"Tea Talk on Paper" No. 16: The Levels of Tea Makers, Which Level Are You At?

This is the sixteenth article of "Tea Talk on Paper".

Since 2010, I have been frequently visiting tea factories, and in recent years, I have been frequently visiting tea mountains, so I have some understanding of the source; often people tell me how awesome, serious, and impressive someone is at making tea. Previously, I also admired them, but through my understanding in recent years, I have formed my own views and found that they are just so-so, and even a bit disdainful. I have talked about the levels of tea makers on various occasions many times. Today, let me sort it out as a summary.

Level 1: Elementary School Student

I consider those with the following characteristics as elementary school students:

1. Mainly focus on single-mountain ecological or ancient tree tea, or both;
2. Make ripe tea from a single mountain;
3. Even if blending is done, there is no stable formula; it is just simple mixing, and the taste of the tea cannot be guaranteed to be consistent in the next batch;
4. Frequently change tea packaging; if it doesn't sell well, change the packaging and find a new concept to sell;
5. Launch dozens or even hundreds of teas each year; the good sellers run out of stock, and the bad sellers are left in the warehouse; the next year repeats, only the names continue, but the quality and taste cannot stabilize;
6. Often claim to have discovered ancient tea gardens rarely seen by humans, post a bunch of pictures, share samples everywhere for tea competitions, and for secrecy, do not take fellow tea friends along;
7. The oldest and purest is the lifelong pursuit; the most expensive tea is also the best seller;

......

Take mountain tea makers as an example. They only make ancient tree pure material, guarding fresh leaves on each mountain, working hard to make dozens or a hundred kilograms of tea. Not only is the quantity small, but when facing competition, they increase the price to buy fresh leaves. Every year they complain that fresh leaves are expensive but still buy them, competing to see who is richer and more foolish, yet they claim to be persistent, sparing no cost for quality, only for the good tea in their hearts. They enrich the tea farmers, raise tea prices, shrink consumers' pockets, and also make some money themselves. It seems everyone is happy. There are various stories circulating about thousands-yuan teas being blind-tasted and losing to hundreds-yuan teas, but these tea makers turn a blind eye. As long as someone pays, they just ensure it is pure material.

As the price of a certain mountain rises higher and higher, the following consumers can no longer afford to drink it, so they only make a little to share with tea friends, then find new mountains to replace it, and the new mountain enters the cycle of tea makers. The more expensive the mountain, the greater its fame, and the more consumers chase it. Although the probability is very low, the total number is large, and there are quite a few consumers who don't care about price. There are always people buying, so it sells out every year. The legends of famous Pu'er mountains are refreshed every year, and new mountains and new stories appear every year, forming the unique mountain culture of Pu'er tea.

Tea friends sensitive to price are also restless, chasing those mountains that are not yet expensive but full of legends. Tea makers rush around various mountains, and during the spring tea season, hotels in Menghai are not enough, and rooms are hard to find. Tea makers compete on who tells better stories, and whoever has more followers drives better cars and stays in higher-end hotels. The oldest and purest has become a topic they must discuss and the direction they pursue.

This basket of ancient tree fresh leaves from Laobanzhang cost me tens of thousands of yuan

Level 2: Middle School Student

Middle school tea makers break away from the competition of being rich but foolish. They also make ancient tree pure material, but more based on brand thinking and product planning. The main characteristics are:

1. Launch products in a planned and step-by-step manner;
2. Look at all of Yunnan as available raw material areas;
3. Only choose the right raw materials, not the expensive ones;
4. Making expensive ancient tree pure material products is mostly for strategic needs, to maintain the height and exposure of the product line;
5. Best-selling teas are mostly blends; even if a tea is named after a mountain, it is a blend of the whole mountain. These best-selling main teas are usually released every year, and the taste and quality remain stable;
6. The warehouse is piled with raw materials, not finished products;
7. Some raw materials in the warehouse are aged, not all made into finished products;
8. Even if someone offers a high price for old raw materials, they don't sell; they blend them into tea products in batches and in a planned way;

......

Many large factories are not large because they have money, but because they have plans and systems, stable products recognized by consumers, which makes them large. Most tea makers will never upgrade to middle school level in their lifetime.

The fenced tea king tree

Level 3: College Student

The third level, also the highest level, is my goal. It's not that the third level is much better than the second, but because the second level is suitable for those with large investments and scale, and we grassroots tea makers don't have many opportunities to mix in the second level.

The main characteristics of the third level:

1. Have their own cognitive system and understand tea;
2. For unfamiliar tea areas and fields, willing to invest time and a small amount of money to understand; often make a lot of samples but do not formally purchase;
3. Buy tea they approve of; only buy the right one, not the expensive one;
4. Often visit major non-Yunnan tea areas, attend various tea gatherings not about Pu'er, and even launch a small number of non-Yunnan tea products;
5. Their vision is not limited to Yunnan; they pay attention to raw materials nationwide, and their products may also blend raw materials from other tea areas;
6. Do not strictly distinguish between black tea, green tea, oolong, yellow tea, white tea, and dark tea; they add oolong techniques to black tea, Longjing techniques to Pu'er, with no constraints in mind, believing that suitable techniques and raw materials can be used;
7. Good-tasting and healthy tea is the only goal; everything else doesn't matter;

......

Houyue Bulang Ancient醇 poster

Third-level tea makers have tea in their hearts; wherever they go, they must talk about tea. When they see food packaging, they immediately think of using it for their tea packaging. When they drink good green tea, they must go see what raw materials it is made from and how it is made. When they return to their own territory, they also experiment to see if they can make it. The criteria for judging good tea include not only quality but also cost-effectiveness. Product naming is not mainly based on mountains, but based on their understanding of the tea...

Third-level tea makers also have no tea in their hearts. They seem to like wine, coffee, tobacco pipes, calligraphy, painting, music, chess, reading, traveling, etc. Because of their wide range of hobbies, they spend most of the year not on tea, attending various non-tea gatherings, and even if they open a shop, they don't focus on business, displaying various things they like. They have good friends all over the country and even abroad, driving their own cars or flying, wandering around, leaving footprints at famous scenic spots, or visiting all the good places in consumer guides. When tired and exhausted, they quietly drink a cup of tea. After playing around and coming back, they seem to have new inspiration for making tea, and the tea seems to have new elements.

Jingmai Mountain's hundred-family meal

This is my understanding of the three major levels of tea makers: elementary school student, middle school student, and college student. May I ask which level are you at? Or which level do you recognize more?

This article is original. Reproduction must not delete this statement. The article and images are original. Author: Lü Jianfeng, WeChat: 673998, working at 51 Pu'er Net, initiator of Houyue Crowdfunding Tea.