Do you love Pu'er tea? Do you know your way around drinking Pu'er tea? Do you know what level you've reached in your appreciation of Pu'er tea? Check out where you stand in the world of Pu'er tea!
First Stage: Elementary School Level
Elementary 1st Grade: You occasionally drink tea, regardless of whether it's raw or ripe, new or aged. You drink when you have it and don't mind if you don't.
Elementary 2nd Grade: You drink a small amount, can distinguish between raw and ripe but not necessarily new or aged. You mostly drink for hydration and find brewing to be too much of a hassle.
Elementary 3rd Grade: You occasionally drink some tea, easily distinguishing between raw and ripe, preferring only ripe tea for its health benefits. You prefer younger leaves and are hopeful for weight loss.
Second Stage: Novice Level
Elementary 4th Grade: You primarily drink ripe tea, paying attention to the age, pursuing flavor, and becoming adept at brewing. You need it for weight loss and cholesterol reduction.
Elementary 5th Grade: You start drinking raw tea, balancing it with ripe, sensitive to bitterness and astringency, increasing your tea intake, and focusing on pure leaf. Your sleep is not affected by tea consumption.
Elementary 6th Grade: You prefer raw tea, occasionally drinking ripe, able to discern bitterness and astringency, focusing on tree age, researching origins, and interested in ancient trees.
Third Stage: Divine Level
Junior High 1st Grade: You regularly drink raw tea, occasionally ripe, recognizing flavors, understanding regions, studying tea history, and obsessively fascinated with ancient trees.
Junior High 2nd Grade: You enjoy drinking raw tea, rarely ripe, seeking the oldest and most ancient, questioning what makes a good tea, beginning to feel lost amidst the chaos of the tea world.
Junior High 3rd Grade: You love drinking raw tea, appreciating aroma and aftertaste, water quality, and qi, starting to recognize different regions, feeling like you're caught in a maze of information.
Fourth Stage: Grandmaster Level
High School 1st Grade: You are skilled at drinking raw tea, searching for the right tea, meeting your own needs, beginning to sort through the confusion of regional differences, navigating the murky waters of the tea world.
High School 2nd Grade: You drink both raw and ripe tea, recognizing their different benefits, appreciating the charm of pure leaf from specific regions, and starting to discern the tricks and deceptions in the tea world.
High School 3rd Grade: You consider origin, season, production quality, storage environment, aging time, and brand value, all worthy of detailed analysis.
Fifth Stage: Super Grandmaster Level
Undergraduate Level: You understand the pros and cons of both raw and ripe tea, recognizing the unique qualities of pure leaf from different regions, seeking the perfect tea, and discerning the subtleties of tea culture.
Graduate Level: You drink tea daily, treating it like homework, seeing the unity of tea and Zen, cherishing and loving tea, finding a vast world within tea.
Doctoral Level: The path of Pu'er, the fruit of nirvana, transcends the presence or absence of tea; you have it within yourself. Good and bad teas reflect the myriad phenomena of the human world.
Tea enthusiasts, which stage are you at?