A few months ago the Teasenz team decided to develop their own Pu Erh tea in the shape of a chocolate bar. Many things happened along the way, and a story that is worth sharing is that we met wonderful people that contributed to our great product. This blog is dedicated to Yimei and her daughter Yaoyao from the Dai minority group, who have provided us with their excellent eco-friendly Pu Erh tea wrapping paper.
Pu Erh tea wrapping paper expert – Yimei
The Pu Erh tea paper material is extracted from mulberry trees of which the bark is composed of very strong fibers that can be used for making high-quality paper. Yimei and her daughter Yaoyao fully made the Pu Erh tea packing paper by hand. The Pu Erh tea paper has not been bleached and no artificial additives have been used, resulting in 100% natural wrapping material.
paper mulberry tree for pu erh tea paper
So how did Yimei & Yaoyao made this paper? This is their answer:
Every July and August raw materials are peeled from the paper mulberry tree bark with a knife. The strips are then dried in the sun and then cooked for 10 hours in a pan.
Afterwards the strips are soaked and washed in river water to completely soften the tissue and wash any ash smell away from the cooking process. See image below:
Washing mulberry tree strips from the tree bark.
Right after that the softened stripes are chopped into pulp and poured on a stone bed to flatten it by hand.
Flatten and dry pu er tea paper
At last, the paper is dried in the sun to make it strong and ready to use Pu Erh packaging paper!
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