Growing up we’re often told that “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”  After my recent experiences, I can say with full confidence that this is wrong. Those familiar with my blog know that I am a tea enthusiast.  Recently, I took it upon myself to take a trip to one of the major tea-growing regions in China, the Menghai area of Yunnan province.  Not only did my tea tour in China give me the chance to learn more about how tea is harvested and processed, but it also clued me to just how large and lucrative China’s tea industry really is.

Several varieties of tea are produced in Yunnan, but it is perhaps most famous for being the home of Pu’erh tea.

What is Pu’erh Tea?

All teas come from the same tea plant, Camellia Sinensis. However, Pu’erh tea holds a special place in the minds of tea enthusiasts. Not only does it boast all the health benefits associated with drinking tea but is also probiotic.

There are two varieties of Pu’erh tea, raw (sheng pu) and cooked (shu pu). Raw pu’erh tea is most sought out by tea connoisseurs.  So, in this article I will only be focusing on the raw, sheng pu’er tea.

Read my other post on Pu’erh tea, to learn more about its benefits:

Pu’erh: The Tea With Probiotic Health Benefits

Pu-erh tea undergoes a special fermentation technique. It is left to age for many years, which results in a unique tea flavor with probiotic properties.  These qualities give Pu-erh tea the health benefits that make it stand out from other types of tea.

Intro to Ancient Tea Trees 古树茶 （gŭshùchá）

Unlike other teas, Pu’erh tea leaves grow on tea trees that are hundreds, sometimes even thousands of years old. Many of the ancient tea trees are in Xishuangbanna, a small region in the Yunnan province of China. They typically grow on high-altitude mountains, in areas with a tropical climate.

When it comes to tea leaves, the older the tree, the better the taste of the tea. Tea leaves from young trees that are only a few decades old do not give out the same rich and robust taste.

Furthermore, tea leaves from young trees can’t be steeped through as many infusions as those from ancient tea trees.

Terroir

Different mountain regions produce different nuances of flavor. As a result, there are many varieties of Pu’erh tea, each named after the region they’re grown in.

Experts group Pu’erh into these eight big tea regions: Bu Lang Mountain, YiWu, Lingcang, Jingming, Jingmai, Gelang He, Meng Song, and Other.   Each of these regions contains a series of “micro regions” (茶塞子). Altogether there are about 40 of these, and each produces its own distinct flavor of pu’erh tea.  

Some of the more famous tea varieties that come from these big tea regions are: Bingdao tea, Yiwu tea, Nannuo Shan Tea, Laoban Zhang tea, Laoman Eh, Ban Peng tea, Pasha tea, and Naka tea.

Here is a detailed classification of the eight large tea mountain regions as well as their micro-regions (茶塞子)

布朗山古茶园：老班章，新班章，老曼峨 ，班盆，曼糯，章家三队，卫东村

易武古茶园：薄荷塘古，落水洞，麻黑，弯弓

临沧古茶区：冰岛老寨，小户赛，邦东那罕，正气塘，昔归忙麓山，忙肺

景明古茶区：倚邦曼松， 莽枝，革登，蛮砖

景迈古茶区： 大寨，芒景，糯干

格朗和古茶园： 半坡老寨，扒玛，多依寨，帕沙，帕真

勐宋古茶区： 那卡，蚌岗，保塘，南本老塞

其他茶区： 困鹿山，章朗，巴到曼皮，贺开，邦崴，曼迈

A typical tea tour in China would cover all the major regions, starting from Lingcang 临沧 (home to Bingdao Pu’erh tea), Banzhang 班章 to Yiwu 易武 (marked in yellow) On my first tea tour in China, I visited the Banzhang 班章 tea region.

Harvesting Tea 采茶

Tea leaves are picked every year in spring, summer, and autumn. The best quality leaves come from the very first batch, which is harvested before the spring rain. These leaves are considered the best quality because they grow slowly throughout the winter and early spring when there is not much rainfall. As the rainy season starts, tea leaves grow much faster, and each consecutive batch is generally considered to be of lower quality.

When tea is harvested, only the top 3 to 4 leaves of each branch are picked.  If you take a closer look at a tea tree, you will notice that the top of the branch is bright green, the leaves on the rest of the tree are dark green.  Even when they’re still on the tree, these leaves give off a beautiful, fragrant aroma.

Definitely, the most exciting part of my tea tour in China was the tea picking part. Fortunately, the boss of the hostel I was staying at in Nannuo mountain (南糯山) has his own tea plantation, so he asked his workers to take me with them so I could experience tea picking. I can’t tell you how exciting this was!

Tea Processing 茶初步制

Tea Wilting

As soon as the tea pickers return from the mountains, the tea leaves are spread evenly in sun-protected areas and left for half a day to wilt. Wilting reduces the water content.

Tea Roasting

After tea leaves have wilted and lost their bright green color, the next step is to roast them to stop oxidation. I watched how small-size tea manufacturers manually roast tea in iron pots. They light the stoves and use their hands to roll and stir the leaves for about 35-40 minutes. At this point, the tea leaves completely lose their bright leafy green color and turn dark green.

After the roasting process is over, the tea leaves are evenly spread across large round bamboo pads and are left in the sun to dry for about a day.

Brewing the Perfect Cup of Pu’erh

After a day, these minimally processed dried pu-erh tea leaves are ready for brewing. Take 5-8 g of dry pu’erh tea leaves and use a gaiwan to steep them. Freshly dried pu’erh tea leaves from ancient tea trees could be steeped up to 20 times without losing the flavor.

What I love most about this tea is that it gets sweeter with each infusion. The first few infusions might not be impressive, but as you continue to steep it the leaves open up and release their fragrance bit by bit.

However, freshly roasted tea leaves are rich in tannins and therefore taste astringent. People with sensitive stomachs should avoid them. 

Tea Cakes vs. Loose Leaf Tea

While green tea is supposed to be drank in the same year it was picked, pu’erh tea can be stored for many years. That’s because Pu’erh tea leaves are typically pressed into cakes.  These tightly packed rondels make the tea easier to store and transport. 

Loose tea can easily break over time and may even get moldy when stored in a humid environment. 

Dried tea leaves are quickly steamed and then pressed into tea cakes. The compression of tea leaves induces the release of microbial activity within the leaves. Furthermore, the humidity typical of the tropics such as Yunnan further stimulates the microbes to break down the molecular compounds of the tea leaves over the course of time.

In five to ten years after compression, the fermentation caused by the release of microbes fundamentally transforms the flavor of Sheng-Pu-erh tea into something, unlike any other tea variety.

How to Make Tea Cakes

If you’ve ever bought a tea cake, you would have noticed that they are very finely wrapped. I’ve always been wondering how they do it.

While on my tea tour in China we were staying in one of the ethnic minority hostels in the mountains of Yunnan. Mr. Chen, the proprietor, taught us how to make tea cakes.  

First, Mr. Chen filled a tall stainless-steel pot with tea leaves that had been previously dried. He used a scale to measure out 357g of dried tea leaves, the amount required to make a big tea cake.

Next, he covered the pot with a cotton bag cloth and steamed the leaves for couple of minutes so they could soften. Then he transferred the softened leaves into the cotton bag and tied them into a knot at the center of the cake.

Finally, he put the tea cake under a 30-kilogram stone mold to compress. He left it the cake under the heavy stone mold for about an hour. It was left to dry in the sun for nearly a day before it could be wrapped and packaged.

Watch How to Wrap a Pu’erh Tea Cake

What Determines Tea Quality?

As an outsider and tea beginner, this question baffled me a lot. While drinking tea and talking with the owners of the tea plantations I visited, I gained some insight into what a good quality tea tastes like.

The major factor that determines quality is the season the leaves are harvested as well as their batch.

As a rule of thumb, the highest quality tea comes from the very first harvest, which takes place before the spring rain (at the end of March and the beginning of April). Tea leaves from the first harvest are considered the best quality because they grow slowly throughout winter and early spring. They have sufficient time to absorb nutrients from the soil before harvesting begins. 

At the onset of the rainy season, the increased rainfall stimulates the leaves to grow faster. Leaves harvested after the rains do not have enough time to absorb nutrients during their growth process and lack fragrance as a result. That’s why each consecutive batch is generally considered to be of a lower quality.

Another important factor that impacts tea quality is the age of the trees.  

Ancient tea trees that grow on high-altitude mountains yield the best Pu’erh.

These trees have to be at least hundreds of years old. Leaves from tea trees that have been planted in the recent decades do not taste as robust and fragrant. 

Furthermore, the older the tea tree, the more times the leaves can be steeped.  Tea from young trees can only be steeped a few times before losing flavor.  However, tea from trees that are hundreds of years old can be steeped upwards of thirty times!

Needless to say, any use of pesticides throughout the growing process will affect the flavor.

What Factors into Tea Price?

Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to focus on tea from an area called Lao Ban Zhang 老班章, which is considered the king of raw pu’erh tea. Most decent Pu’erh tea runs about 700-800 CNY ($107-$122) per kilogram.  Tea from Lao Ban Zhang, however, goes for 15000 CNY/kg ($2289) as of 2021.  It is consistently one of the most expensive teas in the world. 

Trees here grow in a nationally protected tea village, called Lao Ban Zhang Cun.  The village is home to some of the oldest tea trees in the world (The King Tea Tree 茶王树，The Emperor Tea Tree 茶皇树), some aged over 1500 years.

Tea grown in this village has gained notoriety for high quality. We heard from the locals that they are only able to rent tea trees within the village.

The village itself is monitored for quality to ensure the trees grow free of pesticides. Also, there are strict rules governing entrance to the village by outsiders. 

I was lucky enough to be in touch with people who knew some of the villagers. This was the only reason I was allowed to go in.

After visiting the tea garden, we had tea and lunch inside the village with our host. I was told that the people running the tea plantations in Lao Ban Zhang village are extremely rich. Selling such an expensive tea, our contact joked that they can never spend all the money they earn.

When our contact’s friend first came in, I mistook him for a construction worker.  Unaware that he was in charge of the operation I didn’t think he was someone important. In retrospect, I regret not taking a picture of him.  After getting back to Beijing I contacted him through Wechat and asked him for a photo.

From his family photo, you can see how modest and humble these people are, despite the fact that they sell such an exorbitantly priced tea. 

His mother and daughter are wearing Hani ethnicity clothes. Judging by their looks, you’d never guess they are tea billionaires.  (My husband was quick to draw references to The Beverly Hillbillies.)

Though we added each other’s Wechat, I wasn’t sure how to communicate with him.

The boss, Mr. Li, told me that he never went to school, so he couldn’t read my messages if I typed Chinese characters. I, on the other hand, can’t understand his Yunnan dialect. So we agreed to use voice messages to communicate through WeChat and speak slowly in Mandarin. So far we have been maintaining good communication and a friendly relationship. I told him that I would come back after the pandemic with other foreigners who love tea and that we’d stay in his hotel. By the way, Mr. Li owns a hotel inside the Laoban Zhang Village.

Another major factor that determines tea price is the harvest. As I mentioned, tea harvested before the spring rain is of a superb quality, and all tea connoisseurs seek to buy tea from this particular harvest. Since demand is high, this tea is the most expensive.

Generally speaking, loose tea leaves cost more than tea cakes.

Where to Get a Good Quality Tea in China: Menghai Tea Town

The last stop during my China tea tour was Menhai county. After leaving the mountains, we moved on to Menghai county. I was surprised to find out that a large section of Menghai is called “Tea City”.  There was also a pedestrian street located at the 冠时代广场 square that was home to a multitude of tea shops. Many are run by owners of tea plantations in the mountains.

We spent a whole day walking from tea shop to tea shop, meeting different owners, drinking tea with them, and learning about pu’erh tea. Buying a tea cake or two helped me establish new friendships and trusted sources for buying quality tea in the future.  

The Biggest Obstacle in Organizing My First China Tea Tour

Since there are many factors that determine tea quality, finding a good quality tea can be hard. That’s why when buying tea in China, people only buy tea from those they know and trust. Tea aficionados never buy tea online or at the supermarket. So, I decided to set on a quest to find a good tea in China.

Though I’ve been living in China for 13 years and speak fluent Mandarin, organizing my first tea tour in China was quite challenging.

In traditional Chinese culture, the best things are only shared with familiar people. I tried to search for recommendations and contact people before I arrived. However, it didn’t really work. In traditional Chinese culture, you won’t get too far if you don’t have friends or relationships.

Fortunately, while searching for a place to stay, I read through the comments of a hostel. The guests commented that the boss was quite friendly. He owns a tea plantation and guests could observe tea harvesting as well as processing. Also, he had helped many guests with his recommendations of tea regions to visit during their stay, since he is familiar with the area. I called immediately and he said he would help me with organizing my tour. Not only that, but he also sent his friend to pick us from the airport.  His friend remained our driver throughout the rest of the journey.

As for the tea tour itself, fortunately, I already knew some people from the tea expos I had attended last year in Beijing.

Little did I know that if it wasn’t for some of their help, I wouldn’t be able to get into the tea villages. These people will be the ones that I will continue ordering tea from.

To give you an example of how challenging Chinese culture is, I knew nobody when we reached the tea region called Lao Man E. Fortunately, the driver had a friend there. His friend was a retired teacher who helped us get in touch with Mr. Yan.  Yan is the head of the village and also owns a big plantation in Lao Man E. He welcomed us, showed us around his tea plantation and tea factory, and let us try some excellent tea from Lao Man E mountain.

After visiting growers on the mountains and drinking tea with shop owners in Menghai Tea City, I now feel more confident to bring people over along in the future. If you are in China and would like to visit, you can follow my suggestions.

Would You Like to Go on a Tea Tour to China?

If you are abroad and would like to go on a tea tour in China to get a good quality tea, get in touch with me. Please note that in order to curb the pandemic, China still doesn’t allow tourist entry to foreign nationals. Until they do, I’ve started a Facebook group to keep in touch. If you are interested to know more about tea and other health & wellness practices from the east, feel free to join.

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