Optimal tea accessories for pu-erh tea

Pu-erh tea has recently gained some rather favourable attention among tea lovers due to the reputation of weight reduction and many other health benefits.

Standing as a class of its own among the premium teas, pu-erh tea has many unique natures including its preparation.

Unique natures of Pu-erh tea:

1. Pu-erh teas are made of tea tree leaves (big) instead of tea bush leaves (small)
2. the more a Pu-erh tea is aged, the better its quality. As a result, most of the Pu-erh teas would have been stored for at least a couple years and often require a sensible ‘brew’, in comparison to teas made of young and tender leaves and consumed seasonally, such as green teas and white teas.
3. Pu-erh teas are much longer lasting – some leaves can still produce quality flavour after 20 infusions, while the teas made of young tip eaves can only be used for up to 4 times normally.

Brewing Pu-erh tea:

Pu-erh tea is one of my favourite teas, a right type can have green tea’s refreshing nature, Oolong or black teas’ mellow texture, and Taiwan High mountain Oolong commending refreshing aftertaste. A careful selection of the tea accessories to use would in no doubt enhance the quality of Pu-erh tea brew.

Home brewing Pu-erh tea

A premium YiXing ZiSha tea set is a good choice. YiXing ZiSha teapots are traditionally made small (See YiXing ZiSha teapot for more info). They therefore require frequent top up of hot water and serving – producing many small infusions of freshly brewed and served tea which is the best quality tea.

1. For single person consumption: use a small ZiSha teapot to make up 5-10 infusions of tea and serve into a cup or mug
2. To sever a number of drinkers, use as many kung-fu tea cups as the number of people at presence, brew and sever accordingly. For example, there are four members in our family. I use a tea set as shown in the image after dinner. A pot of hot water and a serve of Pu-erh leaves is all is required for a few good cups and a chat after dinner.

Brewing pu-erh tea at office

When the space is limited and time is tight in the office to get some work done, a tea infuser like this one is ideal:

1. It is a pot, cup and strainer all built into one.
2. The brewing chamber is where the tea is brewed.
3. Once the tea is brewed to the optimal time, a value is released by pressing a side button and the tea is filtered through a very fine filter to the lower chamber.
4. The lower chamber then can be used as a cup to drink from, while using the up facing lid as a saucer to sit the brewing chamber on.
5. This process can be repeated many times by topping up with hot water.

 More information on Pu-erh tea preparation and storage guide: https://www.valleygreentea.com.au/preparation/pu-erh-tea-preparation-and-storage-guide.html