Rice Scent Aged Puerh

Rice Scent Aged Puerh | 糯香茶化石
 
 Tasting notes: Congee, pandan, earthy
 Origin: Menghai, Yunnan, China
 Cultivar: 大葉種 Daye Zhong (Puerh Assamica)
 Elevation: 1400m
 Oxidation: ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿

A firm favourite at Plantation Tearoom, our Rice Scent Aged Puerh is a comforting, warming tea that makes you feel at home, wherever you are. It is steamed with an indigenous ‘Sweet Rice Leaf’ plant to give it a distinctive rice flavour, like congee. As a fermented tea, it is good for warming the stomach and aiding digestion. 

Rice Scent Aged Puerh is a great introduction to Ripe Puerh tea for those who are not used to its earthy flavour. It is much more mellow, because it is actually made of ‘tea fossil’ (老茶頭 lao cha tou) and the pellets don’t unfurl when brewed.

The tea is fermented in a process called wet-piling (渥堆), where the tea leaves are left in humid conditions for microbes to do their work. With repeated stirring, the tea’s innate collagen sticks the leaves together in irregular shapes. The best pieces are selected then pressed into balls, cut into even pellet shapes and polished. 

Our Rice Sent Aged Puerh is made from 100-year old tea trees in the Menghai region of Yunnan. The ‘Sweet Rice Leaf’ (糯米葉) plant grows in the tropical rainforests of Mengla in Xishuangbanna. When the leaves of this plant are crushed, a glutinous rice scent is released. The tea is steamed with the leaves of this plant to achieve its homey rice flavour.