ESGREEN BLOG | Chinese Tea Information

Pu-erh tea is specially packaged for trade, identification, and storage. These attributes are used by tea drinkers and collectors to determine the authenticity of the pu-erh tea. Individual cakes Typical contents of a wrapped Bĭngchá Pu-erh tea cakes, or Bĭngchá, are almost always sold with a wrapper: Pu-erh Tea Wrapper...

Menghai Tea Factory was founded in 1940 and is located in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The factory was originally called Fo Hai Tea Factory, but changed its name to Menghai Tea Factory in 1953 with the establishment of the Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture. Menghai Tea Factory is credited as being...

Tea factories, particularly formerly government-owned factories, produce many cakes by its recipe tea blends, indicated by a recipe number. Recipe numbers consists of four-digits. The first two digits represent the year the recipe was first produced, the third digit the grade of leaves used in the recipe, and the last...

A Menghai microprinted ticket, first appearing in 2006 Factories are generally responsible for the production of pu-erh teas. While some individuals oversee smaller higher-end productions, such as the Xizihao and Yanqinghao brands, the majority of tea on the market is compressed by factories or tea groups. Until recently, factories were...

Harvest season also plays an important role in the flavor of pu-erh. Spring tea is the most highly valued, followed by fall tea, and finally summer tea. Only rarely is pu-erh produced in winter months, and often this is what is called "early spring" tea, as harvest and production follows...

Pu-erh can be sorted into ten or more grades. Generally, grades are determined by leaf size and quality, with higher numbered grades meaning older/larger, broken, or less tender leaves. Grading is rarely consistent between factories, and first grade tea leaves may not necessarily produce first grade cakes. Different grades have...