In early 2023, I decided that it was time to seriously elevate my CHA knowledge and experience. After 20 years of knowing absolutely nothing about the puer bricks and cakes I had been passionately loving daily, all I knew was that I loved Shou Puer (ripe).
I jumped deep into the deep-end of the world of Chinese tea that continues to remind me every single day just how little I know about these many, many hundreds of teas… all still from that one leaf, camellia sinensis.
This tea journey of mine is not normal. Who goes from buying bricks and cakes of 10-20 year old ripe puer from Yunnan Province, from 1 extremely trustworthy supplier, into the maelstrom of the world of the rest of Chinese tea, teaware and most importantly, tea merchants from here to China.
Seven teas for mortal men: White, Green, Yellow, Oolong, Red, Black, Puer. Some have said that there are over 3,000 teas (I don’t know if that includes ‘herbal’ tea, which isn’t really tea if you mean things that come from the camellia sinensis. Which is.. actually tea. Frankly, I get annoyed when people call something “ginger tea.” Try tisane, please).