"Tea Talk on Paper" Part 2: The Temptation of Tree Age

"I only drink ancient tree tea that is over three hundred years old." A woman in red at a tea shop in Menghai said to the shopkeeper and other guests present.

Judging from her attire, she was a city girl. Well-dressed, she took a sip of tea from the cup in her hand, and added to the young tea artist: "The ancient tree tea I drink is all personally harvested by my friends who go to the tea mountains and guard the trees, then they bring it back to us. It's limited in quantity, and others can't buy it even if they want to." After saying this, she picked up the cup again, and amidst the envious and jealous gazes and admiring sighs of the crowd, finished the remaining tea in one gulp.

While she was saying this, it is estimated that similar words were also spoken in other tea shops in Menghai, on the tea mountains, and in Kunming, Guangzhou, Beijing, and other places. People are showing off like this, treating tree age like the LV brand bags—like my surname's pinyin LV—becoming luxury items and a symbol of showing off.

The promotion of Pu'er tea benefits from two key words: one is "the older, the more fragrant," and the other is "ancient tree tea." I will discuss "the older, the more fragrant" in another article. Today, I will mainly talk about the tree age of "ancient tree tea."

Tree age is exactly the opposite of the skirt length of a beautiful woman with long legs; the older the tree, the better. The "three hundred years" she mentioned earlier is actually nothing. If you search on Taobao for "thousand-year ancient tree Pu'er tea," you will find too many results, from a dozen yuan per cake to several thousand yuan per cake, even ripe tea fermented from thousand-year ancient tree tea. Tree age has become an important selling point for merchants.

Screenshot of Taobao search for "thousand-year ancient tree Pu'er tea" on March 28, 2016, at 8:38, selecting "cake tea," sorted by price from low to high

Screenshot of Taobao search for "thousand-year ancient tree Pu'er tea" on March 28, 2016, at 8:38, selecting "cake tea," sorted by price from high to low

So how is tree age determined?

As far as I know, there are roughly the following three situations.

1. Villagers' own accounts

"This tree was planted by my grandfather's grandfather," and counting on fingers, the old man speaking is 60 years old, his grandfather is about 110, and his grandfather's grandfather is about 160, so this tree is 160 years old. Many tea trees with ages of several hundred or even a thousand years are calculated in this way.

2. Government-led

Through various government-led investigations, research, genealogy checks, book searches, seminars, etc., a consensus is formed, and then the government announces it. After that, this tree or this forest is considered to be that age. For example, regarding the origin of the age of a certain large tea tree, government officials searched everywhere in their jurisdiction for large tea trees, and they had to find one older than those in neighboring areas to facilitate marketing. Their efforts paid off, and they finally found a tree that looked very large. After an investigation, they determined the tree age: 800 years. It seemed okay. But after a while, they felt it was not right; it was younger than those thousand-year-old trees in neighboring areas. That wouldn't do, so they re-investigated. The people who went to investigate understood and reported a number: 3800 years. The leader looked at it and thought it was not quite right either; if the age was too large, it might become a joke, so they settled on 3xxx years. And so the age of that tea tree came to be.

3. Sellers' own claims

"My tea is definitely over a thousand years old. I went deep into the forest and found a wild tea grove, with trees this big," he said, making a large circular gesture with his hands, "over ten meters tall. Several of us set up tents and stayed there, and it took a week to make just over a hundred kilograms of tea. Here, this is the cake. Try it. How is it? Isn't it good?" The tea drinker sitting opposite looked bewildered but quickly nodded in agreement.

With the support of tree age, the tea trees look big, and selling tea becomes very easy. If you can also find a "tea king tree," then many people will come to pay homage and visit, making it even easier to sell tea. Yesterday, a wealthy man paid cash for the old Banzhang "Tea King" and "Tea Queen" trees. Actually, they are not the largest, but because they are by the roadside and indeed quite large, they were chosen. If you walked further inside or to the side, there are many tea trees larger than these two.

Old Banzhang Tea King Tree

Old Banzhang Tea Queen Tree

Moments post about Old Banzhang Tea King Tree

Moments post about Old Banzhang Tea King Tree

Tree age is an excellent selling point for merchants and an irresistible temptation for consumers.

The temptation of tree age has driven the economy of tea regions, from selling tea to tourism, filling the pockets of tea farmers, and adding a touch of exotic color to the already story-filled Pu'er world.

Articles and images are original. Author: Lü Jianfeng, WeChat: 673998, working at 51 Pu'er Net, initiator of Houyue Crowdfunding Tea.