Исследование: как время хранения шэн пуэра влияет на вкус и здоровье?
The View of Chinese Medicine and the Experience of the Tea Line
In Chinese tradition, tea is considered part of a system that influences the body's well-being. This is especially true for sheng pu'er: over time, it changes both in taste and in its effects on the body.
What is tea aging and why is it important?
Aging is the storage of tea over time under specific conditions (humidity, temperature, air), allowing chemical and microbiological processes to continue within the leaf. This is how sheng pu-erh is created.
Immediately after brewing, this is a more active tea: bright, dense, and sometimes sharp. Over time, it becomes softer and deeper.
Key changes that occur during aging:
• the content of catechins, responsible for bitterness and astringency, decreases
• new compounds are formed that influence taste and aroma. Polysaccharides provide sweetness and thickness, methoxyphenols provide that very aroma of old wood and prunes, and theabrownins impart color and velvety texture to the infusion.
• the structure of the infusion changes: due to the polymerization of catechins and the increased proportion of polysaccharides, the infusion loses its sharp astringency and becomes smooth, oily, and enveloping. The tea retains its flavor longer and releases it more evenly from steeping to steeping.
These processes directly affect not only the taste, but also the body’s perception of tea.
How Chinese Medicine Explains Changes
In this system, tea is assessed based on its properties and effects on the body.
Young sheng pu-erh tea is considered a "cold" product. This means it can cool the body, but it will be more demanding on the stomach.
During aging, the tea changes its properties: the harshness of the taste and the load on the stomach decrease.
Simply put, young sheng often produces a rougher feeling in the stomach, especially if consumed on an empty stomach or in large quantities. Aged sheng is more tolerable in this regard.
What modern research shows
Scientific data complements traditional views well.
When sheng pu'er tea is stored, changes occur in its chemical composition and microbiology. This affects how the tea interacts with the body.
Source: study "Decoding long-term aging of ripened Pu-erh tea: sensory equilibrium, metabolic pathways, and chemical markers" on PubMed
Some studies also suggest that aged sheng pu-erh tea may help regulate cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
The effect is evident if tea is drunk regularly and in adequate quantities, and not just from brewing it in bowls.
How does the taste change when brewing?
Young sheng (approximately 1–3 years old)—provided it's high-quality raw material from the trees—brews differently than is commonly believed. The leaf is very dense, so the first steeps can be somewhat shallow: the tea only begins to fully develop by the third or fourth steeping and lasts for a very long time, yielding ten, fifteen, or more steepings. Its main characteristic is its sharpness and boldness: the active ingredients are more pronounced, the flavor is more intense.
Aged sheng (approximately 5-10 years) produces a more even infusion, the bitterness disappears faster, the taste remains more stable, and does not lose depth from steeping to steeping.
Old sheng (10+ years) produces virtually no harshness, the taste is soft, with a long aftertaste and stable brewing behavior.
"Demanding brewing" means that the tea easily turns bitter if made incorrectly. This primarily applies to young sheng. Aged sheng is more forgiving in this regard.
How to navigate the Tea Line catalog
We don't view tea as a "process," but rather how it will change over time as we select raw materials, store them, and develop our product range.
As mentioned above, historically, sheng pu'er is divided into three stages: young, aged, and old. Tea Line represents all categories.
In the catalog it looks like this:
• Young shengs are teas from recent years (for example, 2022–2023). They have a sharper flavor and open up faster. It is also important that we work only with raw materials from trees.
Sheng pu'er 2022 Banpen dashu (sheng pu'er from large trees from Banpen)
• Aged shengs – approximately 2015–2018. They are easier to start with when getting acquainted with aging, because they are already softer, but retain the structure of the taste.
Sheng Pu'er 2015 "Daxueshan" brand "Kaishunhao" Juming plant, 357 g
• Old shengs – teas from before 2009 and older.
Sheng pu-erh 2009 "Laobanzhang" from the Banzhang Lao Zhai factory, 357 g of bingcha
These items are less common because they are less common on the market and are more expensive due to their long shelf life. When choosing, it's important to consider: until 2007–2009, there was virtually no grading of tea tree age on the market, and most teas from that era, especially those from reputable factories, contained a mixture of raw materials and included plantation tea.
Plantation tea requires the use of chemical fertilizers to increase yields—harvesting occurs 4-6 times a year, rather than just once or twice. For this reason, teas harvested before 2009 are not always pure enough, and their value among connoisseurs is significantly lower: for example, factory-produced Laobanzhang tea from 2005-2006 will cost less than similar teas harvested from 2011-2013, harvested from trees.
Another important point is market risks. Today, counterfeit old sheng teas are widespread: young tea is piled up in a similar way to shu pu-erh fermentation for about 10 days, after which it is pressed and labeled with any desired year of production. Distinguishing this tea from the real thing is extremely difficult.
At the same time, truly high-quality aged shengs with raw material from trees grown after 2010 have settled in private collections and are practically unavailable on the open market. Therefore, in terms of reliability and confidence in the product, the most sensible solution remains purchasing fresh cakes from trees and storing them yourself. In 10-15 years, you can find something from your collection that will no longer be available on the market.
Lao Ban Zhang 2015 from the private collection of our friend Wu Shuntie. He made it for himself, and only 6 of the 10 pancakes remain.
Choose tea for yourself depending on your preferences.
Storage conditions and what is important
Air that's too dry (humidity below 40-50%) slows or completely stops development. Under these conditions, tea is "preserved"—it doesn't spoil, but it also doesn't age. Even after five years, it will remain roughly as sharp as the day it was purchased. This is the kind of air you'd expect in a city apartment during the winter heating season.
Excessive humidity (above 75-80%) can lead to mold and off-odors. Tea leaves are hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from the air like a sponge. Too much moisture triggers processes that spoil the tea, not the ones that ensure fine aging: mustiness, dampness, and eventually mold.
The working solution is controlled humidity (around 60-70%) and access to air, allowing the tea to continue to develop without damage and stored in non-airtight packaging. These conditions allow natural fermentation processes to occur: the tea breathes without becoming damp, ages without rotting.
It's important to understand: the same year of production does not necessarily mean the same tea. Much depends on where and how it was stored. For example, tea from the south, Guangdong or Hong Kong, with the same aging period, often reveals a different flavor than tea stored in the north: after 10 years, the infusion is already dark red, with an aroma of camphor, wood, and medicinal herbs. However, the risk of defects is also higher when stored in humid conditions.
Therefore, when choosing aged sheng, it's important to consider not only the year of pressing but also where the batch was stored. If the description doesn't provide any information about storage conditions, it's time to check.
Why you shouldn't judge tea by its age alone
Tea is rated highly only when three factors are combined: the quality of the raw materials, the storage conditions, and how it behaves when brewed now.
Therefore, it is not only important how old the tea is, but also what kind of bowl it is in, how it is brewed and what taste it gives.
Summary: What changes in sheng pu-erh over time
Aging sheng pu-erh is a process in which the taste, aroma, and perception of tea by the body change over time.
Simply put, young sheng is sharper and bolder, with active ingredients that have a stronger effect on the body. Aged sheng is softer and calmer. Think of it this way: young sheng is like a tart green apple that makes your cheekbones ache, while aged sheng is like something baked, warm, and soft.
Based on Chinese medicine, tea's properties become more balanced. Scientifically speaking, its chemical composition and how it interacts with the body change.
Ultimately, the choice is simple: do you prefer a sharper, faster tea or a softer, more aged one?
At Tea Line, you can try both options and understand the difference through taste, not theory.