2005 Banpen Taidi Shu Bing Cha

A hundred-gram cake of dark shu puerh from tea plantations around Banpen village, located at an altitude of 1,760 metres in the Bu Lang Mountains in Menghai District, Xishuangbanna Prefecture. The Lahu ethnic group community consists of about 600 local people whose main livelihood is tea cultivation and processing. The cake is made up of smaller leaves that yield a nutritious, thick and dark infusion with a full, round but delicate flavour with pleasant woody notes, subtle earthiness, a trace of roasted chestnuts and walnuts.

How to brew Shu Puerh

Use 5 grams of tea leaves for 0.5 litre of boiling water, steep for 2–3 minutes. Feel free to experiment with steeping time, water temperature, and the amount of tea leaves. You can also read our articles on tea preparation and water quality. These tea leaves are also suitable for Asian-style preparation, which includes multiple infusions: 5 g tea leaves per 150 ml of boiling water, infuse for 10 seconds and in the following infusions, you steep the leaves for 10, 20, and 30 seconds, respectively.

What is Shu-puerh?

The attempt to speed up the process of ripening of pu-erhs led to the discovery of the Wò Dūi method (渥堆, wet piling), which was first used in the early seventies in the famous plants Menghai and Kunming and that has spread throughout the whole region and become very popular. It is a controlled enhancement and extension of all microbial processes in the leaf. The Mao Cha tea leaves are made wet again, piled on top of each other, and covered by waterproof sheets under which they ripen for 40 to 60 days. Then they are pressed, similarly as Sheng Puerhs, or dried and sold as loose-leaf tea. Although the original idea that led to the production of Shu Puerh was to replace the very long ripening process of the green variant, it basically led to the discovery of a brand new type of tea, which won its place in the tea market. After complete drying or pressing also Shu Puerhs ripen and gain quality with time.

Read more at our Blog.