Ripe Pu-erh
Deep earth and old wood — the sweetness of time
Yunnan · Home of pu-erh
Fully-fermented ripe pu-erh from Yunnan — an amber-dark liquor, notes of aged wood and damp earth, a thick smooth body and a warm sweet finish that softens with each steep.
1.200.000 ₫/box
Explore this family
Pu-erh — the tea of time
A post-fermented tea that grows finer with age. Pu-erh is measured not by freshness but by the depth of years — a living tea, forever changing inside its cake and jar.
Brewing guide
- Water temperature
- 95–100°C (a full boil)
- Tea-to-water
- 5–7g per 120ml, rinse first
- Steep time
- 10–30 seconds, lengthening
- Infusions
- 8–10+ infusions
Origins
Pu-erh takes its name from a town in Yunnan, where tea from ancient trees was pressed into cakes to travel the Tea Horse Road. The mountains of Ha Giang and Vietnam's north-west — with their centuries-old Shan Tuyet forests — also yield precious pu-erh material.
There are two kinds: raw (sheng) pu-erh, which ferments slowly and naturally over the years, and ripe (shou) pu-erh, fast-fermented by the “wet piling” technique born in the 1970s.
Colour · Aroma · Taste
Young raw pu-erh gives a green-gold liquor, strong, bitter then deeply sweet on return; with age the cup turns amber, softer and ever more complex. Ripe pu-erh gives a dark red-brown liquor, low and warm, smooth as wet earth after rain — fallen wood, mushroom, longan.
Pu-erh's spell lies in its “cha qi” — a warming, settling presence felt through the body — and in the sweet, saliva-rising sensation that surges after each sip.
The craft
The leaf is lightly kill-greened, rolled, sun-dried into “mao cha”, then steamed soft and pressed into cakes, discs or nests. For ripe pu-erh, the mao cha also undergoes “wet piling”, a damp fermentation that lets microbes hasten the change.
From there the tea begins its longest journey: storage. In an airy room of moderate humidity, each passing year lays down further depth in the cake.
Ritual & culture
Always “rinse the tea” — pour boiling water over the leaf and discard once or twice to wake it and wash away the dust of time. Then infuse quickly, with truly boiling water, patiently through many rounds.
Pu-erh is the tea of those who know how to wait: a single cake can accompany a drinker for years, and each opening pours a different cup. It is a slow conversation with time itself.