Cloud tea is like life; life is learning, wisdom is cultivation.<\/p>\n
Having drunk Pu-erh tea for more than thirty years, I have gone from an ignorant tea drinker to a practitioner in the tea industry, witnessing the ups and downs of this trade. Academician Liu Zhonghua of the Chinese Academy of Engineering has long followed the development of Yunnan’s tea industry and holds profound insights into Pu-erh tea’s transformation from traditional agriculture to a modern big-health industry. I have chewed over several of his core viewpoints repeatedly for years; each time I gain new inspiration, and I grow ever more certain of my direction in tea.<\/p>\n
Let me start with price. Well-known domestic teas made from small- and medium-leaf varieties are generally expensive, often costing over ten thousand yuan, while Yunnan teas are remarkably affordable. At many expos, a kilogram of loose Yunnan Pu-erh can be had for just over two hundred yuan. This price advantage is the foundation for Yunnan tea to expand into the mass market. Tea has grades high and low, but everyone may enjoy it regardless of status. I have always believed that good tea should not be the privilege of a few \u2014 everyone should be able to afford a good cup of tea.<\/p>\n
Yunnan is not only the land of Pu-erh. Green tea is part of its base: as early as 1991 to 1993, Yunnan developed top-grade broken green tea exported to Korea, Japan, and elsewhere, with volumes reaching the tens-of-millions-of-tons level. Dianhong and Yunnan white tea are highly competitive in both price and quality. Yunnan white tea in particular, whenever it appears at expos, puts considerable pressure on Fuding white tea. The resource advantage of large-leaf varieties allows Pu-erh, black tea, green tea, and white tea to advance together like four drives. Whenever I host friends, I pair different Yunnan teas with the season and their constitution \u2014 raw Pu-erh in spring to clear heat and relieve summer heat, Dianhong in autumn to warm the stomach and nourish the complexion, ripe Pu-erh in winter to aid digestion and moisten the intestines \u2014 each with its own virtues. From a wellness perspective, Yunnan’s large-leaf teas are rich in intrinsic substances: their tea polyphenol, catechin, and caffeine contents are all higher than those of small- and medium-leaf varieties, making their antioxidant and digestion-aiding effects more pronounced.<\/p>\n
The tea tree genome research mentioned by Academician Liu excites me. With the successful mapping of the high-quality tea tree genome, we can distinguish ancient-tree tea from wild tea at the molecular level, achieving the conservation and utilization of germplasm resources. The Menghai Tea Tree Sub-repository of the National Germplasm Repository has already collected and preserved 2,560 accessions of tea group plants. This is a true scientific foundation, allowing the act of drinking tea to rest not only on experience but also on data.<\/p>\n
However, Academician Liu also points out bluntly: ancient-tree tea gardens in Yunnan are scarce in area, and it is the largely organically cultivated tea gardens that form the foundation of a hundred-billion-yuan industry. Small, marginal mountain micro-terroirs alone cannot propel Yunnan Pu-erh into the mainstream; only scaled, industrialized processing is the future of Pu-erh tea. Future tea gardens must move toward mechanized management, and processing must be standardized and intelligent \u2014 otherwise it will forever remain just storytelling. I feel this deeply: making tea cannot rely on storytelling alone; consistent quality is the foundation.<\/p>\n
Regarding brand building, he cited the successful example of Anhua County \u2014 an output value of no more than 100 million yuan in 2006, reaching 22 billion yuan in 2021, with 300 million yuan in tax revenue. Yunnan sits on superior resources yet has not built its brands well. This is worth deep reflection.<\/p>\n
What touched me most was his view on storage: tea’s health attributes come first \u2014 it is meant to be drunk. Although Pu-erh tea keeps transforming, it must ultimately be consumed. If tea is hoarded indefinitely, excessive collecting brings market disorder and gives rise to fake tea, fake mountain origins, and other chaos. I couldn’t agree more. Tea, in the end, is meant to be drunk; its health and wellness value is fundamental.<\/p>\n
Making friends through tea \u2014 please, have a cup.<\/p>\n
Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
ZENTEA MANOR
Alliance Supply Chain Services Limited
www.zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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