The so-called dry storage, as the name suggests, refers to good storage conditions with normal temperature and humidity, generally not too high, allowing natural aging.

Wet-stored Pu-erh tea involves placing compressed raw tea in a humid storage environment (usually with humidity exceeding 80%). There are two main types: one involves artificial intervention, such as increasing temperature and humidity to accelerate aging and shorten fermentation time (also known as 'processed storage tea'); the other results from excessively humid and high-temperature storage environments, not intentionally created.

Here, a tea enthusiast asked a question: Do both raw Pu-erh and ripe Pu-erh have dry and wet storage distinctions?

Yes. The difference between raw and ripe Pu-erh lies in their processing methods, while dry and wet storage are two storage techniques. Pu-erh tea emphasizes post-fermentation, and both raw and ripe Pu-erh undergo this stage. Dry and wet storage techniques are methods to control the post-fermentation process.

How to Identify Wet-Stored Tea

1. Inspect the tea cake before brewing: Discard any with visible mold or a white layer. Be cautious of dry tea cakes with musty or unusual smells. Trust your intuition—if it feels off, it likely is.

2. Observe the soup color: For ripe tea, wet-stored tea often has an excessively red and transparent soup color, far beyond what its storage age should show. For raw tea, moderately wet-stored mid-aged tea is harder to distinguish by color alone; consider aroma, aftertaste, and other factors.

3. Taste the tea: Wet-stored tea often has a flat, thin, and flavorless profile. The soup lacks thickness, and the aroma is weak or absent. Accelerated fermentation may have degraded essential compounds.

4. Aroma: Wet-stored tea rarely retains good fragrance; the absence of mold is already a relief.

5. Smell the brewed leaves: A musty or moldy smell indicates non-dry storage.

The above are basic guidelines. With practice, differentiation becomes easier.

Dry and wet storage exist on a spectrum, with no absolute boundary. Some mid-aged raw teas are stabilized in dry storage before slight wet storage to enhance color and add aged flavors while retaining aroma. If no flaws are detected, such teas can still be good.

However, due to the high risk of mold in uncontrolled wet storage, dry-stored tea is recommended for better quality and lower risk. Honestly, after tasting many Pu-erh teas, truly good wet-stored ones are rare.