The concepts of sun-drying, oven-drying, and semi-drying are very basic yet important in Pu-erh tea. Those who love Pu-erh tea generally need to understand them to some extent.

How are oven-dried and sun-dried defined and distinguished in Pu-erh tea?

1. Sun-drying, oven-drying, and semi-sun-drying/semi-oven-drying refer to the drying methods in the initial processing of Pu-erh tea, not the fixation (kill-green) method. (Raw tea processing steps: a Picking → b Fresh Leaf Spreading (Withering) → c Fixation (Kill-green) → d Cooling → e Rolling → f Sun-drying)

2. Sun-drying means drying the rolled leaves in the sun. It uses solar energy at low temperatures (not exceeding 60°C) to dry the tea leaves. The drying time is longer than oven-drying, but it retains the original taste of the tea.

3. Oven-drying means quickly drying the rolled leaves using drying equipment. The temperature of rapid drying equipment ranges from 80-130°C, which is above 60°C.

4. Semi-sun-drying/semi-oven-drying (also called preliminary firing) involves using drying equipment to briefly remove part of the moisture (30% to 50%) after rolling, then sun-drying the leaves. This method is generally used when sunlight is insufficient.

5. Distinction by appearance: Sun-dried tea appears dark green, oven-dried tea appears bluish-green, and semi-dried tea appears bluish-green with a grayish tint.

6. Distinction by liquor color: Sun-dried tea yields a golden-yellow liquor, oven-dried tea yields a bluish-green liquor with a yellow tint, and semi-dried tea yields a golden-yellow liquor with a bluish tint.

7. Distinction by taste: Sun-dried tea may have a slight "sunlight taste" in the short term, with a light grassy or floral aroma; the fragrance is deep and soft. Oven-dried tea has a grassy or bean-like aroma; the fragrance is high and floating. Semi-dried tea has a bean-like aroma. The most obvious distinction among the three lies in the bean-like aroma. The presence of a bean aroma can be used to judge whether oven-drying was involved. Sun-dried Pu-erh tea does not have a bean aroma.