Taxonomy

According to the classification of the six major tea types, Hunan Dark Tea, Yunnan Pu'er Tea, and Guangxi Liu Bao Tea all fall under the category of dark tea. But what are their differences? In taxonomy, Pu'er belongs to the dark tea category, as both types are border teas, and most products are compressed teas that improve with age and have stronger medicinal properties over time. This is the basis for their classification. However, in terms of the principles of classification within the six major tea types, these two teas have significant differences in terms of their processing techniques and quality characteristics. Traditional Pu'er tea is known as sun-dried Yunnan green tea, while dark tea has a characteristic process called "wet-piling" during initial processing. Wet-piling is dominated by microbial metabolism. Although microbes also participate in the sun-drying process of Pu'er tea, the environments (temperature and humidity conditions) are different. The former promotes the growth and reproduction of beneficial microorganisms, while the latter, after being exposed to sunlight, has a short duration and rapid water evaporation, which relatively inhibits microbial activity. Because of this, the quality characteristics of the raw teas are clearly different. Raw Pu'er tea has a strong grassy…