Although both raw and ripe teas belong to the Pu-erh category, can these two different types of tea be stored together? Let's discuss this topic today.

Raw tea refers to fresh tea leaves that are naturally aged after picking, without undergoing artificial "fermentation" or "wo dui" processing, but are processed, sorted, and shaped into various Yunnan tea forms (cake tea, brick tea, tuo tea). Raw tea has a stronger, more stimulating character than ripe tea. Newly made or recently stored raw tea has an astringent taste, and the liquor color is lighter or yellow-green. With long-term storage, the aroma becomes increasingly mellow.

Ripe tea is tea made from Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried raw tea as the raw material, processed through techniques like wo dui fermentation. Pu-erh ripe tea has a reddish-brown color, a pure and mellow taste, and a unique aged aroma. Because Pu-erh ripe tea has a gentle character and good health benefits, it is very popular.

Can raw Pu-erh tea and ripe Pu-erh tea be stored together? Raw and ripe Pu-erh teas are two types of tea with completely different quality and style characteristics. It is strictly forbidden to store raw and ripe Pu-erh teas mixed together. The main reasons are as follows:

The aroma types of raw and ripe Pu-erh teas are different, and both change over storage time. Raw Pu-erh tea often has aromas like floral, fresh, chestnut, aged... Ripe Pu-erh tea often has aromas like ginseng, aged, lotus, jujube, camphor, etc. Because the aroma types are different, if raw and ripe Pu-erh teas are stored mixed together, the aromatic substances will inevitably cross-adsorb, masking or altering each other, making it difficult to obtain a pure, natural aroma. This causes the tea to become a nondescript "neither-this-nor-that," reducing its collection value.

The leaf sediment (tea dregs) colors of raw and ripe Pu-erh teas are different. The leaf sediment color of raw tea deepens with storage time, changing from tender green ~ tender yellow ~ apricot yellow ~ dark yellow ~ yellowish brown ~ reddish brown. In contrast, well-fermented ripe Pu-erh tea leaf sediment generally appears "liver-colored" and gradually changes to dark brown as storage years increase.

Therefore, these two types of tea cannot be stored together. Storing them together will affect the storage value of the teas, so they should be stored by category. It is strictly forbidden to store raw and ripe Pu-erh teas mixed together.