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Chinese Pu'er Loose Leaf Pu'er Tea

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$12.00
$0.00 $12.00
$0.40 per cup
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Style

An organically grown and beautifully crafted ripe or shu pu'er - from the forests of Yunnan, China. This high grade tea has been left as a whole leaf, not compressed into cake.

Also known by a myriad of different spellings - puer, pu'erh, puer, puerh, pu-er, and pu-erh are all used.

Tasting Notes

The texture is silky, like well-water and the flavour is deep, earthy, with notes of autumn leaves and a wonderful underlying sweetness.

Origin

Menglian County, Yunnan, China

Cost Per Cup

$0.40 per cup based on 2.5g of tea per 150ml of water and 3 infusions.
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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 2g of tea per 150ml of water.

  • Temperature

    For the optimum infusion use 90°C water.

  • Time

    Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly. Best enjoyed without milk.

  • Infusions

    You can infuse this tea at least three times. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

1 3

More infusion tips

How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

Pu'er tea is traditionally a very slow fermentation of a partly oxidised "dark" tea that can take decades to reach maturity and cost many thousands of pounds. This ripe pu'er has first been "wet-pilled" where it undergoes an initial wet fermentation for 45 days to begin the process. This allows the tea to reach a smoothness and delicacy of a much older "raw" pu'er. It is also vastly more affordable.

Some very old pu'ers that date back to before Chairman Mao's Revolution are extremely valuable. They can be traded for eye-watering sums due to their rarity and the history they belong to - much like vintage champagnes. An old bottle of champagne may be worth a king's ransom and then disappoint as soon as it is opened. It may be corked or spoilt. Its value is not determined on the quality of the liquid inside but on the age of the bottle. The same is sometimes true of pu'er. Once an old pu'er cake has been unwrapped, broken and the tea infused - it might not be the most delicious tea despite its price - and its value is then lost, so they are often more traded than drunk.

This high grade pu'er comes from La Fu Da Hei Shan, located in the deep forests of the China-Myanmar border, in Yunnan's Menglian County.

This area is part of the largest and best-preserved primary forest ecosystem along the Pu'er border, covering over 58 square kilometers.

Is loose leaf pu'er tea better than a cake or brick (bing cha)?

The quality of the leaf and the craftmanship of the farmer is what really determines to best flavour of any tea. The origin of pressing pu'er into a cake was for efficient transportation and storage from Yunnan. It had nothing to do with flavour.

Whole leaf ages faster and infuses better and more evenly in the pot. For many they are considered superior.

One of the reasons traders have preferred pressed disks of pu'er to loose leaf tea is that age statements can be pressed into the tea. But the papers in and around the tea are not always genuine. And large leaves on the outside of cakes do not always reflect the quality of the leaf inside. We always choose our teas directly from the farm based on the best flavour, whether it is a cake or leaf.

Perhaps the main advantage of buying loose leaf pu'er over a cake, is that you can buy less to see if the flavour profile is your cup of tea. But all forms of pu'er can be equally delicious - just different.

Shipping, delivery & more...

Canada Shipping Information

🚨CANADA POST STRIKE UPDATE 22/10/2025 🚨

Canada Tracked Delivery and Canada Express Tracked Delivery (both free and paid versions) have been re-enabled following the move to rotating strikes by the CUPW. Please see our delivery page for more information

Canada Tracked Delivery from CAN$12

FREE Canada Tracked Delivery when you spend CAN$80 or more

Canada Express Tracked Delivery from CAN$14

FREE Canada Express Tracked Delivery when you spend CAN$100 or more

Canada Express Courier Delivery from CAN$52

Availability of rates depends on location and order weight. For a complete overview of our shipping rates please see our delivery page. Prices displayed at the checkout are based on live currency exchange rates and may differ slightly from the listed price.

Returns

The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any product you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances, we will give you a full refund of the item's cost, excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us.** Customers in the UK & European Union have statutory rights not affected by this guarantee, but any bags of tea must remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within 30 days of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

**We will endeavour to ask for pictures where possible - but if you have changed your mind and are outside of any statutory rights time period, return postage is payable by you.

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