Hmmm, this is such a grey area maybe we should call it grey tea.

It is my understanding that teas fermented like this are all
considered "black" teas, much like Liu An or the Liu Bao you mentioned
elsewhere. However it seems that over time Puer has taken a life of
its own. Especially in the Western world where most people dont even
know what a true "black" tea is. Another reason that I think puer has
evolved into its own gendre is the invention of the ripening process
in the early 70s. Then you introduced "black puer" which sort of made
things confusing. The other puer was called green puer. How can green
puer be a black tea? Before black puer was invented puer was simply
called puer not black or green. Back then it was not illogical to
classify plain puer as a black tea because of its fermentation style.

All of this is just conjecture. I have read contradicting information
in many well known authorative texts.

Mike


On 4 May 2005 21:10:06 -0700, "Mydnight" > wrote:

>I know 'hei' and 'hong'. The reason I made this post was because many
>people are not calling it hei cha any longer and just referring to it
>as it's own category because it is quite different than black tea.
>
>The sources I looked at were some tea books; some old and some new. I
>think the Chinese just refer to it as hei cha out of a lack of a better
>explanation.
>
>Any comments, Mike?

Mike Petro
http://www.pu-erh.net
"In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed."
Samuel Johnson, 1775, upon finishing his dictionary.