Tea ends up in nuggets and in twisted desiccated things of tangy beauty. Cakes and compressed forms line shelves and delicate curled buds are unveiled out of boutique bags and wrapping. It ends up with names and tales scarcely believable at times.
Lifting the leaves so that they untangle and separate, post-frying.
There is a stage almost never mentioned in the processing of teas, and particularly in Puerh production. It is a simple stage that needs hands, a bit of time, and it absolutely requires a bent body over a steaming heap of newly fried limp tea leaves.
I call it “the sort” but it is much more. Freshly fried leaves, expunged of their humidity come in balls and clumps from their wok’s or frying pans and are dumped onto rattan woven racks. They are then kneaded like dough, of any last moisture which is purged onto these racks. Then comes this wonderful “sort”.
Separating leaves into smaller bundles, the sort becomes a thing of soft touches that need the hands. No machine can sort like the hands.
Palms up, the ‘sorter’ will lift and separate the leaves to allow oxygen through the still moist leaves. This will continue until all the leaves have been completely plied apart. The leaves are then ready to dry in the sun and shade. Puerh needs this stage, and with so much within the tea world, it is the hands that supply the magic rather than any clever machines.
A simple stage that affects little but affects everything. Without the separation humidity will continue to work on the leaves…with the ‘sort’ comes a reliance on the old ways – the good ways.
Separating leaves close up post frying…essential and yet something almost forgotten.
