Chama CellarPu'er is often shelved next to black tea, and a cup of ripe pu'er looks even darker than one. They are made in different ways, though, and the confusion starts with the names.
Why do the names cause so much confusion?
Chinese and English name the same teas after different things.
| English name | Chinese name | Literal meaning | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black tea | 红茶 (hóng chá) | Red tea | Fully oxidised tea, such as Keemun, Assam or Ceylon |
| Dark tea | 黑茶 (hēi chá) | Black tea | Post-fermented tea, such as Liu Bao or Hunan dark tea |
Chinese names the fully oxidised tea after its red liquor. English named it after its dark dry leaf. So the Chinese word that literally means "black tea" refers to a different family altogether, and English uses "dark tea" for that family to keep the two apart.
When a Chinese source or a label says 黑茶, it does not mean English black tea. And when someone says pu'er is a "black tea", they have usually translated 黑茶 word for word.
What is black tea?
Black tea is made by letting the leaf oxidise fully. In outline, the fresh leaves are withered, rolled to break the cells, left for a few hours while enzymes in the leaf turn it coppery brown, and then dried with heat, which stops the change.
Two points matter for the comparison. The leaf is not pan-fired before oxidation, because heat would switch the enzymes off. And the change is finished at the factory. The Chinese trade calls this step 发酵 ("fermentation"), but microbes are not what drives it.
What is dark tea?
Dark tea is one of the six categories in the usual Chinese classification, alongside green, white, yellow, oolong and black (red) tea. What defines it is post-fermentation. The leaf is first fixed with heat, as for green tea, and rolled. It is then piled while damp, and microbes work on it in the pile. After that it is dried, usually compressed, and often stored for years.
The best-known dark teas outside Yunnan are from Hunan (Anhua), Guangxi (Liu Bao) and Sichuan (Tibetan tea). Most were made for long-distance trade to the west and north of China, which is one reason they are pressed into bricks or packed into baskets. The same trade shaped pu'er, as described in what was the Tea Horse Road.
So where does pu'er fit?
It depends on which pu'er, and on who is doing the classifying.
- Ripe pu'er goes through wet-piling for several weeks. That is post-fermentation by any definition, and ripe pu'er is commonly classed as a dark tea.
- Raw pu'er is pan-fired, rolled, dried in the sun and pressed, with no piling. A new raw cake is close to a sun-dried green tea. It keeps changing in storage for years, which green tea is not meant to do. Some people therefore put it with dark tea, others with green tea, and others say it fits neither. The question is not settled.
- China's national standard for pu'er as a geographical indication product takes a different route. It defines pu'er by origin and material, as tea made from Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried tea inside a defined area of Yunnan, and it covers both raw and ripe. In effect it treats pu'er as a product of its own.
For a drinker, the practical point is simpler. Neither kind of pu'er is a black tea, and the two kinds behave very differently from each other. See ripe vs raw pu'er for that comparison and what is pu'er tea for the basics.
How do black tea, pu'er and other dark teas compare?
| Black tea | Ripe pu'er | Raw pu'er | Other dark teas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processing | Withered, rolled, fully oxidised by the leaf's enzymes, dried with heat | Pan-fired, rolled, sun-dried, then wet-piled for several weeks | Pan-fired, rolled, sun-dried, pressed. No piling | Fixed, rolled, piled, dried. Usually pressed or packed in baskets |
| Colour | Dark brown to black leaf, sometimes with golden tips. Red to amber liquor | Dark brown to red-brown leaf. Deep red-brown liquor | Greenish leaf and yellow-gold liquor when young. Both darken with age | Dark brown to black leaf. Orange-red to deep red-brown liquor |
| Taste | Malty, sweet, fruity or brisk, depending on origin | Smooth, thick, earthy, woody | Fresh, floral, some bitterness when young. Deeper and rounder when aged | Woody and mellow. Some are smoky or herbal, depending on the type |
| Ageing | Usually drunk within a year or two | Ready when made. Gets smoother over a few years | Changes a great deal over many years | Many are stored and valued with age |
| Origin | Many countries, including China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya | Yunnan | Yunnan | Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hubei and other provinces |
These are general patterns. Individual teas vary, and the flavours of pu'er are covered in more detail in what does pu'er taste like.
What are the other dark teas?
- Hunan dark tea, from Anhua. Pressed into several forms, including Fu brick (茯砖), which is known for the small yellow specks of mould, called "golden flowers", that are grown inside the brick on purpose. Some Anhua teas have a smoky note from the way the leaf is dried.
- Liu Bao, from Guangxi. Named after a town in Cangwu county, near Wuzhou. It is piled, then traditionally packed into bamboo baskets and aged. It was exported for a long time to Hong Kong and South-East Asia.
- Tibetan tea, from Ya'an in Sichuan. Made from mature leaves and some stem, piled and pressed into bricks for the trade to Tibet, where it is traditionally boiled.
None of these is pu'er. They use different leaf, mostly from local tea varieties and not Yunnan's large-leaf plant, and each has its own piling and pressing methods.
Does Yunnan make black tea too?
Yes. Dian Hong (滇红, "Yunnan red") is Yunnan's black tea. It comes from the same large-leaf plant as pu'er, and commercial production began in Fengqing county in the late 1930s.
The difference is entirely in the processing. For Dian Hong the leaf is withered, rolled, oxidised and dried with heat. For pu'er it is pan-fired, rolled and dried in the sun. Dian Hong often shows a lot of golden buds, and its taste is usually described as malty and sweet.
The same garden can therefore supply leaf for a black tea and for a pu'er. The plant does not decide the category. The processing does.
