Recently, with the rise of Pu-erh tea in mainland China, rumors regarding “Hong Kong storage” have emerged, with some even labeling it as “wet storage,” and various suspicious rumors have been spreading.
We must always understand one thing: we actually know nothing about the actual processing techniques used for Hong Kong storage. After the 1997 handover, much of Hong Kong’s stored tea (it is said) was bought in large quantities by people from Taiwan, and Hong Kongers, who are accustomed to keeping commercial secrets conservatively, are even less willing to talk about it.
The vast majority of the old Pu-erh tea we drink today does not leave the sales range of Yunnan—Hong Kong—Taiwan. We can also imagine that as tea becomes increasingly scarce, the tea remaining in existence naturally becomes more expensive.
In fact, from a pricing perspective, there is an issue with Pu-erh tea that has become an antique: it lacks the rigid testing methods required for other antiques (though the principles for judging antiques are not that rigid either). For judging Pu-erh, we might simply understand it this way: an auction house has five experts who vote to decide the authenticity of an antique; if three experts believe it is genuine, then it becomes “genuine.”
A major event occurred in 2011, where a Han Dynasty jade dragon and phoenix pattern dressing table and stool were sold for 220 million yuan, setting a new world record for jade auctions. In fact, there were no stools in the Han Dynasty, so this event shocked the antique world. “Zhongjia International complied with all procedures and auction qualifications; there is no direct evidence to prove it involved fraudulent bidding. Even if the item has now been confirmed as fake, it is difficult for relevant departments to hold the auction company accountable,” said a deputy secretary-general of the China Auction Industry Association.
It is not strange that true tea is too scarce; another line of thinking was born. The flavor of “Hong Kong storage tea” has become familiar to people, so some tea merchants named a type of tea with a large existing supply—which does not have the “Hong Kong storage” flavor—as “dry storage”—yes, they want to earn huge profits through the concept of “dry storage.”
Dongguan Hongxinlong Tea Warehouse
This approach has achieved great success. As for so-talled “dry storage” tea, some people like it and some do not; this is normal. I have tasted it a few times over the past four or five years and did not particularly like it, but every time I drink it, I find that the price has increased by another twenty or thirty thousand yuan. I recently checked the prices, and surprisingly, it has already reached 110,000 yuan per cake.
The idea that the “dry storage” concept can drive tea prices to such an extent is somewhat inconceivable. Analyzing this, the promotion of the “dry storage” concept has been accompanied by the intimidation of “wet storage” stories—rumors regarding how “wet storage” is dirty, messy, and full of bacteria spread very quickly in terms of food hygiene. Even more shocking is that there are indeed a very small amount of “wet storage teas” in the world. Why are they produced? To whom are they sold? This is a mystery that no one knows. Fang Zizhi even conducted tests, and of course, there were indeed bacteria; this became a hot topic for a period of time.
Generally, I do not drink tea samples sent to me by tea merchants, but one merchant was very sincere, so I tried their Lao Ban Zhang, which was quite good. Then I drank another type of tea that had been stored for 16 years; not only had it not transformed, but it was also very light. This was clearly caused by the so-called dry storage.
Simply put, everyone distrusts the quality of “Hongly Kong storage,” but in reality, they cannot learn how to do it even if they wanted to. In a practical sense, only one method remains: natural, non-technical storage in hot and humid places like Guangzhou or Xishuangbanna.
The friend who sent the tea samples stored the tea in a dry city.
Mr. Zou Jiaju introduced the principle of tea fermentation in his book “Conversations on Pu-erh Tea”: “The process of microbial reproduction is called fermentation. The prerequisites for fermentation are: a certain amount of moisture, a certain temperature, and a certain amount of oxygen. Many Pu-erh tea books praise ‘dry storage’ to the heavens, not realizing that without a certain level of moisture, there would be no environment for microbes to survive and multiply. The less moisture in dry storage, the slower the aging process of the tea leaves. The purpose of fermentation and aging is to dissipate off-flavors and astringency, and to guide out smoothness and mellow richness, ensuring a long-lasting aged fragrance and a full, satisfying sensation that does not constrict the throat. It is necessary for the storage location to intermittently maintain a certain level of moisture.”
Most people are unwilling to listen to bitter but good advice, yet they are very willing to be intoxicated by “sweet talk” like “there are no middlemen making a difference,” remaining in a daze without ever waking up. Many people have already conducted experiments. Mr. Zou also pointed out that a tea cake stored in a dry location for ten years shows little change.
My friends would not listen. Instead, they gave me many lessons, such as “wet storage is very terrifying,” “dry storage is a guarantee of quality,” “our corporate culture is to be an ethical enterprise”…
A friend I have known for many years has several warehouses containing tens of millions worth of tea. I have tasted his Lao Ban Zhang, and the tea soup was light in flavor. I know that dehumidifiers were used in the warehouse; this friend must have been terrified by the curses of “dampness” and “mold” in the “dry storage” theory, and therefore the dehumidifiers are kept running year-round in the warehouse, which has stripped away the tea qi. I tried to discuss my thoughts as tactfully as possible. His defense was that there is too much tea and it is too expensive; he simply does not dare to let the tea grow mold.
Tea must undergo fermentation to increase in value; if it grows mold, the investment has obviously evaporated. However, with long-term dryness, the tea leaves do not change, and any increase in value is merely an illusion.
Drink more tea, read more books, and observe more in the warehouses. There are no shortcuts to appreciation.
This article
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
Unit 902-3, 9/F, Mini Cube, 10 Sam Chuk Street, San Po Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
www.zentea-shop.com Email:info@zentea-shop.com
