Shou Cha - Puerh Tea

The Basics
Pu-erh is a very unique and unusual tea. Pu-erh is a post-fermented tea from southwest China. It is unusual because, unlike other teas, it is aged before consumption.

Similar to many red wines, the tea's characteristics improve with time. It is not impossible to find Pu-erh teas that are up to 50 years old. While our Shou Cha (which by the way means "aged tea") tea isn't entering its golden years, it is still considered a high quality tea in its on right, and something you may not have tried before.

It produces a dark red liquor with a full-bodied, earthy taste. This tea can be re steeped up to 5 times!

The Good Stuff. (Impress Your Friends.)
Aged Pu-erh from the 1950's are in such demand, they have become collector's items. So much so that just like counterfeit paintings and coins, there is now a black market of counterfeit Pu-erh.

The bad news is that if you are the .0001% that wants to pay about a three hundred bucks a cup for this stuff, you might be getting tea that's been falsely aged (think acid washed jeans).

The good news is that for the rest of us, our aged Shou Cha is comparative to an intermediate tea drinker at the fraction of the cost... I'll drink to that.