When was Pu-erh tea discovered?

Pu-erh tea has a long history dating back several centuries. It is believed to have originated in the Yunnan province of China during the Eastern Han Dynasty, which spanned from 25 to 220 CE. The tea's name comes from the Pu'er County in Yunnan, which was an important trading post for tea during ancient times.

The discovery of tea took place in Yunnan

The unique fermentation process that characterizes pu-erh tea likely developed over time as a method of preserving and aging tea leaves for trade and transportation along the ancient tea horse road. This road was a network of routes used for trading tea, mainly from Yunnan to Tibet and other regions.

Pu-erh tea comes in two main categories:

• raw (sheng)
  

• and ripe (shou or cooked/fermented)

Raw pu-erh undergoes a natural aging process over time, while ripe pu-erh undergoes an accelerated fermentation process. Both types have contributed to the rich history and cultural significance of pu-erh tea in Chinese tea traditions.

Time Out of Mind - Why Making Time for Tea has the power to change your life?

Making Time for Tea

Purity is the unifying quality of the tea process. This is generally more of a search than an attainment, highlighted by shining moments of semi-perfection. These moments stand outside of time, either slowing it down or seemingly stopping it altogether. These phenomena can be accounted for in terms of brain wave function, as the mind passes through beta, to alpha, into delta and theta states. Different terms speak to different modalities.They are little more than safety blankets for the mind. Genuine experience leaves little doubt and generally tosses out the need for labels, badges, sashes, words, or other forms of ornamentation. Making sense of such experience comes after the fact and simply functions as road map for recovery of the event.

The concept of purity goes beyond cleanliness of leaves, of tea ware and of space; though it very often begins there. The purity of the leaf very often leads to a refinement of the tea space, and a well organized, tidy tea space often increases the appetite for teas that are pure, subtle, and fine. The search for pure tea, and pure moments within the tea process, is a continual process of renewal.

Each golden moment comes and goes and must be sought out anew, a-fresh in each new moment. By cultivating these moments and stringing them together, the perception of time and its effect on us — both physically and cognitively — are adjusted and broadened to the point that we attain to a new consciousness through the practice of tea.

Whether or not perfection is possible is open to debate; though having seen it in others, I believe it achievable for myself. But, again, the pursuit — the game — is more satisfying that the achievement. Tea, like meditation, is a process by which we cultivate higher states of consciousness.

Breakthroughs may happen suddenly or gradually, though they do ultimately manifest — in time. It is then seen that through time we are able to transcend it — to exist above and beyond it.

The fact that these experiences can be arrived at through tea (or gardening, pottery, etc.) seems far fetched to some. Then again so did the concept of wifi to denizens of the 1970’s… Athletes call this state the zone. To them I couch tea in terms of a performance enhancer — not a drug per se, anymore than an apple can be seen as a drug, or a peach.

Athletes, of any sort, are often quicker to notice changes in the body — the effects of sleep; the effects of diet. Mindfulness practitioners at times try to separate consciousness (the spiritual) from the physical body; though physical prowess is very often the vehicle to so-called mystical attainment (or simply being awake to the acolyte).

Yoga, for example, prescribes the asanas as prerequisite for the practice of meditation; Bodhi Dharma prescribed qigong and tea. Written above the door in the tea house where I first studied vintage tea was the sentence:

’The purification of the spirit begins with the purification of the body’

Tea can accelerate and enhance the upgrading of the physical vehicle. Clean tea is the minimum standard. It need not necessarily be expensive but it must be pure. Consuming the alternative is akin to washing ones boots in mud — not overly effective. The result of the consistent adherence to this diet of good tea, making adjustments as we go, is all but indescribable to all but those who have realized it for themselves — either through tea or through some other modality.

Many people have suggested to me over the years that they have no time for tea; for meditation. While I don’t doubt they feel that way, the process of tea ritual is truly one of taking time to make time — to sharpen the axe before felling the tree. In this way we become commander of fate instead of subservient to it. It is a process affirmed time and again in all the great disciplines of the ancient-world — that by practicing moving slowly we may come to move at the speed of the mind; the infinite.

Pu-Erh Tea Brick -- 2015

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What gongfu tea is & is not

Gongfu tea is not a style of tea brewing. It appears to be, and is often referred to as such. This, however, does not account for the manifold variations which arise according to personal taste and temperament. The individual is, ultimately, the most important factor in the art of tea brewing. Kung fu (gong fu), in the context of Kung fu tea, is equally solely referring to the invisible and indivisible power that the tea brewer can direct into the tea broth.

Those who fail to manifest this, or who are playing coy, will say it is simply a certain arrangement of cups, or that it is the use of small tea pot… Such a perspective is what is taken in kungfu circles — be they martial or artistic — as biao main (表面) gong fu — merely superficial skill.