Many tea scholars oppose the traditional classification of Pu'er tea as dark tea, for the following reasons:

First, based on distribution channels, Pu'er tea was historically used as tribute tea, border trade tea, and overseas Chinese trade tea. According to production methods and quality, Pu'er tea is classified as compressed tea within the dark tea category. By processing methods, it is categorized as raw tea (green tea) or reprocessed tea (black tea). In terms of fixation and oxidation (fermentation) levels, it is again placed under dark tea. This leads to contradictions in defining Pu'er tea as a single category.

Second, Pu'er tea's own processing includes semi-fermentation, pre-fermentation, artificial fermentation, and natural fermentation. It comes in loose tea, compressed tea, tuo tea, brick tea, and cake tea forms. Therefore, Pu'er tea should be considered a separate tea category, distinct from the traditional six tea types, with unique ingredients and processing methods, resulting in diverse products. This tea is characterized by a mellow taste, durability, and aged aroma. Its processing and characteristics differ from both fully fermented black tea and post-fermented dark tea.

Third, Pu'er tea includes raw tea and ripe tea. Raw tea is made from sun-dried green tea and compressed tea using Yunnan's unique large-leaf variety. Ripe tea is processed from large-leaf sun-dried green tea through post-fermentation, resulting in loose or compressed tea. The latter involves picking, fixation, hand-rolling, sun-drying to produce sun-dried green tea, followed by post-fermentation to create ripe tea. This tea is known for its mellow taste and aged aroma.

It should be said that the processing and characteristics of Pu'er tea differ from the six tea categories, and its uniqueness leads people to prefer classifying it as a single tea category: Pu'er tea.