Artificially fermented Pu-erh tea was accidental because it was fermented due to improper preservation in Hong Kong and other places. Some people tried it by accident and felt that the fermented tea had a different taste. There are several companies in Hong Kong that artificially ferment and process Yunnan Pu’er loose tea: Lianxinglong, Nanji, Shengji, Linji, Baotai, Tongan and Cheungzhou Fuhua, etc.
The past and present of artificially fermented Pu’er tea
In the 1950s, there was almost no communication between the Mainland and Hong Kong, but news of Hong Kong’s artificially fermented Pu’er tea still spread. Tea merchants all over Guangdong began to ferment their own wet water. According to the records of Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company: In 1973, after Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company obtained the right to self-manage import and export, Huang Youxin, a salesman of the company, went to the Canton Fair and found that Pu’er tea was selling well in Guangdong and Hong Kong, especially the fermented Pu’er tea in Guangdong. There is a market for cooked tea, so Huang Youxin brought some tea samples back and reported to the company, which attracted the company’s attention. After communicating with the Guangdong Tea Company, the Provincial Tea Company decided to send an inspection team to have a preliminary understanding of the production process of Pu’er tea in Guangdong. Hai and Xiaguan two tea factories each (including Zou Bingliang).（Zou Bingliang interview）
At the same time, after the Guangzhou tea factory study group returned to Kunming, the provincial tea company established a technical research team composed of two-level inspection, production and marketing backbones to conduct experiments between cold water fermentation and warm water fermentation. According to the climate and ecological environment of Kunming, the The warm water fermenting process in Guangzhou is adjusted to cold water fermentation. After the process was adjusted, the Wodui of Kunming Tea Factory finally succeeded. In that year, 10.2 tons of Pu’er tea were sold in Hong Kong (including more than 1 ton trial-produced by Chen Peiren). This period of history is also recorded in the memoir of Mr. Yang Weiren, the former deputy director of the Kunming Tea Factory and the office director of the Provincial Tea Import and Export Company, “Records of the Origin of the Aging Process of Yunnan Pu’er Tea”.
In the following days, the fermentation process of Pu’er cooked tea was gradually perfected and finalized. The Kunming Tea Factory sold 10.2 tons of Pu’er cooked tea that year. Afterwards, two tea factories in Xiaguan, Menghai successively invested in the production of Pu’er cooked tea, and the scale gradually expanded. The tea factories in Simao, Baoshan, Dehong also hope to join in the production of cooked Pu-erh tea. The provincial tea company has sent Wu Qiying to these tea factories many times to spread technology and introduce experience.
The real situation is like this, so why add so many myths? The process of the development of things is originally a process for most people to learn and understand gradually. Anyone with normal intelligence can master the basic methods after many times of practice. Only due to the different raw materials and environments in different places, there are different styles of Pu’er cooked tea. A hundred flowers bloom, each has its own characteristics. This is also the charm of Pu’er tea. Everyone can like tea fermented with raw materials from different tea regions, or tea fermented in different regions. As long as you like it, there is nothing wrong with it!
Raw materials of cooked Pu-erh tea
The quality of commercial cooked tea depends on the blending plan. The source of blending is the different piles after fermentation. It is an internal cause. During the fermentation process, three points depend on people and seven points depend on the sky. To use an analogy, just like cooking, if the raw materials of the dish are not good, you may not be able to cook a good dish if you ask the imperial chef; conversely, if you cook the shark’s fin badly or add too much seasoning, the result will not taste good either. So, what are the raw materials used for Pu-erh cooked tea?
The first point: Currently, the mainstream cooked tea material is Taidi tea. This reason is quite obvious. The piles for normal fermentation are generally 10 tons to 60 tons a pile. In terms of quantity and cost alone, it is difficult for ordinary small factories or individuals to ferment with big tree tea. What’s more, the risk of fermentation is extremely high, and the advantages of big tree fermentation are not necessarily prominent.
The second important point: it is mainly fermented with summer tea, and fermented with summer tea. This is the basic theory of making cooked tea in large factories. Before 2000, it was rare to hear of fermenting spring tea or autumn tea, because the price of Pu’er tea itself was extremely low, the price of spring tea used to make raw tea was not high, and the price of cooked tea was usually lower than For raw tea, due to cost pressure, obviously only summer tea can be used.
The fermentation process of Pu’er cooked tea
I have to review the basic process of commercial cooked tea. Sun-dried green mao tea – fermented in heap – grading in heap – blending (even heap) – autoclaved forming – drying (drying) Generally speaking, I can give what I think is a good commodity cooked tea The formula: good commercial cooked tea = cooked tea after good fermentation, evenly stacked, blended cakes, autoclaved, formed and dried according to a certain formula. Its key connotation is to choose a good fermented hair pile.
Therefore, at this stage, tea that has not been fermented well in the early stage is not selected. This is the key to controlling product quality. If you distribute 100 piles, only 30 piles are distributed better, then we will use these 30 piles to make tea, and the remaining 70 piles of tea can be placed naturally according to the specific situation Storage, or according to its characteristics, if the fermentation is insufficient, it will be made into so-called lightly fermented tea, if it is over-fermented, it will be made into so-called rich fermented tea, and if it is heartburning, it will be thrown away. So this is the key to controlling product quality.
Because of the large number of fermentation bases in large factories, there is much more room for choice. It is not denied that the quality of Dachang is relatively stable, but this is not based on the so-called mysterious fermentation, but on the after-the-fact screening process. The so-called advantages of big factories in fermentation are largely based on the unique fermentation environment formed by long-term fermentation (such as microorganisms) and consumers are accustomed to its taste.
Based on the huge samples, Dachang can decompose the pile of fermented wool according to the factory’s quality standards and formula. This is why Dachang has so many varieties and series. Each variety has a different taste. During the fermentation process, there are relatively few scientific ingredients, but in the post-fermentation screening, you can indeed choose tea according to your recipe and traditional taste, which is scientific.
sparked by the business concept
If we talk about the fermentation process in the past, it is not the case now, and many tea lovers will think it is unreal; if we talk about the fermentation process of the present, senior tea lovers will ask questions, saying that what they have been drinking for many years is not such a process. Because it will inevitably cause controversy, and the controversy comes from the current mainstream commercial propaganda.
First of all, let’s talk about the fermentation of cooked tea. The purpose is to accelerate the fermentation through artificial intervention in the normal natural aging and fermentation process, so as to obtain Pu’er tea suitable for drinking now. Therefore, most of the previous Pu-erh teas stated that they were moderately fermented. Note: It is moderately fermented. This is a traditional Chinese way of describing, what is moderation? Again, ambiguity arises.
In my personal opinion, the so-called moderation means that it has been fermented and can be drunk within 3 to 6 months, and the taste is good. There is moderate fermentation, and there is not moderate fermentation, that is, under-fermentation or over-fermentation. These were originally defects in craftsmanship, and finally they were packaged commercially, euphemistically called: light fermentation, heavy fermentation (or thick fermentation). Then it became the selling point of the product.
The highest level of fermentation technology is moderate fermentation. The biggest dream of a fermenter is to achieve moderate fermentation every time. Moderate fermentation is the original intention of making Pu-erh tea. In this way, business has changed the pursuit of fermenters. Originally, moderate fermentation was the standard for qualified fermenters. Now, under-fermentation is also qualified, and over-fermentation is also qualified. The standard has been relaxed, so everyone can ferment. Fermenters are everywhere.
It is precisely because these unqualified products are now legalized, and the so-called light fermented tea is popular in the market through hype, which finally led to the subversive change of the fermented heap. The entire ripe tea stacking process has undergone great changes, which has a great impact on the quality of Pu’er tea.
If you insist on moderate fermentation, this is a traditional fermentation process with high cost, high risk and high threshold, which is troublesome; if fermentation is divided into light fermentation, moderate fermentation, and heavy fermentation (concentrated fermentation), use the corresponding process, low cost and risk Low barrier to entry, easy. Driven by economic interests, of course, the latter has been widely promoted, causing crowds who don’t know the truth to watch.
