Funky, fermented beverages are multiplying on local menus, bar counters and store shelves around town. From kombucha to kefir, tepache to mead, natural wine to probiotic sodas, everything cultured, fizzy-fied and aged is old-but-new again.
But there's another ancient drink that's seeing some renewed interest: pu'er and pu'er-style dark teas. These teas, also known as aged, vintage or post-fermented teas, are made from leaves that have undergone microbial fermentation. It's considered one of the five basic categories of teas in addition to black, green, oolong and white.
This level of tea talk can get pretty geeky pretty quickly, but if you're already into funky stuff, with knowledge of composting, starters and "mothers," then consider yourself cultured.
"People will say, fermented tea, well that's strange," says Kyle Stewart of The Cultured Cup, a longtime tea shop in Farmers Branch that also provides tea to multiple restaurants around town, like Jeng Chi and Matt McCallister's Homewood. "Well, what about cheese and what about beer? It's not that strange."
But you also don't need to know about anaerobic environments or metagenomic sequencing to enjoy a cup. Or a whole pot. Pamela Miller of Dallas-based Zakti, which provides loose-leaf and specialty teas to some area restaurants like The French Room at the Adolphus Hotel, says pu'ers are what first made her fall in love with tea. "The fermenting just adds a whole other dimension," she says.
And if you're a coffee drinker who wants to transition to tea, dark teas can be a good gateway. Some are robust and hearty but offer less of a caffeine jolt. "It's a more cerebral energy," Miller says.
'A national obsession'
Fermented tea leaves reportedly started as a happy accident, with teas transported in travel-friendly pressed cakes through the humid, mountainous regions of Tea Horse Road, China's ancient trade route to Tibet. The moisture created a breeding ground for microbes, which turned the leaves into something complex, earthy, smoky and entirely alluring and sought-after.
Teas with the designated name "pu'er" can only come from Yunnan province in China and are a protected origin product similar to Champagne from France. It's become known as the Helen of Troy of teas, a cultlike "national obsession in China" that can command steep prices that only collectors and true tea geeks would probably shell out.
But other Chinese regions as well as other tea-producing countries such as Vietnam and Laos have been dipping their toes in the dark tea process for some time. The results are just as enjoyable, probably even more so for the casual tea drinker, and can be much more affordable.
Deep Ellum-based Rakkasan Tea Company, which imports rare loose-leaf tea from post-conflict countries, just added two young dark teas to the lineup. CEO and combat veteran Brandon Friedman, who learned to love tea when he was serving overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, says he likes the earthier flavors of the dark teas, which have been slowly aged at 8 and 3 months. The Sông Lô Dark is made from leaves harvested from centuries-old wild tea trees in Vietnam's Hà Giang province, just across the border from China. Phou San Mountain Dark, from Laos, is hand-rolled and has a lighter, sweeter flavor because of its relative youth.
La La Land Kind Cafe in East Dallas, which has an impressive specialty tea menu in addition to coffee, carries a Liu Bao heicha (a lesser-known sister of pu'er tea), which comes from the Liubao township in China. The shop sources it from Somage Fine Foods, and it's smooth and musky with notes of sweet plum.
Dark teas are an experience in themselves, but they can pair well with food, too. Zakti carries several varieties of pu'ers and dark teas, and their Moonlight Beauty raw pu'er is on the menu at The French Room. General manager Victor Rojas says it's the perfect tea for transitioning between the tea sandwich and scone courses. "It's delicate but stands up to a lot of different foods," he says.
Forms of fermentation
Dark teas can be aged naturally, known as "raw" or sheng style, or rapidly ripened, known as "cooked" or shou style. The rapidly ripened can be less expensive and tasty, but will "never have the complexity of the slowly aged," Stewart says. While some raw dark teas are as young as a few months, like the ones from Rakkasan, other sheng-style pu'ers can be more than 100 years old.
"The attraction to dark teas is clearly rooted in one aspect of healthfulness," says Peter Goggi, president of the Tea Association of the USA. "Tea naturally has healthful flavonoids, and dark tea is kind of looked at as being more preferred because it has microbes on it." Miller of Zakti says she likes to have a small cup of dark tea at bedtime or after dinner because it helps to settle the stomach. It's especially helpful if you've eaten fatty foods, which is why Tibetans who lived in a cold, high-altitude climate and ate mostly meat and dairy craved it so much. They even add yak butter and salt to their pu'er to create a drink called po cha, which was the inspiration for Bulletproof Coffee.
The fermentation also changes the appearance of the leaf, Goggi says. "Different styles are driven by either the local culture and craftsmanship and driven to some extent by consumer liking," he says.
Many pu'er and dark teas come packed in bricks or disks of varying sizes. With the larger bricks, you can chisel off a serving or two with a special pu'er knife, which looks like a tiny letter opener or ice pick. But some teas come in smaller, one-serving coins, and some are available in loose-leaf form.
Sip and savor
The long-aged sheng pu'ers are really a connoisseur's tea, Miller says. "You have to make time to sip and enjoy them," she says. "They are so fragile and their taste is so delicate, you have to drink them with intention."
Dark tea leaves are traditionally rinsed before steeping, just for a few seconds in hot water before discarding the water. After that, dark teas can be steeped 30 seconds to 3 minutes depending on the tea and your taste, and can be steeped multiple times.
At The Cultured Cup, Stewart carries a 2003 sheng pu'er in a disk about the size of a dinner plate. It's dark and earthy with a "big mouthfeel," Stewart says. He steeps it three times, and says the complexity produces hui gan, or "returning sweetness," a cooling, tingly sensation in the back of the mouth on the finish. Typically, the older the tea and the longer it's been fermenting, the softer the flavor, the more complex the experience, and the more likely you are to experience "the gan."
Raw, slowly aged dark teas can also continue to ripen and age after you purchase them, if the conditions are right, Miller says - not too hot or too humid. Zakti often puts the origin year on dark teas and markets them as gifts for anniversaries.
Cooked dark teas, on the other hand, which have been rapidly ripened in a compostlike process, can be accessible and approachable. Miller loves the earthiness and depth of these shou teas, which she likes to mix into dark cocktails, like a Manhattan with rye whisky.
Stewart carries several other shou-style pu'ers and dark teas at his store, including a "sticky rice" pu'er, which is on the menu at Homewood. It's a rapidly ripened pu'er that comes in a tiny, cup-shaped "bird's nest" disk, called tuo cha. It's blended with a Chinese herb called nuo mi xiang, which imparts the rice flavor.
The Cultured Cup also carries an "ebony rose" dark tea blended with rose petals, which comes packed in the shape of a heart. Stewart says it's popular with afternoon teas. There's also a dark chocolate pu'er, a rich, very flavorful tea that you can "steep forever," he says. It's currently on the menu at Sachet restaurant in Dallas and works well as a dessert tea with milk and sugar.
There's something in the world of dark teas for pretty much anyone, from chocolate-flavored cooked teas to raw young teas to decades-old disks that some people store in "pumidors" (humidors specifically designed for pu'ers). There are plenty of opportunities to geek out, obsess, enthuse.
"People really get into it," Stewart says. "I'm interested but I'm not going that far yet. I just want to be able to have good ones that people will enjoy."
Where to buy
The Cultured Cup: Prices range from $11 for 2 ounces for the dark chocolate pu'er to $29.95 for a 7-ounce brick of rapidly ripened pu'er. 13731 Omega Road, Farmers Branch, or online at theculturedcup.com.
Zakti: Several varieties of shou and sheng style pu'ers and dark teas that range in price from $8 for 2 ounces to $48 for a disk of 100 servings, at zakti.com or their tasting room at Tyler Station, 1300 S. Polk Street, Dallas.
Rakkasan Tea Company: Phou San Mountain Dark, $12.99 for 1 ounce; Sông Lô Dark, $17.99 for 1 ounce. Find them at Coppell Farmers Market on Saturdays or at rakkasantea.com.
