese Way
Puerh tea usually can be brewed by glass teapot, Chinese gaiwan and yixing teapot. The video will show you how to make a perfect cup of puerh tea by yixing teapot. What we choose is a ripe Puerh cake from Fengqing, use the tea pin to break a piece of tea from relative looser corner.
First step: wash and pre-warm the teasets
Pouring boiling water to wash and pre-warm the teapot, tea filter, serving pitcher and teacups. The purpose is to keep the teasets clean and make the teapot keep warm so that the tea leaves easily to brew its origin essence.
Second step: Rinse tea
Put the tea into the Yixing teapot and pour boiling water, it doesn’t need too much water this time, just cover the tea leaves. The rinse step can help washing and waking up your tea leaves. The rinsing time should be only 2 to 3 seconds.
Second rinse
Ripe Pu-erh Tea usually needs to be rinsed two times because it has a piling process. Raw Pu-erh Tea only to be rinsed one time. After that, you can discard the water which is not for drink.
Now it’s time to brew the Pu-erh Tea.
Pour boiling water full of the teapot and then brush away the bubbles floating in the water with the lid of the teapot. Pour water on the lid of the teapot to keep the temperature of the teapot.
After 10-20 seconds when the water on the lid is dry you can pour out the tea for drinking. Usually Puerh tea can brewed more than ten infusions, higher quality tea more infusions. The following infusions should add more 5-10 seconds brewing time.
Video: Brewing Pu-erh Tea With Yixing Clay Teapot
Brewing Pu-erh Tea in the Traditional Chinese Method
In preparation for brewing your Pu-erh tea in the traditional Chinese way, you will need to gather several materials, which include your gaiwan, or covered bowl, which is used to hold the tea and brew the tea leaves in. You will also need what is called a “fair cup” which you will pour the brewed Pu-erh tea into before serving it into your teacups, which you will need as well. Finally you will need your loose-leaf-pu-er tea leaves.
To begin, place your Pu-erh tea into your gaiwan, adding approximately 5 grams of Pu-erh tea leaves or tea flakes to the covered bowl.
In brewing Pu-erh tea, the temperature of the water is especially important when brewing Pu-erh tea in the traditional Chinese method. Be sure that your water is at or around 212 ℉, and begin by washing or rinsing the tea leaves with that water first to wet the tea and rinse away any impurities gathered from production or storage. It is important to rinse your tea leaves first when brewing Pu-erh tea, so that you can “wake up” the true flavor of the Pu-erh. The liquor itself is a bright red-brown color which is clear and very deeply mellow and earthy. You will notice with each re-brewing of the leaves, the brewed tea will change its character and flavor with each cup, and your Pu-erh leaves can be re-brewed many different times, each resulting in a slightly different cup of tea.
After rinsing your Pu-erh tea, use hot water to warm and rinse your tools for brewing the tea, including your gaiwan, fair cup and tea cups. By simply rinsing them in hot water, you will wash away any dirt or impurities, and pre-warm the cup for the best brewing of your tea.
After rinsing your Pu-erh tea leaves and pre-warming your utensils, you are ready to brew your Pu-erh tea. Using water that is at about 212 ℉, pour approximately 100 milliliters of water into your gaiwan and wait only 15 seconds before the tea is properly brewed.
Once your tea has been brewed, pour the brewed Pu-erh tea into the fair cup while straining out the tea leaves and keeping them for re-brewing. Then pour your brewed tea from the fair cup into each teacup equally to enjoy with friends or guests.
Here are several tips for you to get the most from your Pu-erh tea:
- Using hot water to pre-warm your cup and utensils for brewing not only clears away any dirt or flavors from previous teas brewed, but it also keeps the tea at an ideal temperature.
- Washing or rinsing your tea leaves before brewing can remove any impurities so that you can enjoy the pure authentic flavor of the Pu-erh tea.
- Since Pu-erh tea only steeps for a very short period of time, you only need to steep the first cup for about 15 to 20 seconds. Each time you re-brew the leaves, simply add another 15-20 seconds of brewing time for each additional brewing of the leaves.
- There are many different types of Pu-erh tea, and each type can be steeped multiple times. The higher grades of Pu-erh tea can be brewed up to ten times, and each time you will gain the health benefits of the Pu-erh tea.
- As we all know, Puerh will get a better and more mellow taste after being stored for a long time. However, to store puerh in a proper way is the most important.
Western way of brewing Pu-erh tea
Four Easy Steps for Brewing Pu-erh Tea in Western Way
1. Choose the Pu-erh tea you would like to brew and place it in your teapot.
2. After rinsing the leaves once with hot water for a few seconds then discarding the water, as mentioned above to rid the tea of any impurities, add hot water to brew the leaves in.
3. Fresh spring water or purified water is the best choice, and the hotter the temperature of the water, the stronger the resulting brew will become, so you can control the resulting tea's flavor and depth.
4. Brew your Pu-erh tea for approximately 2 minutes, then serve as desired.
More Info About Puerh Tea
The origin place of puerh tea
Pu-erh tea, which has a long history of chinese for thousands of years, has been produced in the Yunnan Province of Southwest China. The Yunnan Province is a popular mecca for tea and well-known for it's quality teas around the world. Because Pu-erh tea is a finely aged tea, similarly to wine vintages, Pu-erh tea grows in flavor and value over time, and acquires special aromas and color with aging.
Puerh tea health benefits and weight lose
Pu-erh tea is also known for being beneficial in many other ways, such as being healthy for your hair, skin and face, and is also very widely known as a weight loss tea, to help lose weight in combination with a healthy diet and exercise. Pu-erh tea also nourishes the stomach and helps to burn fat while reducing levels of bad cholesterol in your bloodstream. Because of the intoxicating aroma and flavor of Pu-erh tea as well as all of its purported benefits, many people enjoy a good Pu-erh tea.
Puerh tea has different shapes
Pu-erh tea also comes in many different shapes. It can be found in loose leaf form, or more often compressed into tea cakes (also called “Bing” or “Bingcha” in China) or “tuo cha” or tea bricks. There are also different varieties of Pu-erh tea, including ripened and unripened Pu-erh tea. The article Understanding the Difference between Raw Pu-erh Tea and Ripe Pu-erh Tea will help you to know the difference between Raw Pu-erh and Ripe Pu-erh. Because many Pu-erh teas come in compressed form, it is often required that you pry the compressed Pu-erh tea flakes from the cake or brick to brew the tea. Please read our article on how to pry the compressed tea in a Pu-erh tea brick or cake.
Some Other Ways of Drinking Pu-erh Tea:
There are also several different ways to serve Pu-erh tea. Some people new to Pu-erh tea may prefer to brew or serve their Pu-erh tea differently, such as with this recipe for Milk Pu-erh with Bee Honey:
First brew your Pu-erh tea with hot water twice, then serve into cups. Add some milk or milk substitute into the well-brewed leaves to your taste. Then stir the tea and allow it to cool slightly to about 106 degrees Fahrenheit before adding honey to the blend. Mix well and drink while hot.
This recipe for Pu-erh is slightly different than normal and has a very sweet, mellow and smooth character to give you sweet honeyed feelings, and is also great for protection against colds and the elimination of toxins in the body. Be sure when brewing Milk Pu-erh with honey that you wait until the tea has cooled to 106 degrees Fahrenheit, because too hot of water will damage all of the nutrients contained in the bee honey and Pu-erh tea.
As with many teas, Pu-erh tea is beneficial in many ways, helping you to lose weight, help with skin tone, and reduce stress in your life. However, because Pu-erh differs in many ways from other teas, Pu-erh tea is an especially good choice for protection of your stomach. If your stomach is not well, try drinking some Pu-erh tea to help balance your stomach.
For the best benefit to your body and health, drink tea every day for a refreshing and soothing experience that will not only taste delicious, but also helps your own well-being!