After the Pile: Breaking Up, Drying, Sieving, and Resting

When wodui finishes, the pile is still hot and damp and smells strongly ripe. Between here and a bag of loose ripe pu'er or a ripe cake lie several more steps.

What Happens After Wodui

Opening Trenches and Spreading to Dry

Once fermentation reaches the right level, no more water is added. The master opens trenches across the pile so air can move through and heat can escape, then spreads the tea out to dry slowly in a ventilated fermentation room or on a drying floor.

Ripe tea is mainly dried by natural airflow at low temperature, avoiding high heat that would make the aroma harsh. Research comparing ripe pu'er dried at different temperatures found air-drying and low temperatures below 60°C performed better. Drying has to bring the tea within the national standard's moisture range: no more than 13% for loose ripe tea.

Breaking Up Clumps

During wodui, heat, moisture, and turning cause some leaves to stick together in clumps. After drying, ordinary clumps are broken up by machine or by hand back into individual leaves.

Sieving and Grading

The broken-up ripe tea is then sieved into grades by thickness and length. Tender, bud-rich tea goes into higher grades, sturdier tea into lower ones. The national standard grades loose ripe pu'er into 11 levels: special grade plus grades 1 through 10. See Grades of Loose Ripe Pu'er.

Picking

Debris, thick stems, and poorly fermented leaves are picked out so the finished tea is clean and consistent.

How Laochatou Are Separated

During sieving, tight clumps that won't break apart stay on top of the screen. These are laochatou ("old tea heads"). Factories collect them separately, pick out debris, sort them by size, and sell them as loose laochatou or press them into small bricks or tuocha. Laochatou are also one of the materials used to make sui yinzi.

Where the Pile Taste in New Ripe Tea Comes From

Ripe tea that hasn't been out of the pile long often has a smell like damp straw, earth, or soy sauce, which tea drinkers call "pile taste" (duiwei). It comes from volatile compounds left by microbial activity and the transformation of the leaf's constituents during wodui, along with the smell of the hot, damp pile itself.

How strong the pile taste is depends on several things:

• Fermentation level: the heavier and stuffier the fermentation, the more noticeable the pile taste tends to be.
• Thoroughness of drying: if drying is incomplete, the smell can't dissipate.
• Time since the pile: the newer the ripe tea, the stronger the pile taste.

Pile taste is not mold. Pile taste is the scent of wodui and fades over time. Mold smells pungent and sour-rotten, there may be mold spots on the leaves, and it means something went wrong in storage. How to tell them apart is covered in Storage Taste, Aged Aroma, and Mold: Telling Smells Apart.

Why Ripe Tea Rests Before Sale

Many factories and tea merchants rest new ripe tea for a while before shipping, commonly a few months to 1–2 years, because:

• The pile taste fades: in a clean, ventilated warehouse, the pile taste gradually recedes and the liquor becomes cleaner.
• The mouthfeel settles: fresh ripe tea sometimes has a bit of off-flavor or harshness, and after resting the liquor is smoother.
• Moisture balances after pressing: ripe tea pressed into cakes needs time for its moisture and aroma to stabilize.

The industry calls this resting period "tuihuo" (letting the fire settle) or "removing the pile taste." For how long ripe tea should rest and whether to store it long term, see Should Ripe Tea Be Aged? Resting Ripe Pu'er.

Loose or Pressed

The finished ripe tea can be packed directly as loose tea or go on to steaming and pressing to become ripe cakes, bricks, tuocha, or dragon pearls. The pressing process is the same as for raw tea, except that the moisture limit for compressed ripe tea is 14%, slightly more generous than for raw tea.

Dealing with Pile Taste at Home

• Pry open or unwrap the tea and leave it in a clean, ventilated, dark place for a few days to a few weeks.
• Rinse the leaves an extra time when brewing, and pour off the first infusion quickly.
• Use boiling water at 100°C so the aroma opens up fully.

For brewing ripe tea, see How to Brew Ripe Tea: Deep Red, Never Stuffy.

Deciding When to Unpile

When to take the tea out of the pile is the most critical decision in all of wodui. The master weighs several clues: whether the leaves have turned an even reddish brown or chestnut brown; whether the aroma has shifted from sour and green to ripe and sweet; whether bitterness and astringency have mellowed when a handful is brewed and tasted; and whether the spent leaf is soft but still springy. Unpile too early and the liquor is green and strongly astringent; too late and the spent leaf turns black and hard and the liquor thin and empty. Judging this moment is where each house's ripe tea style comes from.

FAQ

What happens after wodui? Trenches are opened for airflow, the tea is spread to dry, then broken up, sieved into grades, and picked clean before being packed loose or pressed.

Where does the pile taste in new ripe tea come from? From the odors left by microbial activity and changes in the leaf's constituents during wodui. It fades over time.

Why is ripe tea rested before sale? To let the pile taste fade and the mouthfeel settle, commonly for a few months to 1–2 years.

How are laochatou separated? They're the tight clumps that won't break up and stay on top of the screen during sieving, collected and sorted separately.