Hello, All

First, let us clear up the names of Puerh and maybe one day Puerh will
be called by the correct names. In China within the tea field Puerh
is called cooked or un-cooked nothing else, it is completely clear in
Chinese. Therefore, the most accurate name for Puerh in English is
Cooked or un-cooked Puerh.

The Pin Ying spelling for cooked and Un-cooked are as fallows "Shu
(cooked)" and "Sheng (un-cooked)"

Here are some other names for Puerh that you may have seen.

Cooked Puerh other names:
Black Puerh, Red Tea Based Puerh or Compressed Black tea.

Un-cooked Puerh other names: Green Puerh, Raw Puerh

From this point on I will only refer to the Puerh as Cooked or
un-coked.

The names for Puerh Cooked and Un-Cooked is really a way of describing
the way the tea is processed.

Un-cooked is a more traditional and older way of manufacturing Puerh
tea. The cooked is a slightly newer idea of manufacturing Puerh.
However, cooked Puerh has been around for quite some time.

What is the difference between cooked and un-cooked Puerh? The answer
is simple the only difference is the way the tealeaves are processed.

I will try to make this as clear as possible by explaining the process
of preparing the tea.

All of the Puerh tealeaves come from the same type of tree. Not to
get to scientific but all of the leaves in Puerh are Yunnan Big leaf
species.

The process of making the tea:

1. Un-cooked Puerh is picked, crumpled, dried, steamed and then
compressed.

2. Cooked Puerh is picked, crumpled, dried, watered down and placed in
a pile and let sit for a few days until the leaves turn dark brown and
then steamed and compressed.

The end-result for cooked Puerh is a tea that is smoother on the
tongue and ready to be drank right away or stored for aging.

The end-result for un-cooked Puerh is more natural/raw tasting tea
ready to be drank right away or stored for aging

They both taste wonderful and are both unique in taste. Cooked is
processed this way to speed up the aging taste so that it has a taste
like it has been aged for years. It is really the speedy version of a
naturally aged un-cooked Puerh.

Un-cooked is left alone so that it can naturally age and oxidize over
years, once you get a chance to taste aged un-cooked Puerh vs. a aged
or new cooked Puerh you will notice the real reason why people let
un-cooked sit for years. Whenever you rush a natural process like
aging, it will never be as good as the real thing.

Just like wine the longer it is stored the better. In addition, just
like wine the longer it is stored the more it cost.

Not all Ageing is good:

There is no shelf life for Puerh tea, again using wine as a reference
the older the better. However, you as a consumer need to be careful
of fake and poorly age Puerh. Fake and poorly aged Puerh go hand in
Hand because a fake aged Puerh is typically a poorly aged Puerh, let
me explain (that's a lot of Poor's on one sentence).

Many vendors around the world sell a fast aged Puerh and here is how
it is done. They start with an un-cooked Puerh the get it wet and let
it sit repeatedly, wet and dry repeatedly over 2-3 years. This tea
molds and is always stored in a damp/humid area. They then sell this
to distributors whom may or may not know how it was aged. This tea is
typically sold as a 15 or 20-year-old Puerh tea and the price for a
real aged tea like this can be very expensive. Not only is this
dishonest it is a waste of good tea because they typically use a good
grade un-cooked Puerh to really jack the prices up.

This way of aging the tea may not be such a bad idea but it is wrong
to sell it as 20-year-old Puerh when it is only 3 years old. In fact,
some people like the tea aged this way. However, they buy it knowing
it is a fake and will never pay an outrageous price for it.

I have been involved directly with major manufactures of tea and been
drinking for years. Tea is my business, life, passion and will be
around these message boards more often so if you have any questions
about tea feel free to ask.

P.S. Yixing teapots are my even bigger addiction and passion so I am
game for questions about this area also.

Sincerely,
mandsj