Sheng Pu-erh is the traditional, historic Pu-erh of ancient times. It is the tea that was carried from China over the Tea Horse Route for trading with China’s neighboring border countries for hundreds of years. It is made by a natural process that preserves live microbes on the loose-leaf tea and in the compressed styles, too. It is these microbes that are responsible for transforming the tea by slow fermentation (over years and decades), into sheng Pu-erh. It is slow, natural fermentation that is elemental to the character of sheng Pu-erh.

When sheng Pu-erh is kept in good storage condition, the microbes will thrive and bring beneficial change to the flavor, aroma and color of the Pu-erh. As the Pu-erh ages, it will develop into something very rich and substantial in flavor.

The majority of sheng Pu-erh is sold as loose-leaf tea or mao cha ( rough tea) or is compressed into various shapes such as round beeng chas, tuo chas, rectangles and mushrooms.

Sheng Pu-erh in any form can be drunk young or aged. When young, the tea is sweet, woodsy, and clean tasting. When aged, sheng Pu-erh is rich, beefy, earthy and substantial.

A Note About Tea Trekker’s Pu-erh Selection (July 2021):

We have not been sourcing full-size Pu-erh cakes these days as actively as we once were.

When a special tong or two has come our way we have bid on or outright purchased them; and we will continue with the very drinkable and ‘drink-up-able’ smaller sizes of compressed tea (as they come our way – they have been difficult to source for several years now); as well as the loose leaf sheng and shou forms of Pu-erh that are basically ready-to-drink. But there are many dedicated tea people who are really concentrating on Pu-Erh as their primary focus that we will gladly yield to their discoveries in all the various price points. We really need to focus on what our special expertise is, which is East and South Asian tea, and that takes all the time we have in a day!

We do have several full-size beengs in the pipeline and some that we have been aging, but their arrival and release will be sporadic. Over this summer (2021) we will be releasing some of the Pu-erh beengs and other compressed shapes that we have collected and been storing, and we will increase the hei cha selection, but we are not interested beyond a certain price point and/or level of sophistication. What we do offer will be of excellent quality and a very good value.

We were once quite enthusiastic about compressed tea and the whole category of Pu-erh, hei cha, etc, and the wonderful story of fermented tea in the history of China and tea, so there will be some real treasures on our website over the next few months.

These interesting releases of the special Pu-erh mentioned above will be happening in July, Aug, & Sept of 2021…while supplies last.

Encouraging you for your interest in all things tea,

Bob

 Pu-erh steeping instructions

 New Tea, Rested Tea, and Aged Tea