China’s Drinkable Antique: the extravagance of Pu erh

Expensive Chinese Tea

Perhaps you have heard of fermented tea. It’s expensive, aged, and calls for an acquired taste. You might be surprised, but we are not talking about kombucha. Pu erh, rather, is the expensive, fermented tea we have in mind. It differs from kombucha in just about every way including price, age, and fermentation. While kombucha might cost a pretty penny, it is a bargain compared to real Yunnanese Pu erh. Kombucha, also, is fermented after the tea has been brewed, while Pu erh ages, ferments, and morphs enzymatically as dry, unbrewed tea leaves. To the tongue, kombucha is slightly sour and even effervescent, whereas Pu erh is a distinct floral, mushroomy tea. So, forget kombucha! What is Pu erh and why is it so expensive? 

Chinese Scholar Lu Yu
A Japanese artist’s depiction of the influential Lu Yu 春木南溟, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

At least as early as the Tang dynasty (619-907 CE), tea was becoming a cultural foodstuff of considerable social cache. The Chinese character cha, from which half of the world derives its word for tea (see Arabic شاي and most other ‘Easter’ languages), did not exist before the Tang period, and tea as we know it today may also have originated in this era of tea sophistication. The term ming referred to a medicinal precursor to modern strained tea, but resembled a soupy bowl of boiled greens. The publication of Classic of Tea in 780 by Lu Yu, inaugurated a now 1400 year old tradition of tea connoisseurship with stress on how the tea was brewed and poured. This is the start of the tea most of the world drinks today. 

Tea originated in what is today southern China in the neighboring provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan. At first, it was consumed locally, but by the Tang dynasty the tree leaves had become a cash crop due to the ease with which it could be transported and the fact that it was cultivated on mountains and did not use valuable lowland areas which were required for rice. As tea was farmed and dried in the mountains of Southern China, it was shipped out on long, difficult journeys to the west towards India and the east towards Beijing. It would arrive in large cities in the teapots of sophisticated and influential households at the end of its journey, but on the way, exposure to time, the elements, and perhaps the sweat of pack animals transformed the tea. When a long leaf variety from the Camellia sinensis var. assamica plant was subjected to these conditions, the buyers found the flavor to be exquisite. Pu erh was born.

Pu erh is simply long leaf tea from Yunnan that had been aged and transformed by a litany of bacterias and yeasts. The green tea is moistened and left to age as it undergoes oxidation, condensation, degradation, and polymerization. The end result looks different, with a deep black color, and tastes different with a less astringent, mushroomy finish. The longer the tea is aged, the better it tastes and the more expensive it becomes. On top of this, the tea is believed to have special medicinal properties. The extravagance of Pu erh originates in its age, specificity of origin, and acclaimed medicinal properties. 

 

A compressed cake of Pu Erh Tea
A compressed cake of Pu Erh 静葉, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Pu erh is always aged. Modern demand has led to some innovations in the methods of production, which true connoisseurs might call genre-compromising shortcuts. True Pu erh is referred to as a “drinkable antique.” After the green tea is harvested it is dampened with water. The wet tea is stored in a room and churned over time in order to provide air to all the tea leaves(Evolution analysis). With time, the tea turns dark and the flavor mellows. Because this process takes so long, the age of the tea is built into the price. Newer blocks of Pu erh that have been aged only 10 years might sell for 100 USD, but Pu erh from the 1950s will cost about 100,000 USD for the same cake (Tea Masters). Hoarding of older cakes by connoisseurs only exacerbates the price issue. Consider Pu erh to be the wine of tea, vintage. 

Chinese tea experts squarely categorize leaves and infusions into 6 different tea categories: green, yellow, white, oolong, red, and dark. Red tea, in the Chinese tradition, is what most Westerners refer to as black tea. Black tea, to clear up any confusion,  is fermented tea. Pu erh fits into this category. Not only is Pu erh oxidized and fermented, but it also must originate in the province of Yunnan on remote, high mountains. Ethnic minorities in this region are the traditional keepers of the sometimes century-old tea trees that sprout the long-leaf tea of Pu erh. The best Pu erh needs to be made in this region and in a specific manner, creating a limited supply and pushing up prices. 

 

The southern province of Yunnan in China
The southern province of Yunnan in China where Pu erh originated and is grown today CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Lastly, like other rare comestible commodities in China, Pu erh is seen as a natural remedy. Tea, in general, is the first pan-Chinese medicine (Benn). There has been a wide-array of research that has set out to prove the medicinal benefits of Pu erh tea with modern medicine. The sheer breadth of research is indicative of the Chinese folk belief that this special tea has important medicinal qualities. Different studies have attempted to prove that Pu erh’s qualities are curative for diabetes, cancer, obesity, bacterial infections, and allergic reactions. There is some evidence that Pu erh has medicinal qualities, but the specific mechanism by which it operates is not understood (Lee 627). While Pu erh might not be the panacea that connoisseurs make it out to be, it is coveted for that purpose, and the desperate as well as the proactive drink it regularly in order to ward off bad health. 

Pu erh is ancient, both as a category of tea and as a drink itself. This aged tea has been transported and sipped since the Tang dynasty, and the most distinguished cakes of Pu erh today age over 70 years. While I won’t drink my tea if it is a couple hours old and cold, a true connoisseur likes her cup with a couple of decades on it. Moreover, she is willing to pay. Pu erh is not even the most expensive tea in the Chinese tradition, but it is amongst tea royalty. Most of us will never enjoy the sophistication of a hot cup of this drinkable antique.  

 

Chinese Tea and Money

Sources Cited

“1950s Raw Gushu Puerh Weight 1 Gr.” Tea Masters, www.tea-masters.com/en/puerh/1202-1254-1950s-raw-gushu-puerh.html.

Benn, James A. Tea in China a Religious and Cultural History. Univ. of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015.

Deng, Xiujuan, et al. “Evolution Analysis of Flavor-Active Compounds during Artificial Fermentation of Pu-Erh Tea.” Food Chemistry, vol. 357, 2021, p. 129783., doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129783.

Lee, L.k., and K.y. Foo. “Recent Advances on the Beneficial Use and Health Implications of Pu-Erh Tea.” Food Research International, vol. 53, no. 2, 2013, pp. 619–628., doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2013.02.036.

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