It's not a black tea, at least in the western sense. Our black tea is actually called hong cha in Chinese, which means red tea. They're simply different types o

It's not a black tea, at least in the western sense. Our black tea is actually called hong cha in Chinese, which means red tea. They're simply different types of tea. There are also two different style pf pu'ers which have little to do with each other. The style you're talking about is shu pu'er, which is deliberately piled and made wet in order to trigger a sped up fermentation process. This is opposed to sheng pu'er, which is processed into bricks from very young, raw leaves called maocha, and is then aged for a number of years before it is drank. This results in a much slower and subtler fermentation process. The taste of shu and sheng are quite different. I've never personally had an encounter with a bad batch of either shu or sheng pu'er, but the shu variant is more prone to this due to the process. It's notable that pu'er is steeped at a (close to) 100 degrees celsius and the first one or two short steepings are discarded. This is to kill and wash off any microorganisms or dirt that may be present.