Following is a very short list of terms used to describe various aspects of Pu-Erh teas. Understanding some of this specific terminology will help you to become a more educated buyer of these teas, especially if you decide to invest in Pu-Erh for potential appreciation in value.

1. Plantation Tea - Plantation grown teas come from tea gardens that are completely managed by people as a cash crop. The plants are typically cropped to a certain size to make it easier for the tea pickers to pick from. The tea plants in the tea plantations are selected and propagated by cloning (cutting and grafting, not some sort of insidious genetic modification!) the most desirable wild tea plants that come from the region.
   
   
2. Abandoned Plantation Tea- Some tea gardens in Yunnan were abandoned for various reasons during the period of immense upheaval in the last 100 years or so. These gardens are being reclaimed today and used for commercial production, but are being basically left alone to remain in their "semi-wild" state because of the value attributed to wild tea in the marketplace.
   
   
3. Wild Arbor Tea- Modern Wild Arbor teas literally come from "wild" tea trees that aren't cultivated by humans. These "Wild" tea trees were most likely started by people many years ago by taking cuttings from the desirable truly wild tea trees, but have been allowed to grow for sometimes hundreds of years without interference from people except for plucking. These trees are varietals of the Camellia Sinensis plant which are unique to Yunnan province. The amount of tea that is picked from these trees is limited, so the price that true wild arbor tea commands tends to be much higher than the teas from commercially cultivated Pu-erh plants.
   
   
4. Mao Cha - Literally translates as "semi-finished tea." It is the term given to the Pu-Erh tea leaves after they have been processed and dried. Mao Cha is the raw material used by the tea masters at the Pu-Erh factories to blend the various recipes for finished products.
   
   
5. Leaf Grade - In the context of Pu-Erh, the grade of the tea leaf basically corresponds to the size and maturity of the tea leaves used in a finished tea. The leaves are sorted into grades 1 through 10. Grade 1 leaves are the smallest and youngest, while grade 10 leaves are the largest and oldest. The grade of the leaf is not indication of the quality of flavor of the steeped tea. It is merely a description of the physical characteristics of the materials in the finished product.
   
   
6. Trading and Batch Codes - Trading and Batch codes- During China's period of nationalized industry, the three tea factories that produced Pu-Erh tea were the Menghai Tea Factory, the Kunming Tea Factory, and the Xiaguan Tea Factory. Sometime in the 1970's the government decided that the factories needed to have codes to identify the different teas being produced by the three factories. The trading and batch code system was the result of this decision. The codes consist of 4 digits for the trading code and a 3 digit suffix for the batch code (ex: 8582-801). The first two digits in the trading code stand for the year that the recipe for that product was developed, e.g. 85 for 1985. The third digit represents the grade of the leaf used, and the last digit stands for the factory that produced the cake. If the 4th digit is a 1, it came from Kunming Tea Factory, if it is a 2 the tea was produced at the Menghai Tea Factory, and a 3 came from Xiaguan. The batch code is pretty simple. The first digit in the code is the year of production, and the last two digits correspond to the batches of this recipe for that year. So, 8582-801 would mean that the recipe for the tea was developed in 1985 using grade 8 leaves at the Menghai Tea factory, and it was batch 1 of this recipe produced in 2008. Since the tea industry was de-nationalized in 1996, many more tea factories have opened than the three national factories. Most of these new factories use their own internal system of codes on their wrapper, which makes most of what you just read and tried to understand basically useless in today's Pu-Erh marketplace, unless you are dealing in the very confusing world of vintage teas.
   
   
7. Bing Cha - Translates as "(Round) Cake Tea." This round disc shape is the most common form of compressed Pu-Erh tea. They traditionally weigh 357 grams, although factories now make Bings of almost any size and weight. These are traditionally compressed by being wrapped in cloth, wrapped tightly, and placed in a very heavy stone mold. The traditional Bing Cha is easy to spot because of the rounded edges and the round indentation left on the back of the tea cake by the twists in the cloth compression bag. Modern production techniques use different pressing systems than the stone molds, but many of the most highly prized teas are still compressed using this ancient technology. Some Bing Chas do not have a round hollow in the back and have very straight, sharp edges which also make them easy to spot.. These teas are compressed without the cloth compression bag in metal molds using mechanical pressure.
   
   
8. Tong - Translates as "bamboo tube," but typically refers to a stack of 7 Bing Chas that have been wrapped in bamboo bark for shipment.
   
   
9. Tuo Cha - This term doesn't have a literal translation, but refers to a bowl shaped or bird's nest shaped compressed tea. These typically weigh 100 or 250 grams, but are also manufactured in many different sizes and weights.
   
   
10. Zhuan Cha - Translates as "Brick Tea." Very simply, it is a rectangular or square compressed tea shape usually weighing 250 grams. This shape is most common for teas shipped to Tibet and other outlying regions.

Sheng (Raw) Pu-Erh Tea Production Method

Shu (Ripe) Pu-Erh Tea Production Method