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Fermentation Atlas

Tea leaf from Dali, Yunnan, China

Ripe pu-erh, industrial wet-pile (Xiaguan Tuocha protocol, 2020)熟普洱

ripe pu-erh leaf. Made in 4 steps over 7 days – 10 days. The longest step, turn and re-wet (8 cycles), takes 7–10 days (Guan Y 2026) and runs at 51.5–62.9 °C (Microorganisms 2025). Aspergillus and Thermomyces do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–10 daysReported[s1]Turn and re-wet (8 cycles)
Temperature51.5–62.9 °CMeasured[s2]Turn and re-wet (8 cycles)
AciditypH 4.5–7Measured[s2][s3]Turn and re-wet (8 cycles)
DocumentedTea leaf7 days – 10 daysMore tea leafMore from China

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
sun-dried maocha (Camellia sinensis var. assamica)
initial moisture 8.3%
Starter: spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 7 days – 10 days

Start
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What changes: Maocha is wetted with spring water to about 40% moisture

Step 1 of 4
Wet the maocha
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Aspergillus
Bacillus
Kocuria
Moulds

Output: wet tea, 15 t per batch.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [s1] Guan Y., Chen Q., Bo N. et al., 2026, Dynamic evolution of aroma characteristics in ripened Pu-erh tea during industrial fermentation, Foods 15:1014, doi 10.3390/foods15061014paper
  2. [s2] Microorganisms 2025, Integrated microbiome–metabolome analysis ... Pu-erh tea pile fermentation, PMC12388847 (30 days, 19 Aug–18 Sep 2022, 15 sampling points)paper
  3. [s3] Shipin Kexue / Chinese lab studies on 渥堆 water content 30–45% (45% best quality), temperature above 48 °C, pH 4.5–5.0, spkx.net.cn 2013 34(7):135other