"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 from the tasting 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. The quantity is small, 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 looks and sighs of admiration from 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 and on the tea mountains; in Kunming, Guangzhou, Beijing and other places, people were also showing off like this. Tree age, like the bags of my surname's pinyin LV - a brand, has become a luxury item and a capital for showing off.

The promotion of Pu'er tea benefits from two keywords: 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 longer the tree age, 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," there are too many results, from a dozen yuan per cake to several thousand yuan, and even ripe tea fermented from thousand-year ancient tree tea. Tree age has become an important selling point for merchants.

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

At 8:38 on March 28, 2016, Taobao search for "thousand-year ancient tree Pu'er tea," selecting "cake tea," screenshot 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 statements

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

2, Government-led

Through various government-led investigations, family tree checks, book searches, seminars, etc., a consensus is formed, and then the government announces it. From then on, this tree or this forest has that age. For example, regarding the origin of the age of a certain big tea tree, government officials searched for big tea trees everywhere in their jurisdiction, and they had to be older than those in neighboring areas for better marketing. Their efforts paid off, and they finally found a tea tree that looked extremely large. After an investigation, they determined the tree age to be 800 years. It seemed fine. After a while, they felt it was not right; it was younger than those thousand-year-old trees in neighboring areas. How could that be? They re-investigated. The people who went to investigate understood and reported a number of 3800 years. The leader looked at it and thought it was not very good either; if the tree age was too large, it might become a joke if problems arose, so let it be 3xxx years. Thus, the tree age of that tea tree came about.

3, Sellers' own claims

"My tea is definitely over a thousand years old. I went into the forest and found an uninhabited 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 cake of tea. Try it. How is it? Isn't it?" The tea drinker sitting opposite looked confused but quickly nodded in agreement.

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

Old Ban Zhang Tea King Tree

Old Ban Zhang Tea Queen Tree

Moments post about Old Ban Zhang Tea King Tree

Moments post about Old Ban Zhang 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 areas, from selling tea to tourism, making tea farmers earn a lot of money, and adding more exotic colors to the Pu'er world that is already full of stories.

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