What is pu-erh tea, and how do you brew a tuocha nest?
Pu-erh is the tea most people have never tried and most tea people end up loving. It is dark, smooth, earthy and mellow, closer in feel to a good coffee than to a breakfast tea, and it is the only tea that is meant to age. Ours comes as little pressed nests called mini tuocha. One in the pot and you are off. Here is what it is and how to treat it.
What makes it different
It comes from Yunnan in the south west of China. After the leaf is processed it is allowed to ferment, with the help of microbes, either slowly over years in the case of raw pu-erh or in a controlled pile over a couple of months for ripe pu-erh. That fermentation is what gives it the deep, earthy, forest floor taste and the smooth, almost sweet finish. Ours is the ripe style, which is ready to drink and easy to get on with.
Why it comes in nests
Pu-erh has been pressed into cakes, bricks and bowls for centuries so it could be carried on horseback along the tea routes and so it would age well. A tuocha is a small bowl shape, and a mini tuocha is a single serving version, about 5g, pressed into a nest. It keeps the tea fresh and it means you never have to measure. One nest, one pot.
The rinse
Put the nest in the pot, pour on a splash of boiling water, swirl for ten seconds and pour it away. This wakes the leaf, starts the nest opening, and washes off any dust from the pressing. Every pu-erh drinker does it and it makes the first cup cleaner.
How to brew it
After the rinse, fill the pot, about 500ml for a nest, with freshly boiled water and brew three to five minutes. It makes a pot for three. Then do it again. The same nest will give two or three more pots, and the flavour gets rounder each time. Drink it black. It does not need milk and never gets bitter.
What to expect in the cup
Dark red brown, smooth, earthy, a bit like damp wood and dark chocolate, with no sharpness at all. It takes a cup or two to get used to and then it is hard to give up. It is lovely after a heavy meal, and it is the tea I would give a coffee drinker who says tea is too thin.