# Sheng pu-erh (生普洱, shēng pǔ'ěr)

Sheng pu-erh (生普洱) is "raw" pu-erh from Yunnan: tea that, after kill-green and sun-drying, is pressed and left to mature naturally. Over the years its taste shifts from sharp and grassy to deep and sweet.

Sheng — "raw," "living" — is pu-erh in its original, ancient form. The large leaf of Yunnan tea trees goes through sha qing in the wok, rolling, and drying in the sun; the resulting mao cha is pressed into cakes, bricks, or tuo. Then the most interesting part begins: the tea is not preserved but keeps slowly changing under the action of enzymes and microorganisms.

Young sheng is a tea of the wood element in spirit: sharp, bitter-floral, with bright acidity and a powerful hui gan. After ten to fifteen years of proper storage it darkens, the bitterness recedes, and honey, dried fruit, and forest-after-rain notes appear. It is precisely this capacity for transformation that made sheng an object of collecting: cakes from famous villages — Yiwu, Bingdao, Lao Banzhang — are prized like wine from renowned vineyards, and here the concept of terroir comes into full force.

The practitioner must not confuse sheng with shu: shu pu-erh undergoes accelerated fermentation via wo dui and imitates maturity, while sheng reaches it on its own. Brew young sheng with slightly cooled water and short infusions — boiling water and long steeping will pull out a harsh bitterness. And don't chase old cakes right away: it is easier to understand sheng's evolution by starting with a young and honest one.

Source: https://www.dao-cha.info/en/glossary/sheng-puer