The concept of pure dry storage for Pu'er Tea is a pseudo-concept. If your storage is very dry, your Pu'er tea will develop a strong sour taste that makes it unsuitable for drinking. Many people know that the transformation of Pu'er tea requires a certain level of temperature and humidity, and factors such as oxygen content and climate all influence the direction in which the tea transforms. Therefore, “pure dry storage” should be understood as the common term used in the market to refer to family-style dry storage.

Characteristics of Dry-Storage Pu'er Tea

Dry-storage Pu'er tea refers to tea stored in a well-ventilated, dry environment with low air humidity (usually referring to clean warehouse environments where the air humidity is less than 70%). The tea naturally ferments in this environment, and its optimal aging period is 10 to 20 years.

Dry-storage raw tea: The tea leaves are tightly bound, with a fresh and lustrous color. They have a glossy appearance and emit a natural tea fragrance. The infusion has an orange-red color, turning into a deep chestnut color after long-term aging. The leaves retain their shape with elasticity and have a uniform color.

Dry-storage ripe tea: The appearance is neat and even, with a lustrous color. It emits a natural ripe tea fragrance. The infusion has a bright red color like glass. The taste is mature, mellow, and sweet, without any moldy or strange flavors.

When drinking Pu'er tea, if one approaches it from a standpoint of personal preference and focuses solely on whether it tastes good, there's no need to differentiate between raw and ripe teas or dry and humid storages. As long as it suits one's taste and feels comfortable to drink, it's a good tea for that person.

Dry-storage Pu'er tea has a vibrant appearance with a clean color, a rich and long-lasting aged fragrance, a bright red infusion, and a full-bodied taste. It produces a strong feeling of warmth in the throat and nasal cavity. Especially in terms of aroma, the aged fragrance of dry-storage Pu'er tea surpasses that of humid-storage Pu'er tea.