Pu-erh Tuo Cha Tea

Pu-erh Tuo Cha's leaves have been hand-formed into the shape of tiny bowls or tuo cha ("birds nests") and individually wrapped. This tea brews a reddish cup with a mild and slightly sweet earthy flavor.

Pu-erh, known in old Chinese as "black tea", is tea that is actually fermented. Depending on which type of pu-erh is being manufactured, the leaf may or may not oxidize; however, microbial activity involving several different bacteria does take place both in and on the leaf. The particularly large leaves can be either oxidized ("cooked") or nonoxidized ("raw"). Pu-erh can be loose-leaf or compressed into the traditional round cakes (known as bing cha) and other interesting shapes, such as mushrooms, spheres, cubes, pyramids, coins and more. The leaves can also be infused several times.

The large leaves used in the manufacture of highest-quality pu-erh are plucked from the long-lived tea bushes that grow abundantly in southern Yunnan Province. The leaf used to make both cooked and raw pu-erh cakes is sun-dried leaf from the local tea trees. To achieve the distinctive flavor and aroma of pu-erh, the tea is heaped into piles and a controlled amount of moisture is introduced to the leaves. As the bacterial process begins to affect the nature of the tea, the piles are carefully turned and monitored as heat begins to generate within the pile. The heat combined with moisture encourages the natural bacterial fermentation integral to the tea's character and flavor.