How to Identify Good Puerh Tea - Zhi Zheng Tea Shop

„Smokiness
The art of making tea from ancient tea trees is very old. Hand-roasting is not easily mastered. Any slight error will influence the taste of the tea. Smokiness or yan wei is one example but it should be distinguished from a burned flavour which is described as hu wei. The latter, typically arises when tea is not well roasted and is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Yan wei or smokiness is caused by oven drying. “

„There is also a lack of formal definition for "gu shu." Some say "gu shu" should only refer to trees over 300 years of age, that is left to grow tall, and not pruned back. But in reality, most "gu shu" trees are cultivated, which entails annual pruning to encourage regrowth & lower branches for easy picking. A lot of "gu shu" on the market comes from trees as young as 100 years old, some of which is as short as 1.5m high. But a 100 year old tea tree growing in the wild can also grow higher than 3m high. Eventually the government will legislate what classifies as "gu shu." Until then, let the buyer beware!“