“Dayi” Pu'er tea is produced in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Menghai County is recognized as the center of the world's original habitat for tea trees and one of the original production areas of “Pu'er tea,” with natural conditions and climatic conditions uniquely suited for tea cultivation. “Dayi” Pu'er tea, relying on its superior natural conditions and unique quality characteristics, has become the leading variety of Pu'er tea and a renowned brand in the domestic and international tea industry.

Tea Garden Scenery

Production Skills

“Dayi” Pu'er tea is made from large-leaf tea from Yunnan. It is first processed into sun-dried raw tea material and then made into finished products according to different needs, involving more than 30 steps in the production process.

Raw Tea Processing Steps

Picking, Spreading, Withering, Fixation, Kneading, Sun Drying

Picking

Spreading

Fixation

Kneading

Sun Drying

Fermentation Production Steps

Selection, Piling, Moistening, Turning, Breaking, Air Drying, Maturing, Unpiling

Sorting Production Steps

Round Sifting, Shaking Sifting, Wind Selection, Refining, Picking

Blending Process

Sampling, Blending, Leveling

Molding Production Steps

Moistening, Weighing, Steaming, Shaping, Pressing, Unbagging, Arranging, Drying, Removing from Drying

Packaging Steps

Cotton Paper Printing, Inner Packaging, Tubing, Outer Packaging

Quality and brewing

“Dayi” Pu'er tea is divided into raw and ripe teas. Raw tea has a lustrous appearance, an orange-yellow liquor color, a rich and sweet taste, and a pure and intense aroma. Ripe tea has a brown-red color, a red and bright liquor, a thick and smooth taste, a distinctive aged aroma, and other features.

Dayi Raw Tea

Dayi Ripe Tea

“Dayi” Pu'er tea is suitable for brewing with 100°C water. The tea should be quickly poured out after steeping, and it is important to keep the tea leaves dry after pouring out the liquor. “Dayi” Pu'er tea is very tightly compressed, so the leaves cannot fully unfold during the first and second infusions, resulting in relatively lighter tasting liquor. The proper brewing begins with the third infusion, when the liquor can be poured into a fair cup for tea friends to enjoy. From the third to fifth infusions, the tea gradually reaches its best flavor. From the fifth to tenth infusions, the tea reaches the peak of its flavor and aroma. After ten infusions, the flavor gradually fades, and after the fifteenth infusion, the tea needs to be steeped for 10-20 seconds in the gaiwan before pouring out the liquor.

Inheritance and Protection

The Pu'er tea making skills (Dayi tea making skills) were included in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage representative projects in 2008. “Dayi” Pu'er tea has gone through sixty-seven years of wind and rain, and its main inheritors have been working tirelessly to revitalize the Pu'er tea industry and promote Chinese Tea culture.

The following content is excerpted from “Research Status on the Formation Mechanism of Pu'er Tea Flavor,” by Deng Sihan, Wang Qiong, Luo Rong, Liu Gang, Lü Caiyou, and Liu Xiaohui, published in *China Tea* Issue 7, 2025, pp. 1-8. Images are sourced from the internet.

Pu'er tea is a type of specialty tea with a long history in China's Yunnan Province. It is made from large-leaf Yunnan sun-dried raw tea as the raw material, processed through specific techniques to produce a post-Fermented tea. Its main production areas include Simao, Xiaguan, Lincang, and Xishuangbanna. Pu'er tea has unique quality characteristics, with fat and robust tea strands, a brownish-red color resembling liver, a chestnut-brown or dark red liquor, a smooth and mellow taste, and a characteristic aged aroma along with various Health benefits.

The finished Pu'er tea is mainly divided into raw and ripe teas, primarily distinguished by differences in processing methods. Raw Pu'er tea is made by steaming and pressing Yunnan large-leaf refined sun-dried tea, followed by drying. Ripe Pu'er tea undergoes a series of transformations under the combined effects of microorganisms, enzymes, moisture, heat, and oxidation, starting from sun-dried tea or raw tea. In the preparation of ripe Pu'er tea, changes in biochemical components during piling determine the quality transformation of the tea.

The quality of tea is often evaluated based on the taste, with the taste being one of the key indicators. In a standard evaluation system consisting of five factors (appearance, liquor color, aroma, taste, and leaf base), the taste score has the highest coefficient. The chemical composition that builds up the tea taste is quite rich, and changes in the ratio, content, and types of taste-contributing substances can alter the quality of the tea taste. Thus, “taste” is a key quality feature of tea. This article introduces the taste characteristics and interactive effects of polyphenols and their oxidation products, free amino acids, Caffeine,