However, while it's known that ripe tea is fermented, do you understand the fermentation process?

Q: Do you need to add anything during the pile fermentation of ripe tea? For example, like adding yeast for brewing or sourdough for baking?

A: No, just add an appropriate amount of water! The fermentation of ripe tea is an extremely complex biochemical reaction catalyzed by its own enzymes under suitable conditions, promoting the rapid reproduction of beneficial microbes. It only requires the right environment—no additives are needed. The enzymes, microbes, and material basis required for this reaction are all inherently present in sun-dried raw tea.

Q: Are tea buds less resistant to fermentation?

A: Quite the opposite. Tea buds ferment the slowest in the pile. If a pile over-ferments (known as "burning the pile"), the buds remain largely unaffected.

Q: Hasn't ripe tea already been fermented? Does it still have aging potential?

A: Pile fermentation is like rough sanding, while storage aging is fine polishing. It's difficult for ripe tea to ferment to "full maturity," meaning most ripe teas still retain some transformation space. After fermentation, the microbes remain alive and continue to slowly reproduce and oxidize during storage, making the fermentation more thorough and the flavor mellower.

Q: I heard that ripe tea fermentation is unhygienic. Is this true?

A: This stems from a misunderstanding of fermented foods. Like all fermented foods, the hygiene of ripe tea fermentation relies on microbial suppression. When fermentation proceeds normally, beneficial microbes, catalyzed by enzymes, reproduce thousands of times faster than other microbes. As long as enzyme activity is ensured, beneficial microbes quickly dominate all resources in the pile, and other microbes "starve." A Taiwanese professor once attempted to introduce aflatoxins into a fermenting tea pile, but they couldn't survive. If fermentation doesn't proceed normally, off-flavors in the tea are easily detectable through sensory evaluation—like rotten leaves, obvious even without expertise. Thus, any ripe tea with a pure aroma can be safely consumed, just like other fermented foods.

Q: Is blending also used for ripe tea? How is it done?

A: Ripe tea places great emphasis on blending, aiming for "stability"—primarily to maintain cost and quality consistency. Blending ensures that teas from different batches, years, and grades achieve a uniform quality, enabling large-scale production. The stability of ripe tea cakes is mainly achieved by blending different fermentation piles. During pile fermentation, each pile may vary slightly in quality. Blending multiple piles balances these differences for more consistent quality.

Source: Chinese Tea Culture Knowledge