The origin of microorganisms in pchu-er.
With a little delay I respond to one
of my reader. He wrote comment
on my
article
about oxidation, fermentation and maturing
of tea. The reader sa
id that, according
to his opinion, during fermentation of shu pchu-er the mao cha
is artificially inoculated
by
microorganisms. On the other hand in my article I claim that the
microorganisms, which are needed for fermentation, are presented on
the leaves from the nature. The reader quotes
English
article from
Wikipedia.
Exactly these
sentences about shu:
"The bacterial and fungal cultures found in
the fermenting piles were found to vary widely from factory to
factory throughout Yunnan, consisting of multiple strains of
Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., yeasts, and a wide range of other
microflora. Control over the multiple variables in the ripening
process, particularly humidity and the growth of Aspergillus spp., is
key in producing ripened pu'er of high quality."
However in these sentences
there isn‘t any mention about inoculation
of tea with anything and, according to my
opinion, artificial inoculation even doesn‘t
ensue from these sentences. We could just found
that microorganisms vary from factory to factory. According to
me, the author wanted to highlight
geographical differences rather than
manufacturing differences. Yunnan is a
very large area and therefore we can presume that composition
of microflora in different part of this province will be different.
Microorganisms of the tea leaves can vary
based on the altitude of plantation, orientation of the slope of the
tea garden, quantity of precipitation, already mentioned
geographical location and surely on others variables. I admit, that
the sentences have not been written clearly
and both interpretations are possible. Authors
of the article on Wikipedia quote as a source scientifical study:
Isolation and Identification of Aspergillus Species from the Post
Fermentative Process of Pu-Er Ripe Tea.
It wasn‘t easy to find
out this study. It is not available
on the Web of Knowledge. After
some time I had a bit of luck. I found the
study but it is written in Chinese and i don‘t
speak this language. Only the abstract is
written in English and it consists of four
sentences. From these sentences
the number three is important: „It
is noticed that the compositions of fungus flora in the post
fermentative process of different Pu-Er ripe tea produced from
different places were different.“
I suppose that only this one sentence was the main source for the
author of the article on the Wikipedia. I tried to translate this
study with a help by
Google Translator. But after translation of the
first sentence, I found out that
this programme is not capable of
translation from Chinese to Czech or English properly.
The Translation was very bad but I got rough summary what the study
is all about. And then another problem
appeared. The second page of the study was
inserted as a picture so I wasn‘t able to
copy it‘s text for translation. The
introduction of the study describes manufacture of pchu-er and
results of some previous studies. Then the
founded microorganisms, mainly fungi (molds), are described. At the
end there is a description of what fungi (molds) were found in
concrete teas from different regions. I
think that authors connected the presence
of different fungi with environment (f. e. tropics and so on) not
with processing. They didn‘t
mention artificially inoculation. Because of bad translation, it
is all I can say about the study.
 |
Can someone help me with translation?
Source: Isolation and Identification of Aspergillus
Species from the Post Fermentative Process of Pu-Er Ripe Tea,
Chen Keke, et al., Acta Botanica Yunannica. (28)2, 2006. |
Robert J. Heiss is the
author of the article Oxidation and Fermentation in Tea Manufacture.
This article was published in The Leaf Magazine and it is also about
origin of microorganisms in pchu-er. The author says that bacteria
(but i think that word microorganisms is more accurate) which are
needed for the process of fermantation can be found:
on the surface of the leaves of old tea trees
that grow in the original forests in Xishuangbanna. Here I suppose
that microorganisms can be found also on the leaves of plantation
tea trees, not only on old trees in forests.
in controlled area, where the ma ocha is
temporarly stored before compression to sheng pchu-er,
in the piles of mao cha during fermantation of
shu pchu-er,
in the humid environment, where the mao cha is
steamed before compression to sheng pchu-er,
in smaller scale in the rooms that are devoted
to maturing of pchu-er.
We can deduce that, to the places marked 2 till 5,
the microorganisms were transfered on the surface of the leaves. The
author also wrote:
„During the fermentation phase of
Puerh manufacture, several important factors must coalesce. Following
the harvest of the appropriate leaf, there should be ´wild´
bacteria available on the leaf itself; this will range from ´very
little´ to ´an abundance“´.
The author used directly the word wild,
that mean the natural origin. And I
think again that the word microorganisms is better than bacteria.
The same author says in his book The Story of Tea: A
Cultural History and Drinking Guide: „The
goal in making sheng pu-erh is to create an environment that will
encourage the micro-organisms present on the leaf to remain alive.“
In the broader context of whole chapter
about pchu-er in this book I understand the term "on the leaf"
as an expression of natural origin of
microorganisms. But I admit that this interpretation can be
subjective.
Especially from the first
article is obvious, that this author (or authors in a case of the
book The Story of Tea) supports the natural origin theory. He claims
this statement several times and he puts emphasis on it. There is no
mention about artificial inoculations in his articles.
I thanks to one tea lover
(maybe better pchu-er lover) for posting me
the study: Characteristic fungi observed in the fermentation process
for Puer tea. There are two important sentences in this study:
„Microorganisms inhabiting the strawmat
covering the pile and/or in the room infect the tea leaves.“
„Microorganisms are thought to infect the
leaves from the mats and/or the ambient atmosphere.“
This facts overlap information from Robert J. Heiss,
specifically with points 2 and 3 that are written some paragraphs
above. From this sentences it ensues, that required microorganisms
comes from nature (or from places, to where they were transfered from
nature).
I know at least four people, that (according me)
have very good tea knowledge and therefore I asked them for their
opinions. Independently each of them agreed
on natural origin. At the same time they
all added that artificial inoculation can‘t be
entirely excluded. There are so many
producers and also tea research centers and therefore inoculations
can be somewhere practised.
I have found much more references
about
the natural origin and nothing about artificial inoculation.
This references support my original opinion
which
I published
in
this aticle. The origin of
microorganisms needed for pchu-er fermentation is natural, not
artificial. I suppose that there is much more
sources
about pchu-er fermentation and if you have
some
article about artifitial inoculation I
would be glad
to see it
– maybe we will learn something new.
 |
| It is interesting, that there
are many articles about pchu-er, but only a few of them describes the
origin of microorganisms and usually in a very briefly way. |
Finally I thank all people for sharing
their knowledge or sending information.
___________________________
Sources:
3) Tea: history, terroirs, varieties,
Kevin Gascoyne, Francoise Marchand, Jasmin Desharnais, Hugo Americi,
2011 Firefly Books Ltd., ISBN: 978-1-55407-937-7,
4) The tea drinker´s handbook -
Francois-Xavier Delmas, Mathias Minet, Christine Barbaste, Abbevillw
Press 2008, ISBN: 978-0-7892-0988-7,
5) The Story of Tea: A Cultural History
and Drinking Guide, Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss, Ten Speed
Press 2007, ISBN: 978-1-58008-745-2,
6) Isolation and Identification of
Aspergillus Species from the Post Fermentative Process of Pu-Er Ripe
Tea, Chen Keke, et al., Acta Botanica Yunannica. (28)2, 2006,
7) Characteristic fungi observed in the
fermentation process for Puer tea, Michiharu Abe, Naohiro Takaoka,
Yoshito Idemoto, Chihiro Takagi, Takuji Imai, Kiyohiko Nakasaki,
International Journal of Food Microbiology 124, 2008,
8) opinions of me or my friends, that
were surely influenced by what have we heard or read somewhere, but
we have already forgotten where.
