The diagram illustrates the stages involved in producing two varieties of Pu-erh tea, namely raw tea and ripe tea, from fresh leaves.
Overall, while both processes begin with identical preliminary steps, they diverge after the loose tea stage, with raw tea relying on aging whereas ripe tea is obtained through fermentation.
Initially, tea leaves are pan-fried and subsequently rolled before being dried naturally under the sun. At this point, the dried product becomes loose raw tea, which can follow two distinct paths. In the first sequence, the loose tea undergoes compression to form raw Pu-erh tea. This version is not consumed immediately but is left to mature through prolonged storage, ultimately resulting in aged raw Pu-erh tea.
By contrast, to produce ripe Pu-erh tea, the loose raw tea is first fermented. The fermented product becomes loose ripe tea, which is then compressed to yield ripe Pu-erh tea as the final stage.