Bavantea’s Making Ripe Puer Diary

Diary of fermenting the first batch of ripe tea at Bavantea Ha Giang factory, August 2024

1)09/08:

– Raw materials 190kg of raw tea, started fermenting the pile at 3pm

– Pile 1: 110kg of tea ~ 37kg of H2O

– Pile 2: 80kg of tea ~ 25kg of H20

– Mix the 2 piles into the highest pile possible a nd then ferment again

2)11/08

– Stir the tea for the first time at 10am (fermenting for ~42h), the surface of the tea pile has white mold, the temperature in the tea pile is 48 degrees

– Stir and add 5kg of water, stir well and stir the pile again

3)12/08

– 14h measure the temperature of the tea pile 52 degrees

4)13/08: Stir for the second time at 14h

5)15/08: the temperature in the tea pile is ~ 55 degree

6)16/08: 3rd stir

7)18/08: 4th stir, temperature in tea pile 60 degrees, tea is sticky

8)20/08: 10am temperature in tea pile 58 degrees. The smell of rice wine is stronger and tea starts to turn brown. 5th stir

9)21/08: 8am temperature in tea pile 58 degrees, 18pm temperature in tea pile 57 degrees.

10)22/08: 6th stir, water 6kg of water, not yet loose enough, there are still many clumps of tea.

11)28/08: 8th turning

12)29/08: tea pile temperature 46.5 degrees

13)31/08 (day 22): make beds, loosen thoroughly, let dry naturally

14)08/10: boxed, 13 boxes of 12kg + 1 box of 8kg = 164kg, 26kg ~ 15% loss

15)16/11: test again after more than a month of boxed, tea is fragrant, sweet, smooth, herbal smell, almost no smell of damp soil, rotten wood smell…

#pilefermenting #ripepuerh #shoucha #bavantea #smallbatch