The diagram illustrates the production of Pu-erh Ripe tea and Vintage Pu-erh Raw tea.
Overall, both products require five steps to turn the leaves into tea, and they share the first three preparation stages. After the dehydration stage, the dried leaves are separated into different production, resulting in two outcomes.
Firstly, the leaves collected are heated in a pan to inactivate Enzymes before being rolled up. Secondly, the product is left out in the open to dry using the sun’s high temperature. Resulting in this stage is loose raw tea, which is then kept the same or turned into a compressed state.
If the process continues with loose raw tea, mold is added to loose raw tea for it to ferment and ripen. While that happens, compressed raw tea goes through the final storage stage to age the tea. As a result, loose raw tea ends up becoming Pu-erh Ripe tea while compressed raw tea is developed into Vintage Pu-erh Raw tea.
