How to brew pu-erh tea

Pu-erh: Yunnan's aged and fermented tea, raw or ripe, usually pressed into cakes. The general method first, then the named teas, each with its own temperature and time.

A painting of a round dark cake of pressed tea half out of its paper wrapper, a metal pick and a cup of dark red tea on a desk, a green-shaded lamp and antlers behind

Guide 11 Oct 2026

How to brew pu-erh

Pu-erh is Yunnan's aged and fermented tea, usually pressed into cakes. Lever off a piece, rinse it, and brew it in just-boiled water in short, repeated steeps — or in a mug, topped up all day. Raw (sheng) and ripe (shou), and how to tell them apart.

A painting of a dark ball of pressed tea, its white wrapper opened like petals and twisted at the top with a gold tie, beside a white lidded cup and a glass cup of amber tea on a round mahogany table, a fire and an oxblood leather chair behind

Guide 11 Oct 2026

How to brew a pu-erh ball

A pu-erh tea ball is a single serving of raw tea pressed hard into a sphere — xiao qiu, a "small ball", in Chinese. Rinse it, give it a long first steep while it opens, then shorter ones: the water, ratios and times from the shops that sell them.