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Serving tea is an act of hospitality tea is given as a betrothal gift during wedding negotiations, and offered to ancestors during religious rituals. The Chinese were the first people in the world to domesticate tea-producing Camellia sinensis plants and begin producing, drinking and trading tea. In fact, pu'er is named after a Yunnan town that was a center for trade in the early 17th century, and it's also one of the few teas that the Chinese government has designated as a protected-origin product.īut pu'er is more than a beverage - it's a distillation of a certain aspect of Chinese culture, according to Jinghong Zhang, a lecturer at Yunnan University and author of Pu'er Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic. Pu'er's essence apparently embodies the idealized Shangri-La that is remote Yunnan, with its rich variety of landscapes (from jungles to snow-capped mountains) and people (more than half of China's ethnic minorities live here).
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assamica, and allowed to ferment over weeks, months, years or even decades. To be considered true pu'er, the leaves must be grown in Yunnan Province, dried in the sun, come from the plant Camellia sinensis var. "Everyone can point to it and say, there it is, that's this remarkable thing." "It's a pu'er with near totemic status," says Falkowitz. The 88 Qingbing is a portion of a production run of Menghai Factory pu'er that was produced between 19, and aged in dry storage by a specialist named Vesper Chan. Pu'er is routinely compressed into cakes, called bings, and wrapped in paper printed with the name of the tea.
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At its best, Falkowitz says, pu'er provides a kind of "bodily revelation, with a finish that lasts for hours." That fermentation can produce a wide array of complex flavors – from the poorly processed and moldy (like Falkowitz's first taste) to a palate so desirable that some pu'er has commanded a higher price per gram than silver. Most teas, unlike pu'er, do not undergo fermentation with bacteria and yeasts. And though we sometimes think of tea as fermented, in truth, black and oolong teas oxidize when they are exposed to air. Though we most often see tea ( camellia sinensis) in the shape of neat ornamental bushes with small leaves, these can grow into trees with large leaves if left alone, and the assamica variety that produces pu'er grows particularly large. The more recently invented Shu Pu'er (right) is piled into a moist mass and fermented far more quickly. We believe a tiny change can make a big difference.Traditional Sheng Pu'er (left), is allowed to naturally ferment and mature in flavor over time. We are working to keep Rapt as sustainable as possible - above and beyond eliminating wasteful paper wrapping - by working with local production, using scrap fabric and remnant yarn for our one-of-a-kind Rapt accents, and also picking up and dropping off whenever possible to reduce our carbon footprint. We want to make an heirloom gift wrap sheet you can pass on to family and friends.
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In sourcing our fabrics, it is also important that our Rapt sheets have the right feel, the right hand, the right look, and the right detailing. Rapt is producing locally and dedicated to finding deadstock, reclaimed and remnant fabrics, yarns and ribbons whenever possible. Rapt fabric gift wrap is a sustainable solution to single-use gift wrap.