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Six Tips to Teach You How to Buy Pu'er Tea Correctly and Never Get Ripped Off Again!

Tea News · Aug 24, 2025

 Tea lovers always have a love-hate relationship with Pu'er tea. They love its refreshing and unique tea aroma, deep red and rich tea soup, as well as its multiple health benefits such as reducing fat and lowering blood pressure. What they hate is the vast variety of Pu'er tea types and different aging years, which give every tea enthusiast a headache when purchasing, fearing they might buy bad or fake tea. Often, they have to rely solely on trust in tea merchants and tea houses, limiting their understanding of tea leaves to only a superficial level, preventing them from becoming true tea connoisseurs.

In fact, as long as certain objective rules are followed, even in the ever-changing Pu'er tea market, one can select satisfying good tea. At the same time, one can gain their own "tea identification" experience from these rules and become a tea expert!


1. Ask Clearly

Before buying tea, ask clearly about the tea's source and origin, whether it was obtained from a brand or distributor, and if the packaging has any certification documents or verification methods. During the conversation with the seller, not only will you obtain accurate information about the tea, but you might also gain a like-minded tea friend.


2. Three Judgments and Five Questions Before Buying

After asking, the next step is how to buy and what to buy. We can first judge based on our own budget and conditions, similar to best-buy recommendations in wine media magazines. Decide what kind of tea to buy based on market trends, brand value, and whether it is for pure drinking or also for collection.


3. Smell the Aroma and Observe the Shape

Based on the buying conditions, select several teas by examining the strength of the strips, the fuzz, the completeness of the shape, and the tightness. Then, try the first impression of the taste. If the flavor and aroma are to your liking, you can proceed to deeply taste that specific tea.


4. Drink for Sweetness and Long-Lasting Aftertaste

While drinking, judge whether the tea has a sweet aftertaste, whether the aroma is long-lasting, and whether it is smooth and mellow to determine if you should purchase this cake of tea.


5. Organize Your Thoughts Before Making a Purchase

If the above conditions are met, you can buy the tea and take it home. However, before buying, clarify related guarantees, whether the price is reasonable, and the purpose of spending money on tea. Then, rethink your decision. Once confirmed, go ahead and buy it!!


6. Store Deeply and Control Temperature

Now that the Pu'er tea is bought and taken home, how should it be stored? For friends without a warehouse at home, mastering the basic elements of room temperature, low humidity, ventilation, no direct sunlight, and no unusual odors is sufficient. Similar to certified wine cellars, Pu'er tea is best stored in standard storage with temperature and humidity control and monitoring management. This will greatly enhance the tea's future drinking and collection value.


In summary, selecting Pu'er tea can be approached through the "Four Key Points" and "Six No Policies":

Four Key Points:

One Purity: Smell its aroma; the smell should be clean, without any musty odor;

Two Purity: Identify its color; the tea color should be like dates, not black as lacquer;

Three Correctness: Store it properly; keep it in a dry storage, not in a damp place.

Four Qi: Taste its soup; the aftertaste should be mild, not mixed with miscellaneous flavors.


Six No Policies:

One: Do not use incorrect aging years as a benchmark.

Two: Do not rely on forged packaging as a basis.

Three: Do not use deep or light soup color as an excuse.

Four: Do not be fooled by added flavors.

Five: Do not be attracted by musty storage claims.

Six: Do not consider tree age and leaf type as primary factors.

By comprehensively applying the above methods to select Pu'er tea, you will definitely brew a cup of superior tea with excellent color, taste, and aroma,堪称茶中极品堪称茶中极品 (can be called the best among teas). You will no longer be burdened by inferior teas that flood the market and will truly taste the subtle and lasting fragrance of tea.

 

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