Ripe Pu-erh tea undergoes artificial fermentation, possessing a unique tea aroma and flavor. It has a mild tea nature, helps regulate vital energy, warms the middle, and nourishes the stomach, offering significant health preservation value. When brewed, the liquor is thick, tending towards a deep red color, with a gentle and smooth taste.

Once made, ripe tea can be tasted in the same year (though it may not taste great, it's not undrinkable). Of course, with a maturation period of about three years, the fermentation flavor completely transforms. The various complex polymers produced through artificial fermentation also undergo some degree of post-oxidation through contact with air, making the tea flavor deeper and more restrained. At this point, the tea aroma, taste, and character become clearer.

Ripe tea involves an artificial wet-piling fermentation process. Therefore, products from different manufacturers and batches often show significant variations.

First, let's talk about raw material selection. Wet-piling for fermentation is usually done by grade—bud tea, grades three to five, and grades seven to nine are piled and fermented separately. One pile requires nine to twelve tons of tea. A complete fermentation cycle takes about eight to twelve weeks. During fermentation, it's necessary to constantly check pile temperature, turn the pile, sprinkle water... In short, the fermentation room is a place with high temperature and humidity, which can be quite grueling.

Fermentation carries risks. If the timing for turning the pile is not well controlled, leading to excessively high local pile temperature, the tea in those areas can become over-fermented, losing its value as raw material. Therefore, tea factories typically implement a 24-hour shift system, and the fermentation team monitors pile temperature without any relaxation.

Considering production scale and procedures, it's essentially impossible for ripe tea to use raw materials from a single tea mountain. In fact, when raw materials from different tea mountains are piled together, the resulting taste after wet-piling will inevitably tend towards similarity.

Different manufacturers have their own insights and experience regarding wet-piling, resulting in ripe tea products with varying flavors. When tasting, we can clearly notice that some well-made ripe teas lean more towards the "ripe" side, or more towards the "raw" side (not fermenting too deeply). Teas leaning towards "ripe" can be tasted in the year of production; teas leaning towards "raw" retain some of the raw tea taste profile, so teas pressed in the same year still carry astringency and bitterness, and the separation between tea and water is still quite noticeable. This type of tea needs to be stored for two or three years before it becomes pleasant to drink.

High-quality ripe tea produced in the same year will, when brewed, clearly emit the distinctive "ripe" aroma produced by plant fermentation. This aroma should contain no off-flavors or unusual scents—pay attention when smelling. The tea liquor will also carry the obvious "pile" taste from wet-piling fermentation, meaning the fermentation flavor hasn't receded yet. Consequently, the tea taste isn't clear, and the separation between tea and water is noticeable. However, overall, the tea soup has a rich flavor, feels thick and viscous in the mouth (much better than raw tea in this aspect), exhibits rich and multi-dimensional changes, and leaves a sweet and pleasant aftertaste. Another crucial point is good throat feel—after swallowing, the throat feels very comfortable.

Conversely, if a ripe tea, despite having a "mature" character, still feels watery in the tea soup no matter how it's brewed (even with a large amount of leaves), and leaves a prickly or even choking sensation (throat-tightening) after swallowing, it can basically be concluded that this ripe tea has been artificially humidified and stored (wet storage) post-production to accelerate aging. It's best to drink less of such tea products.

The difficulty in ripe tea processing lies in achieving a balance between "ripening" the raw tea through fermentation and preserving the "original tea taste and vitality" of the raw tea material. The tea taste we experience in ripe tea is essentially the "ripened" version of the complex and often bitter/astringent flavors found in raw tea. The "tea element substances" in raw tea are transformed into various "complex polymers" during the wet-piling fermentation process, thus forming the ripe tea taste profile.

In other words, if the raw tea base is good, the fermented ripe tea will also have a thick and rich taste. If the raw tea material used in wet-piling has a weak base to begin with, the resulting ripe tea will taste bland and thin, with weak sweetness and aftertaste.

On the other hand, if over-fermented, almost all the active substances in the raw tea leaves will be converted, resulting in a tea that is indeed "ripe" but has a stiff and dry taste. The lively mouthfeel and rich, multi-dimensional changes of the tea are all weakened, unable to form a proper tea character.

Now, do you understand what key points to pay attention to when selecting ripe tea? If well-made, ripe tea matures in cycles of about two to three years. Ripe tea in its first transformation period will still have a "watery" feel and "pile taste," but the tea flavor is clear, the pile taste is clean, the brewed tea soup is slightly turbid, the liquor color is brownish-red or deep red (never black), sweetness and aftertaste are evident, there is a sense of character, the taste changes are rich, and the throat feel is good. Ripe tea in its second transformation period has lost the "pile taste," the tea and water are completely integrated into a thick tea soup, the distinctive ripe aroma and the specific flavor of that tea are formed, the tea soup becomes clearer, the tea character is evident, the taste is multi-dimensional, the content is rich, and the throat feel is good. Ripe tea entering its third transformation period begins to develop an aged character. All the advantages ripe tea should possess are formed during this period. Drinking it starts to bring a feeling of mental refreshment and physical ease.

Regarding ripe tea, there's another important point to note when selecting. Wet-piling fermentation requires sprinkling water, and this fermentation water is very particular. Using good quality water for fermentation greatly helps preserve the activity of the tea's inherent substances. I'm not a tea or food chemistry professional, so I can't explain the specific mechanism clearly. However, through brewing and tasting specific tea products, one can distinguish from the taste whether the water used for fermentation was good or not.

Remember the tea-water separation taste in freshly made ripe tea when brewed? At this point, we need to carefully appreciate the "water character" of this tea. Calm your mind, think carefully, and taste meticulously. Assess whether the "water" taste in the cup, from the perspective of "water character," is of high quality. If the "water character" is good, the mouthfeel will definitely be lively and full. Judging from the four aspects of "clarity, purity, correctness, and vitality," if the results are good, then the fermentation water for this ripe tea was likely excellent, playing a significant positive role in forming the tea's quality. Conversely, the fermentation water might not have been well chosen, negatively impacting the formation of the ripe tea's quality after fermentation is complete.

Related links: Efficacy and Effects of Golden Flower Pu-erh, Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea