The Manufactuering of Real Old Tree Shu Pu-erh Ⅲ

Published on Jan.6, 2023

In the middle of September, the old tree mao cha was piled for fermentation in Song Shan Tea Plant of Yongde in Southwest Yunnan.

Spring water was sprayed on the mao cha to moisten the tea for fermentation. The quality of water is very important to the quality of outcome shu pu-erh. Because some water might bring in strange smell or even chemicals. In the more than 40 years history of Song Shan Tea Plant processing of shu pu-erh, high quality spring water was used all the while.

This is the tea master, Yang, who was the founder of this plant, and witnessed the invention of Shu pu-erh in Yunnan in 1970s. He is the representative of the technology level of Yunnan Shu Pu-erh. Despite that now he ages 72. He himself still works diligently, followed by his workers.

The mao cha was well piled for fermentation (Wo Dui).

The workshop is very well designed for pile fermentation. It is spacious, bright and has good air ventilation.

The additional water on the ground is dried fast.

This is in the middle of the pile fermentation. The tea is covered by a layer of palm coir coat. The pile fermentation is engaged by a lot of magical microorganisms, which are very critical to the quality shu pu-erh. The community of microorganisms in Song Shan Tea Plant has been steadily evolved for nearly 40 years. It is stable and consistent, which ensures the consistent good quality of each batch of tea processed by the plant. Visitors are strictly prohbited from going to the workshop, worrying bringing in foreign microorganisms.

In the end of the pile fermentation, the tea is stirred over loose by hand.

This is the shu pu-erh tea just stirred over loose. Now the tea is dry completely. In Yunnan, the air in between October and April is very dry. So the tea can be dried naturally in workshop.

Usaually the tea will be put for another one or two months for natural transform before sorting. There are 2500KG of sheng pu-erh maocha for processing this batch of Shu Pu-erh. After the pile fermentation, there are 1912KG of Shu Pu-erh, which means around 24% loss during the pile fermentation processing.

The tea was sorted by traditional machine.

This is regular grade of shu pu-erh after sorting. It is the regular big leaf body of the tea, and composed by around 58% of the final product.

This is Gong Ting grade of shu pu-erh after sorting. It is the bud and tip of the tea, and composed by around 14% of the final product.

This is Lao Cha Tou of shu pu-erh after sorting. It is the essence of shu pu-erh tea. A lot of tea juice concentrate during the pile fermentation and forms the hard block, which can not easily be dismissed. It is composed by around 13% of the final product. (The rest of around 15% is the fannings, broken and dust of tea, which can not be on the grades).

This is the brewing of Old Tree Shu Pu-erh. It has bright clean red liquor, and gives off a kind of chinese date sweet flavor. The mouth feeling is very mellow smooth. The taste is rich and aftertaste is deep. Pure sweet flavor and rich deep taste is the main difference of this batch od tree shu pu-erh from ordinary material ones.

We also ran a test with Eurofins for the outcome shu pu-erh. The result is the same as that of old tree mao cha, non-detected.

The old tree shu pu-erh is ready for sale now! It is availbale as loose leaf of the above grades. And also we accept custom order for compression. There are six options of different shapes and size for choice. They are coins 7g, mini tuocha 5g, tuocha 100g, brick 250g, cake 357g and cake 200g.