Pu-erh teas tell stories. Traditionally crafted from wild tea trees picked by indigenous communities in China's Yunnan Province, these fermented and often aged brews unfurl with narratives as much as flavors. To steep a years-old pu-erh tea is to taste a snapshot of the time in which it was grown, and the journey the tea has taken between harvest and your cup. Processing, pressing into dense shapes, and storage conditions all contribute to a pu-erh's story. Depending on where and how they were aged, bingchas that began from the same leaves can transform into dramatically different teas.

Let's peel back the layers of mystery to find a pu-erh with a story that speaks to you. Enter the Pu-erh Matrix!

If you prefer delicate, floral green and white teas, or a tart Riesling or crisp pilsner, you may enjoy pu-erhs on the lighter end of processing. If your tastes veer more towards robust breakfast teas and roasted oolongs—or a Pinot Noir or rich porter—try a pu-erh on the darker end. We've also graphed our pu-erh options on a range of approachable to adventurous. The approachable teas near the top tend toward sweeter flavors with fruity and chocolatey notes, while the adventurous teas at the bottom boast more unusual savory qualities like potatoes cooked in a smoky campfire, or memorable touches of clay and eucalyptus.

But as we mentioned, flavors in pu-erh only take you so far. It also helps to know how they make you feel. We've donned our poet's caps to create more metaphorical descriptions of these special teas.

Jingmai Old Forest Bingcha: You're creeping along an ancient forest floor, encountering herbaceous plants amid fallen nuts and pine needles. A passing snail seems to wave at you with its antennae.

Sheng Cupcake: After wandering through the smooth wooden stacks and dancing dust motes of a labyrinthine library, you've finally found just the book you were looking for.

Shu Pu-erh Looseleaf: A witch in a stone house offers you a bowl of soup. You sip it and feel rested and restored, and maybe possessed by the spirit of some dark magic.

Shu Truffle: Hands caked with soil from working in the garden, you lie beneath an orange tree and admire the clouds through the leaves.

Gold Nugget: After an all-nighter on the road, you pull into a truck stop. Your eyes are barely open when a server slides a mug of inky liquid under your nose. It awakens you.

Earl Grey Reserve: You've rambled along the Thames on a rainy morning and have sat down for a restorative afternoon tea. The pot smells like spilled secrets and marmalade.

Purple Tips Brick: Deep in the Everglades, you ease your motorboat beneath a towering cypress and unwrap chocolates from your pocket. They've warmed from your journey, releasing their aroma.

Blessed Forever Banzhai Bingcha: In a city by a canal, you play a game of Go with a stranger, who wins with a strategy you've never seen before. You use it to win the next game with a passerby.

Bamboo Stick Pu-erh, 2003: At a cabin in the woods, you're bathing at night in an outdoor shower. The rising steam carries aromas from the surrounding eucalyptus trees.

Moon Shaped Sheng Bingcha: While camping, you toss a whole pumpkin on the fire's embers to slowly bake. You're tired from a hard day of hiking, but know the long wait will be worth the smoky, sweet reward.

Tsunami Daxue Bingcha: While apprenticing in a bakery, the pastry chef offers you a spoonful of something you don't recognize. Amid the heady vanilla aroma that fills the room, the simple taste of stewed grains makes you smile.

Blessed Forever Daxue Bingcha: It's harvest season on the family farm. After a day wrapping bales of hay, you sit at the dinner table exhausted but enthralled by the simple meal in front of you, and remember that your life is good.

Green Tangerine Pu-erh: Following a hearty dim sum meal in your local Chinatown, you wander into an herbalist's shop and admire the dried ingredients in jars. The shopkeeper offers something that promises to soothe your throat and settle your stomach. It does.

Horse Shu Pu-erh Bamboo Stick, 2017: On a journey over a mountain pass, you come across a village in the midst of a celebration. Incense and the villagers' songs rise through the air, inspiring you to join the dance.

Jingmai Brick 2004: While picking wild roses along the edge of the woods, you stumble on the mouth of a cave. It's dark within, obscuring your vision, but something about the clean, earthy smell entreats you to tiptoe inside.

Yi Chang Hao Tuocha: Your caravan across the wind-swept Mongolian steppe stops for lunch. A meal of foraged herbs and warm roasted grains sustains you for the next leg of the journey.

Lotus Tuocha: At the end of a long day, you retire with a hardcover book in a worn leather chair and read until you fall asleep. You wake to the pop of embers in a dying fire and feel ready to face the rising sun.

Explore our full pu-erh collection