At the end of the day, Pu-erh tea is still a tea: a daily beverage, not a medicine. Even though it boasts fine ecological geography and traditional wellness associations, without strong drinking value it would be hard for it to gain widespread popularity. Particularly in the hierarchy of Chinese tea-drinking values, green tea has long held a dominant position, defining the traditional framework of Chinese tea’s core drinking value.
Pu-erh tea must find its own foothold in drinking value, break through, and gain broad acceptance before it can possess strong commercial value and become popular. In a world where green tea reigns supreme, this is undoubtedly an extraordinarily difficult task.
Fortunately, over the past decade or more, through a convergence of circumstances, the unique drinking value of Pu-erh tea has been continually discovered and accepted by consumers, constantly refreshing the traditional map of Chinese tea-drinking value, even to the point of threatening to overturn the traditional drinking values of Chinese green tea.
This is no exaggeration. More and more people who once loved green tea and black tea, after coming into contact with Pu-erh tea for a period, become “addicted” to it, “defecting” en masse to become devoted Pu-erh enthusiasts.
This phenomenon has become the norm in the Chinese tea world over the past decade-plus. Why is this? Is it simply because Pu-erh tea is strong-flavored and easy to become addicted to? The answer is surely not that simple!
This is, of course, the “fragrance” of Pu-erh tea, its core drinking value, that has conquered consumers’ palates. So what is the core drinking value of Pu-erh tea?
The consensus is that the core drinking value of Pu-erh is the “aged fragrance” of “improving with age.” The “aged fragrance” of Pu-erh is indeed its most distinctive aromatic feature, but saying that aged fragrance alone is the core drinking value is not quite complete or precise.
Because “aged fragrance” only describes the living quality of Pu-erh tea as its aroma changes over time; it does not precisely capture the most attractive, most captivating, most satisfying, most memorable characteristic of Pu-erh tea’s aroma. In other words, what exactly is this “aged fragrance”? That still needs further explanation.
And this, without doubt, is “soup fragrance.” The aged fragrance of brewed Pu-erh tea exists in two main forms: one is the airborne aroma that rises from the tea liquor, and the other is the soup fragrance that is contained within the liquor itself. Pu-erh tea’s airborne aroma is not weaker than that of other tea types, but its greatest advantage over other teas lies in its soup fragrance. Its core drinking value also lies in the soup fragrance: more precisely, a soup fragrance full of vitality that “improves with age.”
So what exactly is this soup fragrance, and why does it constitute the core drinking value of Pu-erh tea?
Before answering, let us briefly review the core drinking value of China’s largest tea category: green tea. Since Lu Yu’s Classic of Tea, through countless poems and essays by literati across the dynasties, the core drinking value of green tea has been deeply ingrained, well known to all, and dominant in China’s tea world long before the rise of Pu-erh. So what is the core value of green tea?
In a word, it is simply two characters: “ming xiang” (tea-tip fragrance). “Ming” means the tea tip, the bud; “xiang” means the aroma of the tea liquor. So the key to drinking green tea is tasting two things: the tea’s tip and the tea’s fragrance.
Tasting the “tip” means observing the transformation and settling of the tea buds in water; the essence is in the visual appeal of color and form. Tasting the “fragrance” means appreciating the aroma released when the tea tips meet water: the fragrance infuses the liquor, fills the air, enters the nose, is savored and contemplated, held in the mouth, sipped and relished.
“Tip” and “fragrance” capture the essence of traditional green tea drinking value: simply “fresh fragrance.” The tea tip is the freshest, most tender part of the tea tree; the fragrance is what that freshest, most tender part releases in water: gorgeous, dazzling, ethereal, poetic. The essence of fresh fragrance dictates that green tea prioritizes freshness, prioritizes the present moment: it must not be old, cannot be stored long; the fresher, the more fragrant, the more beautiful, the better.
Pu-erh tea’s fragrance, by contrast, is primarily not an airborne scent but a flavor-fragrance hidden in the liquor, perceived by taste rather than smell. In other words, Pu-erh tea’s fragrance lives mainly in the liquor, not in the air. It is soup fragrance, not airborne fragrance.
The drinking value of Pu-erh tea is extremely rich. A rough summary encompasses six aspects: color, fragrance, flavor, energy, resonance, and realm. Each aspect is at least as strong as any other tea type in the country. But Pu-erh’s most outstanding core drinking value lies in fragrance and flavor, specifically the fragrance and flavor contained within the tea liquor, not the airborne aroma that floats above it.
Simply put, Pu-erh tea’s fragrance is primarily soup fragrance, not airborne fragrance. Moreover, from the perspective of soup fragrance, Pu-erh tea far surpasses other tea types nationwide. This is why Pu-erh can conquer so many palates, why people become addicted, why they long for it and cannot forget it. The root fragrance is the soup fragrance.
The fragrance of Pu-erh is contained in the liquor: an inward fragrance, a fragrance of the mouth and throat, not a fleeting scent for the nose. The soup fragrance of Pu-erh is a fragrance of depth and substance.
The soup fragrance of Pu-erh is also a living, evolving fragrance. “Living, evolving” has two layers of meaning. First: Pu-erh improves with age. The same tea, in year one, year two, year three, year four: different years of aging produce changes in fragrance. Within a certain span of years, the overall trend is toward greater fragrance with greater age. Second: the same tea, infusion one, infusion two, infusion three, infusion four: each infusion brings changes in soup fragrance. The overall characteristic is that it is highly resistant to multiple infusions, with the soup fragrance persisting without fading.
In summary, Pu-erh tea’s fragrance is primarily soup fragrance, not airborne fragrance, and it is a living soup fragrance that evolves with aging and is rich in transformation. Therefore, the precise expression of Pu-erh tea’s core drinking value should be “soup fragrance that improves with age.” After a period of storage, the bitterness fades, the strength gradually evolves into mellow sweetness, and this mellowness is primarily concentrated in the soup fragrance, not floating on the surface of the tea’s energy.
Author: Old Tea Head · Lin Shen (LamSam)
Zen Tea Manor ZENTEA MANOR
Tianying Supply Chain Company
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