Is this the turning point of Pu-erh price

Is now the turning point of Pu-erh (unrealistic) price

Many tea consumers have been flabbergasted by the price tags of certain Pu-erh teas during the recent years.

The dynamic in the Pu-erh’s production and consumption has also shifted during this period and a storm is brewing.

Following are some of changes that have occurred.

The increase of the production

The production of Pu-erh teas has been expending significantly during the last 30 years or so, fueled by the increase in the interest and demand.

It is reported that 50.8 tons of Pu-eh tea was produced in Yunnan in 2010, this increases to 162 tons by 2020. Unparallel to the consumption increase, many tea merchants have stockpiled their teas in the warehouses based on this believe and expectation: ‘sale whatever can be sold and the leftover will increase in value with time’.

This believe is based on:

1. the fact that he more a Pu-erh tea (provided it is a good quality tea) is aged the better the quality
2. the price surge of certain aged Pu-erh teas during the end of last century and early this century

The current decline of the disposable income

China is currently going through an economic down turn. Many have expected the economic to bounce back post-Covid and the recovery is not near as robust as expected. The unemployment rate is high and still climbing and the ones with jobs are having their pays cut. With the fast shrinking disposable income, following phenomenon are observed:

• Pu-erh consumers start buying cheaper, more realistically priced Pu-erh teas,
• many Pu-erh consumers have their own stockpiles of Pu-erh teas at home for the purpose of buying new at the relatively lower prices to age ( to avoid buying expensive aged ones later). When the budget is tight, they turn to these stockpiles to avoid buying.

The sharp drop in sales of the Pu-erh market and the desperate need for cash

The Pu-erh market in China is experiencing an unprecedent drop in sales - a bust of a Pu-erh bubble if you like. The shops are empty and many are closing down. The still operating small and medium tea merchants are desperate for cash to keep the businesses afloat.

One of the Pu-erh commentators summed up as such: Pu-erh was like gold when the demand was high and the supplies were limited; the stockpiles of the cakes now are not more than money on paper, or local produce just as how the Pu-erh tea started.

The current state and the future 

The current state of the Pu-erh market in China is that the demand for good quality Pu-erh, such as the Gu-Shu Pu-erh from the quality regions/hills is still high. The supplies of other teas have definitely exceeded the market buying capacity.

Whether this will result in a complete Pu-erh tea price crush depends on many factors. The outlook is however not looking bright.

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The elevation of tea spirit

Teas, green tea, white tea, yellow tea, Oolong, black tea, Hei Cha and Pu-erh tea, have been consumed in China for more than 2000 years. 

Today, it has developed into a much higher level of significance in many tea drinkers' life than merely a beverage to crunch the thirst. 

Following are the six levels of elevations: 

1. A beverage
2. A social media. 以茶会友 (greeting friends with a pot of tea) is a Chinese tradition that represents hospitality and respect. It has become a media for socializing for the young generations in more modern time, similar to coffee.   
3. The appreciation of their physical qualities, such as appearance, aroma, flavor and aftertaste etc.
4. A stage where a tea is experienced by one's body, but not just taste buds or nose.  The senses of cleansing, balancing, calming and wellbeing. (These have been validated by the health benefits researched and reported by modern researches.) This is considered to be the point of not return - tea becomes an essential part of one's life. 
5. The art of tea. Tea drinkers start paying attention to the environmental conditions such as location, tea ware to use, water for brewing the tea and the people to enjoy the tea with. Many tea rituals have developed as the results, such as various tea ceremonies. 
6. The spiritual elevation and connection with the tea, when all is required is a cup of tea and the person drinking it. It is state of simplicity, purity, exclusiveness and focus. This is used by many, such as Buddhist monks, as an aid for meditation.  

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Why are white teas so expensive

White tea is a germ among the premium Chinese teas. The premium white teas have been traditionally produced in limited pocket areas of the Fujian Province of south-east China, such as Fuding, Zhenghe and Jianyang. Fuding (福鼎) white tea is considered to be the best in quality and a 35% price hike was recorded in a year in 2017. The market price of Fuding Silver Needle has tripled during the last 10 years.

Many reasons have contributed to such a price hike of white teas in recent years in comparison to other teas, for example the cousin green tea.

Like all highly sought after products with limited supply, increasing demand is the main driving force.

The limited production

White tea plants 

The tea plant used for producing the authentic Fujian white tea is unique, the most famous one being the ‘Fu Ding Da Bai Hao’ (福鼎大白毫 - Fuding Big White Down). The tea leaves are characterized by being strong, full and bold with needle shaped tip buds and covered with the white down fur - where the name Silver Needle is derived from.

White tea plants take years to gown into maturity before yielding corps of rich nutrients and flavor. The harvesting typically starts 3-4 years after the new plants are planted. Many prime tea plantations are however over 50 years old and have been harvested by many generations.

The areas that are suitable for producing the premium white teas are also highly constricted. The pocket areas of the Fujian Province mentioned above are known to have the ideal soil and climate conditions for the white tea production.

For example, the famous Tai-Lao-Shan (太姥山) area of Fuding is known to produce the best of the best Fuding white teas. The area and the tea plantations have been established for a long time and is effectively not expandable.

With both the limited geographic space for growing tea plants and the time for the tea plants to grow and mature, the supply falls far behind the increase in demand.

What is a white tea

White tea has traditionally been defined as:

• Mainly produced in the pocket areas of the north Fujian Province
• Made of tea leaves harvested from the tea plant Fuding Big White Down
• Processed by a simple yet highly skillful technique called Wei-Diao (萎凋-withering) then dried
• Traditionally dried in the shade or under the sun depending on the weather conditions, some using low temperature charcoal (below 50oC)

White tea grades

Unlike other categories of Chinese teas, white teas are graded in a quality hierarchy:

1. Top grade Silver Needle - made of only the young bud leaves of the tea plant.
2. White Peony - made of one bud leaf plus a couple green leaves beneath.
3. Shou Mei/Gong Mei - made of mostly mature tea leaves.

The techniques to perfect a white tea are considered as intellectual properties and carefully guarded by the local tea producers. The fine details are obsessively monitored and controlled during the tea processing.

White tea 'new products'

Due to the increasing demand, there have been some ‘new products’ on the market during the recent years: some are white teas produced from tea plants other than the Fuding Big White Down; the others produced from the tea plant Fu Ding Da Bai Hao, but recently cultivated elsewhere than those areas in the Fujian Province where the soil and climate conditions are different.

There is also the Yunnan white tea, which is produced based on a traditional Yunnan tea product Yue-Guang-Bai, processed with slightly different techniques and use tea leaves from Yunnan tea trees instead of Fujian white tea bushes.

These white teas are considered as ‘mimic’ white teas and are mostly considered to be of lower quality than the traditional Fujian white tea. The market prices of these teas are lower, but some merchants market and price them as the traditional white teas sold to the naive white tea consumers.

The reason behind the fast-growing demand for white teas

Health benefits associated with drinking white tea

Many health benefits have been reported during recent years associated with white tea drinking. As a result of their unique natural state, white teas are believed to have preserved the most of the anti-oxidants found in the tea leaves.

The reported potential health benefits include:

• Lowering blood cholesterol level, blood pressure and thus cardiovascular diseases
• Cancer preventive
• Weight loss
• Anti-inflammatory & infections
• Enhancing body immune system
• Lowering blood sugar level and increase glucose tolerance
• Improve bone density
• Preventive of Alzheimer's disease

Increasing accessibility

The popularity of white tea is increasing not only in China but worldwide. People around the world now have the access to both the information and the supply of white teas, credit to the wide use of the internet.

Aging potential

Most of Chinese teas are consumed fresh, such as green tea and Oolong tea. White tea is one of the few that the quality potentially improves with aging.

This is a local rhyme about white teas: tea for the 1st year, medicine after 3 years and treasure after 5 yeas. The white tea's value therefore will only increase with time.

It works as such: The tea prices have a baseline upwards movement due to the general constricted supply and inflation. The value of the teas with aging potential increases faster than average. For example, the value of a Pu-erh tea (a classic aging tea) is generally expected to increase by about 10% per year. This is because through careful collection and storage, tea merchants and consumers can avoid the two fold increase of both the baseline upwards trend and the value increase as the result of aging.

Conclusion

A pure white tea, by name and nature, appears to those who are health conscious and after an enjoyable life style. Since the supply of the best white teas are strictly limited, the increasing demand will inevitably drive up the prices.

From a tea supplier point of view, my opinion is that there are some alternative options than paying the top prices. For example, the Fuding Shou Mei is at a much lower price on the market than the Silver Needle, as the result of its longer harvesting time and higher production volume. They are not as delicate when fresh, but with similar health properties and a huge potential for aging. The aged Shou Mei is highly sought after in some south-east Asian regions for its mellow taste and valuable health benefits.

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It is possible to discern a Yixing Zisha teapot quality at the point of buying

Yixing Zisha teapot

Many tea consumers are fascinated by Yixing Zisha (宜兴紫砂) teapots. The clay is believed to be the premium clay for brewing the premium teas, especially the fermented teas such as Oolong teas and Pu-erh teas. It is mainly due to the porous nature of the clay which facilitates the brewing process by being able to ‘breath’ through the teapot wall, thus bring out the best of a tea and eliminate certain not so desired elements if presented.

The original Yixing Zisha teapot is defined as the items made with the clay produced in the Huang Long Shan (黄龙山) area of the Yixing City. Due to the increasing demand of the product, limited mine deposit and human exploitation, the Chinese official has closed the area from mining since 2005. Any symbolic mining since has been on a very limited scale.

There are however similar mine deposits in the surrounding areas, which are now the main sources of the current Zisha clay supplies. This also opens up a discussion that if these can be called Yixing Zisha and if the quality is comparable.

Zisha products follow the following formula which applies to products of limited resources:

Increasing interest and demand -> increasing prices -> human efforts to increase the production -> substitute products

The Zisha clay itself is in many styles and quality grades. Discerning the quality of a Zisha item at the buying point today is difficult.

Substitute products

Following are some of the methods used to create the ‘substitute products’:

• Using clays mined from elsewhere than Yixing
• Re-composed Zisha using low quality clays mixed with artificial colouring and granule ‘ingredients’
• False claims to appear to naïve Zisha consumers, including clay type, origin, quality and the maker of the Zisha item etc, who have difficulty differentiating.

Following are some of the techniques developed to make the Zisha items look ‘genuine’, which will only add to the confusion:

• Super fine clay, which is lack of the quartz granules, is mostly considered to be of low quality (a topic for a different discussion). Some manufacturers have half fired these clays till they are hard, machine ground them into small particles and mix them with the original clays to achieve the ‘coarse’ appearance. The granules are not the quartz particles as in the genuine Zisha clay. It serves only the appearance but not the functionality of the quartz particles.
• Certain producers mix sand particles and artificial coloring into low grade clay to produce the consistence and texture look like of the high grade Zisha.

As a tea consumer and Zisha lover myself, the one aspect that is of most interest to me above all others (design and details) is the quality of the clay, which is what makes the Yixing Zisha teapots different from others.

Going through a good number of the information available, from both Zisha producers and collectors’ perspectives, it appears there is not a defining set of criteria to guide the Zisha consumer to genuine Yixing Zisha. Experience seems to be the only reliable source. This however can take many years to develop. At the meantime, the ‘substitute products’ are getting better and better at mimicking the genuine products.

Many indicators, buy lack of defining criteria

There are many articles discussing how to differentiate handmade, semi-handmade and industrial machine made Zisha teapots. The implication is, if a Zisha artist is to spend the effort to handmake or semi-handmake a Zisha teapot, the quality of the Zisha clay he/she uses must be at least in reasonable quality to make the effort worthwhile. The quality of the Zisha clay is assumed to go down with the reduction of the level of the ‘hand work’.

This assumption leaves many unanswered questions, even confusions:

• Let alone there are not objective criteria to measure the level of ‘hand work’, there is also not linear correlation between the level of ‘hand work’ and the quality of the Zisha clay.
• What is the difference in the clay quality between the teapots made by different Zisha artists as they use different clays? (The Zisha artists are graded in China based on their experiences and skills. There is however not universal supply of the clays – they simply use what they believe is appropriate among what is available.)
• How about the semi-handmade Zisha vs fully handmade ones? Some of the semi-handmade Zisha items on the current market can easily look as good, even according a pair of experienced eyes, as the fully hand-made ones if not better.
• How about those teapots made by ungraded Zisha artists (民间艺人)? (Like craftsmen of all traditional products, the skills have been passed down by their ancestors. They use the family stock pile of the Zisha clays in their backyards to make the Zisha teapots - in other words the under marketed products.)

The list can keep expending.

The ultimate information and control

The only ones with the ultimate control appear to be the Zisha teapot producers. They decide precisely what goes into making a teapot and how to make them. Without being given the full information, it is rather difficulty for the consumers at the buying end to judgment the quality.

For example, it is relatively easy at the buying point to see the differences between a $40 teapot and $400 teapot, with a bit of the experience of course. It is however not so easy to answer the question if a $2000 teapot is worth of the price tag.

The worst happens when the naïve tourists buy from the shops at the tourist locations. The products are often overly decorated by fancy designs, most come out from machines. It is entirely up to the merchants how much they want to charge as there are not set criteria to label the quality.

Conclusion

Yixing Zisha teapot is fascinating. A good item is absolutely worth collecting. To know if one has a collection value and how to achieve a high money value ratio is however a tricky question for most of the consumers.

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The loose Chinese teas of the past and today - what has changed

Tea was once a local produce

Teas have been consumed in China for at least 2000 years. For a long history they were largely produced and consumed locally as local produce. I still remember the days of my grandmother going to the local farmers’ market to purchase her tea supply. As the result, most of them have been typically named with two components: the name of their birth place and the name of the tea, such as Wuyi Da-Hong-Pao, Anxi Tie-Guan-Yin, Fuding Silver Needle, Suzhou Bi-Luo-Chun, Xi-Hu Longjing, Keemun black tea and Yunnan Pu-erh etc.

It was not long ago that one would have been assumed that it had come from Anxi if Tie-Guan-Yin was mentioned, or Suzhou if it was a Bi-Luo-Chun. Or for example there are a few pocket areas in the Fujian Province of China that produce the exclusive grade Fujian Silver Needle (white tea), Fu-Ding, Zheng-He and Jian-Yang. When Silver Needle was sold, the price was, and still is, ranged in the sequence according to their production areas which are believed to be directly associated with the quality of the teas, Fu-Ding Silver Needle most expensive, Zheng-He and then Jian-Yang.

The increasing interest in premium teas world wide

The interests in premium loose teas have been increasing world wide during the recent years, mainly due to the increasing exposure and the health benefits reported.

Teas once were not known outside of their local areas are now being sold internationally, accelerated by the recent internet and fast, convenient and relatively cheap international transportations.

The art of making the finest teas

The arts of producing the finest teas have been developed over a long period.

For example, Wuyi Rock tea has had a product and consumption history in the Fujian Province of China for at least 1000 years. Da-Hong-Pao has been the most well-known and highly sought after Wuyi Rock tea. The very original Wuyi Da-Hong-Pao was produced in a clearly defined area of the Wuyi mountain of the Fujian province ‘Jiu-Long-Zhai (九龙窠)’ . It is believed there are about 6 of original tea plants (or parent tea plants) are still existing in the wild and producing very limited amount of tea each year.

While the production area is constricted and the demand is growing, the natural approach is to cultivate and expend – the new generations of the tea plants have been successfully cultivated from the original and have been used for extended production.

Top quality Chinese tea production is a work of art, including:

• The special tea plants
• The unique environmental conditions of the tea plantation: the geographical location, the sunshine, the rain fall and the soil conditions etc.
• The processing skills

Ways of increasing the production to meet the demands

The tea plants can be cultivated and the skills can be leant. We are however not able the replicate a unique environmental condition known to be ideal for a particular tea variety. With time, the cultivated tea plants under different environmental conditions will change to adopt their new environment and become ‘not exact the same’.

To further increase the production output, I have recently read a report that the tea farmers in the Wuyi area blend a few local teas together to mimic the Da-Hong-Pao flavor, close enough for the naïve tea drinkers to believe that they are the ‘real stuff’.

For the purpose of discussion, let’s call the limited availability of teas produced from the original site and plants ‘original tea’, and the teas produced from the cultivated tea plants under the similar environmental conditions but elsewhere or blended versions ‘reproduced tea’.

While the prices of the ‘original teas’ have sky rocketed, the ‘reproduced teas’ are far more available and affordable. For example, 20g of Da Hong Pao tea from one of the mother tea plants was sold for ¥208,000 in 2005 – that is ¥10,400 (or $1485 USD) per gram, while one can purchase nearly 15kg of the ‘reproduced tea’ with the same price.

This phenomenon is observed across almost all tea categories and varieties: green tea, white tea, Oolong tea, black tea and Pu-erh tea.

Discussion

Consumers drink teas mainly for two purposes: to enjoy tea as a beverage and lately their health benefits. There has been no research to suggest there is difference in health benefits between the ‘original’ and ‘reproduced teas’.

The taste difference is therefore the focus of the discussion: is the astonishing price difference reflecting difference in the flavor?

Tea consumption in traditional tea consuming countries, such as China and Japan, is very similar to the wine consumption in the west. Time and experience are required to differentiate and appreciate the subtle differences of the various quality grades.

The questions the everyday tea consumers need to ask are:

• Have I had enough experience to differentiate the fine difference between the ‘original’ and ‘reproduced teas’?
• Is the difference worth of the extra cost?

Conclusion

The way the traditional teas have been developed and consumed is increasing becoming a thing of the past.

There have been a few relatively ‘new’ tea varieties developed during the recent years. Not so much focus on their birthplaces, but more as a variety/flavor which reflects some unique characteristics, for example:

• Jin-Jun-Mei, a fine black tea developed on the back of the traditional Lapsang Souchong. Jin-Jun-Mei, is not longer associated with the Lapsang area, but more a unique technic developed to produce a new fine tea variety.
• Ying Hong No 9, another top end black tea developed on the back of the traditional Yunnan black tea Dian-Hong. The tea was researched and developed in the Guang-Dong Province by a group of tea researchers over the last a couple decades, using certain carefully selected premium Dian-Hong plant species and optimized over time.

Teas today are becoming more of a flavor/processing type than a local produce. For example, the Longjing green tea is now widely produced in many areas around the Zhe-Jiang Province; countries like Vietnam and Myanmar are attempting to produce the renown Yunnan Pu-erh using the ancient tea trees found in the adjacent forests. Will this expansion inject a new life to this traditional product? Or will it kill the culture and tradition that has developed over a long history? Only time will tell.

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Right price for the right product? Only if you know the products well.

A gold question in the tea community

There is a gold question in the tea community – does the price of a product reflect its quality?

It is generally expected there is a relatively linear correlation between a product quality and its price. 

I have however come across two separate incidences recently, one relating to Pu-erh tea and the other to Yixing Zisha teapot, that this correlation is put into serious test. Before event referring to the product quality, the consumers in both cases believed the prices were too cheap for the products to be genuine or of premium quality or authentic – in these cases a fair judgement. On the flip side however, it implies if the vendors were to simply put an additional ‘0’ at the end of the price tag, the products would attract immediate attention without any value added. 

It then comes down to the crucial element which is the consumer’s capacity to discern the quality of a product. It is not only subjective, but also influenced by multiple factors such as personal experiences, preference, cultural background and marketing strategies by the vendors etc. 

Premium loose teas (including all six categores: green tea, white tea, Yellow tea, Oolong tea, black tea and Pu-erh/Hei Cha) and certain tea accessories (eg Yixing Zisha teapots) are largely hand processed or handmade and quality graded, but not standardised. They are then traded under the ‘free market’ conditions which means the selling price is negotiated between the vendors and buyers, and highly sensitive to demand and availability.

Various efforts have been attempted to standardise the qualities of the products in order to better regulate the industry. It has however been difficult as the products are not as clear cut as for example the machine-made industrial products with a clear set of criteria to be measured against.

Summary:

Tea consumption is lifetime personal journey. It takes time and experiences for the individuals to appreciate the internal quality of certain products, and subsequently the right prices for the products.
For the beginners however, it is important to be aware that what you pay is not always what you get.

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Pu-erh Dai-Di-Cha vs Gu-Shu-Cha

Some terms

Tai-Di-Cha (台地茶): Pu-erh teas produced from tea trees of cultivated tea fields/gardens

Gu-Shu-Cha (古树茶): Pu-erh teas produced from the forest ancient tea trees that are of at least 100 years old.

The admiration of Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea and thus the sky rocketed prices

There has been a recent economics report by CCTV (China) on the current Pu-erh tea prices in comparison to that of last Year as such:

1. Tai-Di-Cha increased by 20%;
2. mid-age tea tree teas increased 20-40% (presumed from tea trees of less than 100 years old, but not Dai-Di-Cha) 
3. Gu-Shu-Cha increased 100% (price doubled)

Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea myth

A different report also by CCTV last year reported the following findings.

How much of the Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh on the market is real Gu-Shu-Cha

It is estimated that the volume of actual Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea produced each year in the Yunnan province is about 4% of the total Pu-erh tea production:

• Total Pu-erh production volume about 139,000 tone, harvested from 6,200,000 MU (or 413,333 hectares) of the Pu-erh tea fields.
• Gu-Shu-Cha production is about 5000 tone, from only about 650,000 Mu (43,333 hectares) of tea fields according the estimate of the local authorities. (The yields of the Gu-Shu trees are relatively lower than that of the Tai-Di-Cha.)

A survey of the local market (to supply mainly to the tourists or retailers outside of the region) in Yunnan however reported 95% of the products sold on the market are claimed or labelled as Gu-Shu-Cha.

False claims

It is clear that many false claims are being made.

The unreasonable profit margin is the drive

There are various benefits of consuming Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh teas. Driven by the obsession of consuming Gu-Shu Pu-erh by certain consumers, the price gap between the Gu-Shu-Cha and none Gu-Shu-Cha has been increasing to the point that it is not longer reflecting the quality/value difference. (More information at the question section of this article.)

The Pu-erh tea production in the Yunnan Province of China has been and still is largely family based. The families own the tea fields/ trees, especially the Gu-Shu-Cha tea trees in the forests as the result of the long history of family-based tea farming and production. Driven by the ludicrous profit, the tea farmers are naturally drawn to maximise the yields of their Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh.

Difficulties to regulate

Many tea merchants label their products as Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea when the claims are not backed by facts through various practices, from straight false labelling Tai-Di-Cha as Gu-Shu-Cha, to mixing Tai-Di-Cha with Gu-Shu-Cha and label it as Gu-Shu-Cha. As intangible as it is, here are the gaps to allow the fall through:

• There are no feasible and practical evaluation methods available to systematically verify if a Pu-erh tea is Gu-Shu-Cha or not at the sales point.
• The Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea trees in Yunnan are not systematically certified and recorded. The local authorities sample and identify the areas (buy not individual tea trees) of the Gu-Shu clusters and report on estimates. The actual Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh tea status is finally decided and labelled by the tea farmers, often based on a good guess or suggested by older family members. This allows a major opportunity for false identification, exaggeration and even deliberate false claiming.
• Packaging. As suggested, 95% of the Pu-erh tea sold on the local market are marked as Gu-Shu-Cha, largely done by the packaging paper they are wrapped in. There is however no local regulation to associate a packaging with a product. It is effectively as such, any local tea farmers can approach a printing business to request to put on anything information on the wrapping paper without any backing of the claim. The is the cause of the peculiar phenomenon in Yunnan: the base price of a real Lao-Ban-Zhang ( 老班章, the most pricy Pu-erh of the current market) Pu-erh is $2000/kg, while there are numerous full cakes (357g) labelled as ‘Lao-Ban-Zhang’ sold on the market, some as low as $6. The merchant explained the only association of the tea with ‘老班章’ is the words printed on the wrapping paper. Her words are, people see the words ‘‘老班章’’ and buy.

Confusion from the consumers end

The consumers’ love affair with the Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh teas has been fuelling the price hike. At the same time, the endless variations of Pu-erh teas have made it almost impossible for even experienced Pu-erh consumers or experts to distinguish between a real Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh and a none Gu-Shu-Cha at the purchase point, let alone a beginner.

For example, there has been a blind test conducted recently. Two Pu-erh teas, one from an over 100 years old tea tree and the other less than 50 years were sample by 4 participants. The Pu-erh experience of the participants range from a consumer of just 12 months to a Pu-erh shop owner of over 12 years in Yunnan. The participants universally picked the younger tea tree tea as Gu-Shu-Cha based on it taste. Opinion of experts: the quality of a tea is more determined by how the tea trees are managed and the environmental conditions of the tea trees than the actual tea tree age. In other words, the age of a tea tree is not indicative of its quality automatically.

Questions to be asked

There are therefore a few questions to be asked:

1. It is believed by the Pu-erh tea experts the main difference between a Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh and a non-Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh is in their tastes. There are no other significant differences in other aspects such as health benefits and functionality if everything else remains the same. The questions is therefore if a consumer is not experienced to detect the subtle difference in their tastes, it is cost effective to pay the much higher price for something that is not noticeable?
2. How does one know if a purchase is an actual Gu-Shu-Cha Pu-erh?
3. It is believed with the continuous improvement in the knowledge and techniques of Tai-Di-Cha cultivation, the quality of Tai-Di-Cha actually improves all the time. It seems to me that Tai-Di-Cha is a good alternative to Gu-Shu-Cha, value wise, without taking the consideration that the relief of the stress on the ancient Pu-erh tea trees due to the high demand.

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Tea look matters

The Chinese traditional wisdom has always told me that ‘you cannot judge a person by his/her appearance’ (人不可貌相).

How is the look of a tea associated with its quality

I was reading a tea book (one of my earliest tea books) quite some time ago on how to assess the quality of different green teas. Each and every one started from the ‘look’ of a tea – a good tea has to have the right shape. I puzzled for a long time trying to understand how the look of a tea can make it taste better.

A few years later, I visited a family at Dong-Shan (Eastern Hill) of the Tai Lake where the best Bi-Luo-Chun has been historically produced. It all made sense after a day’s visit.

The production of DongTing Bi-Luo-Chun at Dong-Shan is still family based. Of the crops produced each year, they are graded/priced by the strict timing of the harvest – the earlier (of the spring season) a tea is harvested , the better the quality and therefore the higher price. All family members are involved in the tea harvesting, but the priciest tea leaves are only processed by the most experienced family members (the mother and father of the family in this case). The less experienced members only get to practice on the less valuable tea leaves until they become as experienced.

The link between the quality of a tea and its appearance

The link between the quality and the appearance is therefore:

The better the quality of the raw materials -> more likely to have a more experienced/skillful person to process it -> more likely for the end product to have all the right qualities including the appearance.

This is the very reason that the shape of the tea is mentioned frequently in the quality assessment, for example: a Dragon Well green tea has to be yellowish green and tight flat; A Taiwan High mountain rolled Oolong has to be dark green and in tight rolled pearls; A Pu-erh tea cake need to be firm with regular edge etc. 

Other products with the same principle

With time I understand this also applies to other products with high level manual/skill work, such as Yixing Zisha teapots. The experienced Zisha artists will not spend time and effort working on the low quality clay, and the inexperienced ‘starters’ do not often get to work on the premium Zisha clay.

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Unexpected objects found in loose leaf teas

A recent case

We have had a recent complaint from a customer who was genuinely upset because she found a couples of small sticks in the premium grade Dragon Well tea she purchased from us (shown in the image). She was upset because she understood the premium grade Dragon Well tea should only contain tip leaves, but not twigs – which is in the tea description. It took me quite some effort, inspections and sampling to convince her that the twigs are not part of the composition of the tea, but mixed in by accident which is not uncommon for a manually handled agricultural product like tea.

The cause

We are all aware that different categories of teas, green tea, white tea, Oolong tea, black tea, Pu-erh tea/Hei Cha and jasmine tea are processed differently. What is in common is that the premium loose teas are mostly handmade, in multiple stages and often carried out in the villages of the tea farmers with basic equipment. With manual work as such, very step and stage has the potential for some unwanted objects ‘to join in’.
The following link gives a glimpse of how manual it is to make a Pu-erh tea. The entire process of making a loose tea can take up days (some years if taking into account the after production storage period for the purpose of aging) with continuous manual involvement.

For those who have never witnessed an actual tea processing, finding a piece of human hair in the tea can certainly cause a panic which is understandable. For someone like me however who grew up with a tea culture like shown in the video clip, it is actually not so scary as I understand even with the best attempt by the tea farmers to avoid this, the chance of a piece hair fallen into the tea is rather high. For example, it is not really practical to expect the tea farms to ware factory caps when plucking the tea leaves in the tea fields or in the wild for teas like Pu-erh. If any human hair fell and mixed with tea leaves, unless it is spotted during the following stages and removed, it will show up when the tea is consumed. This is not to justify the existence of these foreign objects, but to explain how they happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE-aXKxPagY

Some examples of the foreign objects

Benign ones: 

• Leaves of different grades, for example odd large old leaves
• Tea twigs
• Bamboo/straw pieces
• Corn kernels
• Tea flower seeds

More severe ones:

• Small screws
• Small insects
• Small feathers
• Human hair
• Tarpaulin fabric

How to minimise the potential harm

To start, the potential harm imposed by these objects are rather low mainly because we only consume the tea brew but not digesting the tea leave. We also always advise the following when preparing a tea brew:

• Inspect the dry tea leaves before adding to the tea vessel
• Rinse the tea leaves with hot water before brewing, especially those that are aged such as Pu-erh tea and Hei Cha

Final note: 

1. Some teas are more likely than the others to have these objects discovered. For example, there are regular reports of foreign objects found in Pu-erh cakes or bricks, largely due to the traditional processing methods and practices. 
2. The objects are not indicative of the quality grade of the teas. There might have been more attention paid to the exclusive grade tea products, but the potential of discovery of foreign objects still exists. 
3. The Chinese have consumed their teas exactly the same way for a long history. There is more concern caused the synthetic materials used in the agriculture - hazard caused by the foreign objects is almost unheard of. 

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Sky prices of Chinese teas

Teas that are more expensive than gold

There are some exclusive ‘breeds’ of Chinese teas that are currently fetching prices more than gold, a phenomenon that struck many.

Some examples are:

• The Wu Yi Oolong Da Hong Pao from the original Da Hong Pao tea tree of Jiu-Long-Ke (九龙窠), is priced for 5,200,000 Yuan/500g, that is 10,400 Yuan/g - equivalent to the value of 10 residential apartments in the Wu Yi area, or 34 times of the gold price.
• The Mao Cha harvested from the Pu-erh king tree of Lao-Ban-Zhang was sold for 240,000 Yuan/500g in 2108.
• The most famous Rou Gui (a premium Wu Yi rock tea) from the Niu-Lan-Keng (牛栏坑) is being sold for 30,000 Yuan/500g on the current market.
• 1,280,000 Yuan/500g Longjing (Dragon Well green tea) in 2018.
• 745,000 Yuan/500g Xin-Yang Mao Jian green tea in 2019.

Note: 1USD=6.7 Chinese Yuan

The above products are not only selling, but hard to get in some cases. The list of sky prices Chinse teas is also growing.

To understand this phenomenon, we need to take a few steps back and start from some fundamentals.

Tea is more than a beverage in China

In China, tea is a beverage, a culture, an obsession and inspiration to many historical and modern artists. Many Chinese ancient poems feature teas and tea consumption as spiritual elements, romantised if not centred in their works.

At the same time, the art of producing the finest teas has been an obsession by the tea farmers, right down to the finest details. High quality teas = demands = profits. The highly developed skills are guarded as intellectual properties and passed down only to the male descendants of the families and kept secret.

The determinants of the quality of a tea

There are tow crucial determinants of the quality of a tea: the quality of the tea leaves and the skills to process them.

There are numerous factors that influence the quality of the tea leaves. The area of production, the species (or particular plant/plants) of the tea bushes/trees and the harvesting time are among the most important ones.

Contributing factors of the sky prices

The affordability that came with the fast expansion of wealth in China is an obviously one.

The one to pay attention here is also a unique obsession about the ‘exclusiveness’ of products that is almost unique to the Chinese. If a product is exclusive (paired with the quality), sky is the limit for its price.

For the sky price teas: they are often marketed as:

• Tea leaves from xxx tea trees, such as Pu-erh; or xxx area such as Rou Gui; or both such as Da Hong Pao
• Hand made by xxx tea master

The real statement behind is: there is not another one like it on the current market.

Then it comes the practice of ‘faking’ the exclusive

Tea industry is a market that is relatively difficult to regulate, as it is difficult to standardise the tea quality especially at the top end. Tea consumers are the judge, and many are often not experienced enough to differentiate the subtle differences.

With the astonishing profit margins, a ‘faking’ practice is unfortunately in the brew. Examples are:

• Tea vendors use ‘blended’ teas to mimic various aspects of certain top end teas. Close but surely not the same and asking for the same or slightly lower prices.
• False adverting. For example, some vendors would pay to erect the company signages at the exclusive tea fields (eg Niu-Lan-Keng 牛栏坑 for Rou Gui) for purely advertising purpose, such as showing to visitors or in the company advertising materials. Many never use a leaf from these fields in their products.
• The claims made ‘hand made by xxx’, the truth is that he/she barely looked at the process.

There is an insider information from the Wu-Yi Oolong indsutary that 98% of the Niu-Lan-Keng (牛栏坑) Rou Gui is not from  Niu-Lan-Keng.

The obvious victims of these practices: tea farmers and consumers.

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The sky rocketed white tea price

The authentic Fuding white teas

The authentic white teas produced in the white teas’ heartland Fuding and Zhenghe of the Fujian Province (south-east of China), made from the plant species Fuding Da Bai Hao (福鼎大白毫 -Fuding Big White Fur/down) have always been considered as one of the top premium Chinese teas and have their unique role on the premium Chinese teas’ stage.

What is so special about Fuding white teas

Fuding white teas are known for their:

• Limited production – only produced in a small pocket area of the Fujian Province of China.
• Made from the unique species of the tea plan Fuding Da Bai Hao (福鼎大白毫 -Fuding Big White Fur/down), the tea leaves are strong, bold and rich in flavour.
• Least processed tea of all teas, no rubbing, pressing or baking, simply withered and sun dried (with highly developed skills).
• Refreshingly sweet in nature when fresh, age into mature teas with potent medicinal functions if stored probably.

Reasons for Fuding white teas' price hike

The Fuding white teas’ prices have in fact sky rocketed during the recent years. The market announced a 10-20% price hike over the 2018 new year after 10-35% increase in 2017 – determined by the market demand and supply ratio.

There reasons behind the hikes are as follow.  

Aged tea consumption culture

There has been a general increase in interest in consuming quality aged teas. Different from other well processed aged teas, such as Pu-erh tea and Hei Cha, white teas are:

• Fresh and delicate to drink when young, similar to their green tea cousins. 
• Age as un-processed teas while reserves all the natural ‘goodness’.

The ageing value only lays with the authentic Fuding white teas

White teas produced using other tea tree species, or using other methods than the original Fuding white teas' processing method do not possess the Fuding white teas' ageing potential and health properties.

Buy new tea, drink aged tea

Unlike most of other tea varieties, which are at their prime either fresh or well aged, white teas are ideal for consumption both young and aged. The locals have a tradition of buying seasonal white teas and drinking aged white teas.

The all rounded natures of Fuding white teas, the bold and elegant appearance, the gentle yet delicate pure flavour and the potent health effects all contribute to their increasing favour among tea consumers. 

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The age of a Pu-erh when there is not a production date

As we all know, often the first thing we check on a compressed Pu-erh is the date on the back of its packaging – age equals the value and quality in many Pu-erh consumer’s mind. A date on the back was however not required until 2007 as part of the local government's attempt to regular the Pu-erh production industry. So how do you decide the age of a Pu-erh produced before 2007 with a blank back like the one in the image?

A production date was regarded as not essential for Pu-erh teas until 2007, mainly due to there is not an expiry date for Pu-erh teas – the more they are aged the better, and the traditional way of how they were produced – in the villages and families. During the recent decades, various methods have been used to ‘fake’ Pu-erh’s age for the purpose of fetching a high price on the market. There are various aspects associated with an aged Pu-erh, such as tea colour and texture etc, each one can be manipulated up to certain point. The multiple aspects and dynamic nature of Pu-erh teas make judging their actual age hard, not only for the beginners buy also for many experienced Pu-erh consumers.

To establish some standards, the local governments in the Yunnan Province introduced the 12 points of information, such as the production date, the manufacturer and location etc, to be printed on the back of a Pu-erh product (apart from Maocha) in 2007 to offer consumers some references.

For the products produced before 2007 with a blank back, one can only go back to the very basics of aged Pu-erh teas drawn from experiences: colour, aroma, taste, texture and aftertaste.

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How important is oxygen in Pu-erh's conversion?

We are all aware of the fact that the older a Pu-erh is, the better the quality. There are currently two options to acquire a well aged Pu-erh:

1. Buy it from a vendor, which is often expensive
2. Purchase young and store to age

The storage conditions are however crucial, they can make or break a tea. There are abundant theories out there speculating on the ideal conditions for a Pu-erh to age and convert: humidity, temperature and oxygen levels etc. There is however not so black and white when it comes to apply them in real life.

There has been an interesting article published recently about a an interesting experiment.

Method (www.puercn.com, Author: Yang Zhong Yue)

Four samples were created in 2013 using the same product, a fresh Jingmai (景迈) Gushu Pu-erh Maocha:

• One vacuum sealed
• One sealed, buy not vacuumed
• One sealed, buy injected oxygen on a regular base
• One natural open storage

All four samples were stored in a storage with a humidity machine for 4 years – the machine starts extracting extra humidity after it has exceeded 70%.

Results

• The vacuum sealed Pu-erh sample: The colour has converted nicely into golden red, aroma strong in both dry leaf and tea brew. The downside is that it is very bitter, the most bitter one of the four samples.
• The sealed but not vacuumed sample: good colour – golden red; Good aroma, but slightly less than the vacuum sealed sample; Significant reduction in bitterness and astringency.
• Oxygen injected sample: Colour gold, less red than the previous two; Aroma OK, but not as strong as previous two. Bitterness and astringency reduced, more than the vacuumed one, but similar to the non-oxygen injected one.
• Natural open stored sample: Colour gold, similar to the oxygen injected one; Very little aroma remained; There is some reduction in bitterness and astringency, but not as much as the sealed non-vacuumed one.

Summary

1. Vacuuming is good to keep the Pu-erh teas in their original state, eg sample keeping, but not for consumption purpose ageing.
2. Oxygen did not appear to have significant impact on the Pu-erh tea’s conversion, illustrated by the results of the oxygen injection and the natural open storage sample.
3. There has been an active and ongoing internal conversions regulated by the internal enzymes of the tea leaves under the sealed conditions, result in rather satisfactory reduction of bitterness and astringency and colour conversion, without losing the aroma as the open stored sample. 
4. The author acknowledged that this comparison was only conducted 4 years after the storage, longer term differences of the storage impacts on the Pu-erh teas are yet to be studied. 

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Top ripened Pu-erh tea a gamble than a prediction

Compared to most of the Chinese teas, green tea, white tea or black tea, ripened (Shou) Pu-erh tea is still in its infancy state – born in around 1975. 

Ripened Pu-erh’s ageing process is somewhat different from the traditional raw (Sheng) Pu-erh:

• It is believed that ripened Pu-erh has less ageing potential, as the potential is overdrawn during their speed fermentation process called Ou-Dui.
• On the other hand, the residual odours left from the Ou-Dui (acidic, fishy and mushroom smell) takes 2-3 years to evaporate

The combination the above results in a necessity of around 10 years to allow the ‘true colour’ of a ripened Pu-erh to reveal – the ‘bad stuff to disappear’ and the ‘good quality to come out’.

While being relatively new and lack of traditional wisdom to refer to, the Pu-erh masters are trying to draw some ‘road maps’ from the current available experiences while producing ‘new’ ripened Pu-erh tea for the future use.

Like all other teas, producing a premium quality ripened Pu-erh requires: 

• The right original material – tea leaves
• The right processing skills
• The right storage conditions after their production

As the knowledge of processing ripened Pu-erh is being explored and accumulated and skills being fine-tuned, there is a consensus in the community that getting hold of a top end ripened (Shou) Pu-erh tea is more of a gamble than a prediction (可遇不可求).

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The transformation of Chinese tea from a local produce to a modern luxury

We have witnessed the traditional Chinese tea, green tea, white tea, Oolong tea, Pu-erh tea and all others transforming from a country folk’s staple food to a luxury item today during our life time from aspects more than one.

A bit of history

My grandmother was a classic villager resided in a small country village in the Fu-Jian Province, the tea country of China. Following are some of my memories of the tea consumption when I was growing up in her village.

My grandfather died when my grandmother was in her late 20’s. For a woman like her of that time in China without a husband, the alternative name was extreme poverty as women simply did not have ‘jobs’. For rich for poor, teas however companied her for all her life.

Like many other villagers of her time, the first thing she would do when she got up in the morning was to get ready for a pot of tea for after breakfast. The teas were mostly locally produced, in her case mostly green tea and Oolong tea, and purchased from the local market with all other local produces. Tea was a must have every day. When visitors dropped in without any warning (phones were not available), the first thing she did was to put the kettle on and get the teapot ready for a pot of tea to share. Tea was a way of everyday life, not just for the rich.
The costs of teas have sky rocketed since largely due to the increased demand, in China and worldwide. This increase of prices affects categories of all Chinese teas: green tea, white tea, yellow tea, Oolong tea, black tea and Pu-erh tea.

A Luxury for aspects more than one

Apart from the price increase, the is also another element of ‘out of reach’ that is much ignored, which is TIME. I have had so many inquiries for methods to: brew teas while customers are waiting; reduce tea temperature quickly so that the customer can consume immediately; tea bags suitable for those who are on the go and the list goes on. A crucial aspect of tea enjoyment with is sitting down, take time to share a pot of tea with families and friends over a chat, unnoticeably disappears into the history.

As a Chinese decedent who is proud of my inheritance, tea, not as a product but a culture, is one of the few that I wish we could turn the clock back a few decades. Off the treadmill of the modern life style and take time to enjoy a humble pot of tea like my grandmother’s generation did.

Additional note

Ironically, one of the reasons that the popularity of tea is rapidly increasing worldwide is their potential to combat ‘modern life style related health conditions’, such as cancers, cardio-vascular-diseases, overweight and diabetes etc. How much weight can the humble teas pull remains to be determined. This reminds me of a Chinese humour regarding our current lifestyle: the companies pay with money and we pay with our lives.

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Pu-erh tea storage risks

A big advantage of Pu-erh tea in comparison to other tea categories such as green tea, is its aging nature. There is not urgency to consume the tea while fresh as a tea naturally improves with ageing. The down side however is the risks of damage during the storage period. The following images surfaced during the recent cyclone/flood in Fang-Cun of Guang-Zhou (the tea trade capital of China): the street turned into a river of tea soup and tons of teas damaged. There is not available data on how much damage has been caused yet, but the sight is not looking good. 

A good aged raw (Sheng) Pu-erh or ripened (shou) Pu-erh would require at least good 10 years storage under optimal conditions. Many factors can affect the tea’s quality if not damaged completely. The sale price of tea is therefore: the original the purchasing cost, long term storage cost factoring the damaged stock along the way.

If global warming is affecting all aspects of human lives, tea industry is not excluded and Pu-erh tea is a vulnerable one. 

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Tea water separation a strange but useful term

It is almost impossible to talk about a tea without water, from cultivation to the final stage of tea brewing.

The ‘tea water separation’ discussed here is however a different but meaningful concept.

The very reason that teas are delightful to sensors is because of the effects of their internal substances. The correct brewing methods maximise the extraction of these substances and their optimal concentration in the tea brew.

‘Tea water separation’ is a term used to describe the breakdown of this process. The impression is the ‘incomparability of the tea and water’.

Following are some of the causes to ‘tea water separation’ of Pu-erh teas:

Processing issues:

1. Tea leaves harvested during the raining season, Chinese term ‘水味’ (water taste)
2. Short of rubbing during the processing. These causes the insufficient release of the internal substances for tea brew.
3. Not steamed and compressed thoroughly during the processing. The ‘tea water separation’ phenomenon is especially prominent when new/young for these teas. 

Brewing method issues:

1. Pu-erh tea requires 100-degree temperature hot water to brew the tea. The tea can taste ‘watery’ if the water temperature is not high enough.
2. Insufficient ‘tea waking (醒茶)’ time. It takes normally 5-10 seconds for the tea leaves to be separated from each other when brewing compressed tea. A rush to serve the tea can cause the brew to taste ‘tea water separation’.
3. Inadequate serving intervals can cause the tea internal substances to dissolve in the brews unevenly.
4. Too many infusions from one serve of the tea leaves.

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Tea and mediation

I grew up in China with tea being a food and a way of life. There is even a term for it: 口粮茶 – staple tea.

I have however often wondered as why tea is associated with meditation and other spiritual practices, in the past and today, China and abroad. After some reading recently, the connection is clear.

Tea and Buddhist diet

Buddhism was first introduced to China during the Han Dynasty and meditation was part of the core practice. Buddhist monks mediated for long periods day and night. Their diet was constituted of vegetarian and none-alcoholic ingredients. Tea was considered to be an essential for the purpose of enhancing the alertness during the meditation, health and well being and even long longevity by many Buddhist monks.

High mountain green teas

After the Buddhism was first introduced to China, the religion was flourishing and many temples were built on remote high mountains as a way of 'entering' an elevated spiritual space. The monks would immediately clear the land around the temples and start cultivating to generate the means for survival in such remote places. Tea was one of the essentials.

For example:

Lu Shan (Mt Lu) of the Jiang-Xi Province was once a major Buddhist centre. The famous Chinese green tea Lu Shan Yun Wu (Mt Lu misty green) is believed to be a speciality of a temple in Mt Lu, where the famous Buddhist monk Hui-Yuan lived for 30 years.

Tea’s other connections to Buddhism and Buddhist activities

1. The most known tea legend Lu Yu was raised in a temple as an orphan since he was 3 years old
2. The green tea seeds were first brought to Japan in 805 AD by a Japanese monk Zui-Cheng upon his return from a visit to the Chinese tramples. This marked the beginning of the Japanese green teas. 

Tea is truly a fascinating product. Its historical significance is far beyond a merely daily beverage.

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A comparison study of consumer’s ripened Pu-erh preferences against two differing temperature and humidity storage conditions

Overview:

The implication of Pu-erh tea’s storage on it’s aging has gone through intense debate during recently years, largely by two camps of tea dealers and consumers: 1/ the traditional cool and dry storage camp, represented by the conventional Kun-Ming storage 2/ south eastern Asia semi wet storage (natural and artificial) camp represented by HK storage.

With all the opinions and arguments in the community and industry, we would like to find out what the consumers, especially those outside of the conventional Pu-erh consumption areas ( ie with no or limited pre-conditioning to one type or the other) , think.

The result was a surprise, with preferences split down the middle and summed up neatly as “One’s cup of tea might not be the next person’s”, indicative of tea consumption across the wider tea industry.

Background

Conventional wisdom would indicate that the best storage conditions for loose leaf Chinese teas (green tea, white tea, Oolong tea or black tea) involve environments that are dry, cool and lack moisture and foreign odours.

This does not necessarily apply fully to Pu-erh tea however, which, due to its leaves being harvested from arbour tea trees instead of tea bushes, is a unique class of Chinese tea. When raw and fresh, Pu-erh teas can be rough, bitter with plenty of astringency and could be harsh on digestive system. As such these teas need to be “softened” to improve and become more mellow, smooth and richer in aroma and flavour.

The conventional way of ‘softening’ Pu-erh tea is via natural aging which involves three forms of oxidisation and fermentation:

1. simple chemical oxidisation.
2. enzyme mediated oxidisation.
3. micro-organism involved fermentation.

Differing climate conditions require different storage times to achieve similar results for Pu-erh tea, but with subtle quality trade-offs. ie

• 10 years storage in Beijing is equivalent to 4 years storage in GuangZhou.
• Slower aging retains more botanic aroma and mellow aftertaste, but at the cost of retaining greater astringency.

Two main traditional regions have an association with Pu-erh tea consumption under differing storage conditions:

1. The south-west and north-west regions of China (including Tibet) have a long association with aged Pu-erh teas stored under cooler and drier conditions.
2. South-east Asia is another market with a solid foothold.
   • Pu-erh consumers here discovered that the Pu-erh teas stored under certain tropical or sub-tropical climates (typically higher temperature and humidity level) such as HK and Malaysia go through a faster post-fermentation to reach a state that is categorically different from the same age Pu-erh tea from the south-west and north-west of China.
   • The market then started differentiating Pu-erh teas by storage types, in addition to other crucial elements such as areas and year of production and raw or ripened: HK storage, Malaysia storage, Taiwan storage and Kun-Ming storage etc.

Test to compare the differences between Pu-erh from these regions

We wanted to find out how consumers respond to differences in storage, so invited a small group of volunteers from a Pu-erh discussion group for a blinded test.

Study design:

aged ripened pu-erh teaWe sent out two samples of ripened Pu-erh without identifying the region of storage as follows:

1. One of Kun-Ming storage Xia Guan TuoCha (dry and cool storage).
2. One of HK storage (semi-wet storage, completed Jin-Cang 进仓 and Tui-Cang 退仓 – please see footnote for explanation). The tea had been stored in HK for 10 year under classic HK storage before bing compressed into cakes in 2017. 

The samples were marked as #1 and #2, and we invite the volunteers to send back their response on the following aspects: aroma, flavour, texture, aftertaste and overall comments. We publish the full results as follow.

Results

General demographic details:

• Sample size: 12
• Gender: Male -6 Female-6
• Country of residence: Australia, USA, Canada, Germany, Mexico and UK

In summary there was a 50/50 split with regard to the tea preferred.

Result in details:

Main findings:

• It is clear that even after the completion of the Tui-Cang 退仓, the ‘damp’ taste as the direct result of the HK Pu-erh storage (Jin-Cang 进仓) is sensed and tasted by tea drinkers, mostly describing it as a major putting off factor.
• By comparison, the dry storage Pu-erh is described by those who preferred it as bright, clean, bold, with good woody/earthy taste.
• It is a common consent that HK storage Pu-erh is darker in colour with a smooth texture. 
• The main surprise to me: for those who preferred the more heavily ‘storage fermented’ HK Pu-erh, there is no report of the ‘damp’ sensation at all, which is quite prominent in the other group. 

Acknowledgement:

We would like to thank you all for those who participated in the taste test and sent back you valuable feedback. 

Footnote:

• Jin-Cang 进仓 (Entering the storage): storing Pu-erh teas under artificial conditions that are classically higher humidity and temperature, and low air flow to speed up the ‘post fermentation’. Various HK storages apply different conditions. The teas after Jin-Cang 进仓 often have some level of mouldy smell/flavour and cloudy tea brew.
• Tui-Cang 退仓 (retreating from the storage): removing the teas from the initial storage and store in close to classic dry storage conditions (cool, dry and high air flow) for up to 2 years to remove (although not fully) the dump and mould flavour, and restore the initial Pu-erh's the bright and clear tea brew.

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A Cool Summer Evening with Pu-erh Tuocha

A Cool Summer’s Evening…

By my way of thinking, the sweltering inferno that is often Sydney summer, does not call for abstinence from the joy of a nice cup of tea, but rather an opportunity to sample the more refreshing brews in our stores. Besides the fact that research has suggested that a hot cuppa can actually help to cool you down in the heat (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-hot-drink-on-a-hot-day-can-cool-you-down-1338875/), it is just so delicious that I couldn’t bear the thought of giving it up over something so trivial as a hot day. It’s going to take a lot more than that to drag me away from my tea.

So, after the brutal heat of late which had kept me sipping on my invigorating green teas Dragon Well and Bi Lo Chun, a slight cool change gave me the excuse to (literally) dig into a beautiful ripened pu-erh Toucha. Before settling into this warm and cosy cuppa however, I got to try my hand at one of our new bamboo trays!

Usually, I would just use my cake knife and gather the tea on a piece of paper- putting the leftover leaves in a paper bag to keep them fresh for next time. Although this method works just fine and won’t affect the quality of your tea, the convenience of these trays really does speak for itself. While their dimensions mean that you do not have to constantly worry about your tea flying off into the sunset when you break it, they also have a small gap in the corner where you can easily empty the contents into a mug, or Gaiwan as I did. When combined with a fitted bamboo drawer, you can easily store the inevitable leftovers in a box that will simultaneously make a complimentary feature in any kitchen or living room. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, your leaves will be kept in a well ventilated space where they are protected from being crushed by the copious domestic forces which threaten their fragile peace.

While using the Gaiwan does involve a little more effort than say a mug, the small serving size makes for a much richer experience.

The tea is brewed to perfection as it is not stewing in a large body of water for extended periods of time, and the small mouthfuls provide a more acute conception of the delicious flavour.

The rich, woody flavours gained from its fermentation provided exactly the wholesome warmth I had missed for so long (despite loving my summer teas, a change is always welcome).

Indulging in some shortbread on the side, it was this Pu-erh tea that made my cool summer’s evening into brewed perfection

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Raw Pu-erh tea, a green tea or Hei-Cha

I have always thought of Pu-erh tea as: traditionally compressed and produced in the Yunnan Province of China, ripened Pu-erh as HeiCha (黑茶) and freshly produced raw Pu-erh as green tea.

I have recently come across a few posts and articles debating about this categorisation, especially the term of ‘fermentation’ used in the categorisation.

From a consumer, but not scholar or academic’s perspective, I make following observations.

Teas were traditionally ‘categoryless’

Tea has a consumption history in China for more than 2000 years. For a big majority of this history it was ‘categoryless’.

To understand the absence in categories, we need to look into its history during the pre-modern transportation era: tea’s production and consumption were extremely geographical.

For example, Oolong teas such as Tie Guan Yin and Zhang Ping Shui Xian were the local teas in the area where I grew up (Long Yan of the Fu-Jian province). With a few exceptions, these teas were only grown, processed and consumed locally (pre mid-20 century), and these were the only teas the local tea drinker were familiar with, known as Tie Guan Yin or Zhang Ping Shui Xian, but not as Tie Guan Yin Oolong tea or Zhang Ping Shui Xian Oolong tea.

From the production point of view, the tea farmers leant their knowledge and skills from the previous generations and were more likely NOT even aware of the 6 tea defining categories. This however had zero impact on both of the tea product and consumption. The locals knew their teas best and no one else could do a better job in making their teas. This is why the tea names in China are more associated with the areas they are produced than the tea categories they belong to: An-Xi (area name) Tie Guan Yin (tea name), Zhang Ping (area name) Shui Xian (tea name), Yunnan (area name) Pu-erh (tea name) etc. 

The categorisation of teas only came into place and became meaningful when modern tea scholars and researchers started studying and analysing teas from top down – with so many varieties around, it makes sense to create some ‘shoe boxes’ to put them into.

Raw Pu-erh tea, green tea or else

To discuss or answer this question, we need to step back and ask some of the following first:

• ‘Fermentation’ is the factor used to define and differentiate the various categories of teas. Some argue that the term 'fermentation' used to describe the tea processing process, such as Oolong or black tea, is not actual fermentation as there are not yeast or bacteria involved. This is a topic of debate for another day. We would just call it an 'enzyme mediated oxidation' now, bearing in mind that 'fermentation' is the term used in most of the tea books and journal reports.  
• Is tea categorisation as clear cut, black and white as people think or expect? My personal opinion is that the modern science is trying to use a simplified and well-ordered format to capture a highly cultural tradition, and the reality is that there is plenty of vague and grey areas that deserve due respect and acceptance. 
• Green tea is a category with a vast variation within, but not a single tea. For example, if we offered the exact same tea leaves to a Mao Feng processor and a Long Jing processor, the end products produced could look and taste rather different. This however would not make one more of a green tea than the other, or one ‘yes’ and the other ‘no’. 
• I personally believe the very fundamental difference between a conventional ‘green tea’ and a ‘raw Pu-erh green tea’ is in the tea leaves, or more precisely the tea trees/bushes: The bush leaves are smaller and more tender, more suitable for being consumed fresh and young; While the arbor leaves on the other hand, being bigger, thicker and stronger, are more suitable for aging and fermentation. They are therefore processed accordingly to facilitate these different consumption styles: most of conventional green teas are dried with relatively higher temperature: eg. Chao-Qing (炒青 – fried dry) and Hong-Qing (烘青- baked dry); while the Pu-erh is Liang-Qing (凉青 – aired dry) with a much lower temperature to preserve enough enzymes and nutrients for the future post-fermentation.
• Based on the category definition, as long as a tea is not fermented, it is a green tea. An unfermented, newly produced raw pu-erh therefore can only be a green tea.

It is also worthwhile mentioning that there are new products coming to the market all the time, challenging the conventional categorisations/definitions. Eg, Pu-erh teas are conventionally compressed, this does not make loose pu-erh not a Pu-erh tea; Is a Pu-erh white tea cake pu-erh tea or white tea? All this prompts me to re-ask the question: do we really need to know the categories of the teas we drink? Or we should just enjoy the teas as they are and not to worry too much about anything else as our ancestors did?

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Chinese tea fermentation in an image

The level of fermentation is THE element used to categorise teas. For example, green teas are unfermented, Oolong teas are semi-fermented and black teas are fully fermented. The level of fermentation of teas is high associated with its appearance and taste: Green teas are light in colour, more ‘grassy green’ and refreshing in aroma and taste; Black teas are more smooth in texture and often dark yellow and red in tea brew colour.

A way of illustrating this is through Oolong tea, classified as semi-fermented. Different Oolong teas have various fermentation levels, which is carefully controlled and crucial to the nature of the final product. During Oolong tea’s processing, one of the important steps is to ‘bruise’ the edges of the tea leaves by putting the leaves in a bamboo cylinder and toss around (Yao Qing - 摇青). This process triggers the enzymes to be released from the cells and start a chain of chemical reactions within the tea leaves to facilitate the later fermentation. Once the tea leaves are fermented to the desired level, a process called Chao Qing (炒青) is applied, where the tea leaves are heated (NOT dired!), often in a wok, with highly skilful temperature control to stop the fermentation to progress further.

The image below is from a semi-fermented Oolong (Zhang Ping Shui Xian). As seen on image, the edges of the tea leaves are red in comparison to the rest of the green ( called ‘green leaf of golden edge’ - 金边绿叶 in Chinese). The red part is where the leaves are fermented and border between the red and the green is where the fermentation stopped.

All teas are categorised around their levels of fermentChinese Oolong teaation, and maybe some additional elements if relevant.

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White tea cake and Pu-erh white tea

During recent years, the white tea manufacturers have been using exact pu-erh tea’s compressing technics to produce white tea cakes, while pu-erh tea producers have also produced their ‘version’ of white tea cakes, eg Moon Light White (月光白) Silver Needle (大白毫). I have spoken to a pu-erh tea manufacturer, he said he had consulted a tea expert in China and they could not clearly define the difference.

There is an obvious difference here: white tea leaves are of 'small leaf species' of Camellia sinensis while Pu-erh bud leaves belong to the 'big leaf species'. They are different biologically and therefore have rather different nature and path during the aging process.

Over and above this apparent difference, there is also an economic interest behind this overlap.

White tea, being one of the 'small leaf species' of Camellia sinensis, have predominantly been produced and consumed fresh. Similar to their green tea cousins, the bud leaves are considered of the highest quality and their quality hierarchy is ranked based on the quantity of bud leaves contained.

There has been an aged white tea culture in the local tradition (Fu-Ding area of the Fu Jian Province), but mainly for their medicinal properties. White teas have been described as: first year a tea, third year a medicine and after five years they become a (medicinal) treasure. Aged white teas are believed to have profound anti-inflammatory effects and was once used for high temperature relief caused by measles infections before the contemporary medicine.

Pu-erh teas on the other hand, being the 'big leaf species' of Camellia sinensis, are only suitable for consumption after certain level of aging (softening), two years minimum after their harvest for the raw (Sheng) teas. To facilitate the aging process, they have been conventionally compressed into cakes, bricks or Tuo, and normally contain young and mature leaves with some twigs. The most valuable crops are those from the ancient tea tress (most over a few hundred years old), bud leaves, opened leaves and even some young twigs. The focus here is certainly not just the bud leaves.

The traditional Pu-erh tea producers then saw an opportunity: the bud leaves of certain Pu-erh tea trees are not nearly as sought after as the top grade bud only white tea Silver Needle, for example, the cost of the Moon Light White (月光白) bud leaves is only the fraction of the cost of the Silver Needle white tea, but once compressed and aged, is expected to have very similar taste and functionalities as aged white tea if not superior. This somehow marked the birth of the pu-erh tea cakes.

Pu-erh white tea cake is a relatively new product and in my opinion could be a product that is of value for money. This however remains to be judged by time and consumers.

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