Exploring the south of Yunnan province and its legendary puer teas
24th June 2013
International Tea Convention and Tea Trip, May 2013.
An international tea group travelled from Kunming to Puer City and then on to Ximeng, Menghai and Jinghong. With 14 nationalities present, the group attended three conference sessions, visited 5 factories, took part in several cup tastings and was taken for a walk in one of the several remaining millenary tea tree forests, in Jingmai, where puer tea leaves are still picked today.
Bordering Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, Yunnan is China’s big south western borderland, reaching down from the foothills of the Tibetan plateau to tropical rain forest areas. Puer tea is one of Yunnan’s exclusive features, built upon a 2,000 year old traditional cottage industry. These teas were made from the leaves of wild tea trees, still clustering in several hilly districts on the west side of the Mekong River, mainly in the districts of Lincang, Puer and Xishuangbanna.
Yunnan’s rugged landscape is home to over 40 ethnic minorities which retain autonomous territories within the PRC and still wear their traditional clothes, live in traditional wooden houses and have their old standing farming techniques. Several of them; mainly the Dai, Wa, Bulang , Hani and Lahu still carry out their traditional tea picking and tea making. Puer City used to be an important tea hub and was the starting point of the “Ancient Tea and Horse Road” on which the compressed teas where transported to the Tibetan people as far as Lhasa, taking back , in exchange for the tea, the many young war horses bred on the high plateaus, to serve the imperial army. This quite exotic and colourful border trade is the background of today’s flourishing puer tea industry and which continues to be somewhat shrouded in mystery, as visitors may not watch the complete production process.
The old wild tea trees which were picked in these early times still provide about 15% of the green leaf for puer tea production today, which is estimated to amount to around 35 000 metric tonnes per year. These teas most salient features are *the significant potential for improvement through aging, by storing the teas for many years, up to several decades, *the widely reported health benefits as assessed by traditional Chinese medicine practice for centuries. Fetching extraordinary high prices in mainland China and with selected overseas communities, puer teas are just starting to be acknowledged by the West, both for their vintage quality and for their health effects.
With their specific manufacturing process puer teas do not fit easily into the current set of tea families; some helpful explanations on this subject were provided to the group by PENG Zhe, the President of the Puer Tea Association as follows:
First steps:
- only "big leaf variety" trees may be picked
- the desenzymation through dry heat(wok or mechanical device) is followed by rolling and then: sun drying; the result is "mao cha" or crude tea;
- this "mao cha" then needs to be stored for 6 months to allow the leaf to settle and then two options can be taken, either for making "sheng puer" or green puer
- the 6 months old mao cha is now "settled" and can be sold as sheng puer leaf tea,
- or can be steamed and compressed to become "sheng puer" tea cake or for making "shou puer" or ripe puer
- the 6 months old mao cha is submitted to the "piling and wetting" / "woo dui" process, for 50 to 60 days which thoroughly modifies the colour, texture smell and taste of the leaves
- can then either be re dried and sold as shou puer leaf tea, or be steamed and pressed.
In general the "sheng puer" is considered to have a higher potential for flavour development over the years, it is therefore more expensive. In addition to the two fold manufacturing possibilities there are more relevant criteria to be considered:
The picking season: with spring leaf being the best, followed by autumn and summer leaf;
The terroir, which tea region, tea village or tea-mountain it comes from and the tree variety, bearing in mind that there are more than 50 big leaf varieties on file.
The composition of the tea, which can be "single origin" or a "blend".
More information had been made available to the French market by 2 young "gourmet tea hunters" who live in Yunnan and have their own customized village and vintage puer cakes made on the spot: during the past 30 years or so the Yunnan provincial government has put important areas under tea; there is small leaf and big leaf. Bearing in mind that puer tea represents only about 14% of Yunnan’s tea production it is nevertheless a very significant part of its tea economy.
Therefore it is also relevant to distinguish the new tea plants from the older ones, over 40 years old, from the old ones, over 150 years old, from the ancient ones, over 200 years old. There is also a difference between the truly wild tea trees and those planted by man, even though some 400 years or more ago!
All this makes it very complex and hence the great need for good and transparent product information, which remains a standing request.
Another major quality element is the age, i.e. the years of storage, bearing in mind that there are today no methods for assessing that length of time. The date indicated on the pack, usually on the back, not always legible and hidden by the wrapping paper folds, is the date of packing. A cake must also have an inner label, put on before steaming and pressing, which contains the product description and the manufacturer’s data.
Although the group had access to raw tea sorting, steaming and pressing of cakes and product packaging most of the tea professionals were disappointed by the lack of closer insight.
"High tech" puer teas in bags, as extracts, in ready to be infused "take away cups" were displayed, and seem to be much in demand in the domestic market.
There may not yet be a clear cut marketing strategy with well defined segments and target groups, however a great desire to sell more to the affluent Western markets.
We need to learn more and maybe also return to Yunnan for a better understanding of these "legendary puer teas".
Barbara Dufrene
Paris