The Birth of Ripe Pu'er Processing: Kunming and Menghai Around 1973

Today ripe (shou) pu'er and raw (sheng) pu'er stand side by side as pu'er's two main branches, but ripe tea is actually young, with only about half a century of history. Where did it come from? Why was it made? Which factory made it first? These questions don't have just one answer. For the ripe tea process itself, start with Wet Piling: How Ripe Pu'er Is Made.

Why Invent Ripe Tea?

Traditional pu'er was all raw tea. Freshly made, it tastes strong, bitter, and astringent, and it takes many years of storage to turn mellow. But the market couldn't wait that long.

From the 1950s on, Hong Kong was one of pu'er's largest export markets. The pu'er served with dim sum in Hong Kong teahouses was expected to have a deep red liquor color, a smooth mouthfeel, and an aged aroma, in other words, the taste of "old tea." Old tea was limited in supply while demand kept growing. For Yunnan's state-owned tea factories and the import-export corporation, being able to reliably supply tea with this taste also meant more export orders. So "can we make tea age faster?" became a very practical question.

The "Water-Sprinkled Tea" of Guangdong and Hong Kong

Before Yunnan developed ripe tea, tea merchants in Guangdong and Hong Kong already had their own method: sprinkle water on the leaves and pile them up so the tea transforms faster in a warm, humid environment, then store it for a while to produce a taste close to old tea. The tea world calls this method "fashui" (sprinkling water), and the result "fashui tea." It's closely related to what later came to be called wet storage and "entering the warehouse"; read Dry Storage and Wet Storage.

The problem with this method was that quality was hard to control: the amount of water, temperature, and timing all depended on experience, and if it went wrong the tea easily picked up musty or off flavors. So Yunnan's factories set out to turn it into a controllable process that could be mass-produced.

Account One: 1973, Kunming First, Menghai Follows

The most common account:

• 1973: Yunnan sent technicians to Guangdong to study wet-pile fermentation, and after they returned, the Kunming Tea Factory successfully developed the artificial wet-piling process for ripe tea. English Wikipedia and other sources also say it was developed by the Kunming Tea Factory in 1973.
• Menghai follows: The Menghai Tea Factory then adopted the process and continued developing and refining it locally.
• 1975: Ripe pu'er went into mass production. The first two digits, "75," of the Menghai Tea Factory's classic ripe recipe 7572 correspond to exactly this year; read 7542, 8582, 7572: The Stories Behind Classic Pu'er Recipes.

Some sources also mention that the Xiaguan Tea Factory took part in early ripening experiments, with the Kunming Tea Factory then completing the humidified, heated wet-piling method. Clearly, ripe tea processing wasn't dreamed up overnight by a single person.

Account Two: Experiments Began in the 1960s

Another account pushes the date earlier. The Chinese Wikipedia entry on the Menghai Tea Factory records that it began wet-pile fermentation tests in 1964 and completed the basic wet-piling process in 1966. Some researchers also believe Yunnan was already trying artificial post-fermentation in the 1960s, just not in large-scale production, and not much finished product was left behind.

How to Read the Two Accounts

The two versions don't necessarily contradict each other. A sound way to understand them:

1. In the 1960s, Yunnan's tea factories had already begun experimenting with artificial fermentation;
2. Around 1973, drawing on experience from Guangdong and Hong Kong, the Kunming, Menghai, and other factories turned wet piling into a process ready for formal production;
3. From 1975 on, ripe tea went into mass production and was exported.

As for "which factory made the first ripe tea," mainstream accounts point to the Kunming Tea Factory, with the Menghai Tea Factory being where it was developed and popularized. If you accept the 1960s experiment account, Menghai also made very early attempts. The various accounts differ slightly on years and sequence, but there's broad consensus that "ripe tea became an official branch of pu'er in the 1970s."

Who Invented Ripe Tea?

Rather than being invented by one person, it was worked out collectively by technicians at Yunnan's state-owned tea factories. Drawing on the water-sprinkling experience of Guangdong and Hong Kong and combining it with the characteristics of Yunnan large-leaf sun-dried maocha, they developed a whole set of controls covering how much water to sprinkle, pile temperature, and when to turn the pile.

Later developments continued this collective character: a Xinhua report notes that in 1984 the CNNP (Zhongcha) Kunming Tea Factory organized the drafting of ripe pu'er processing methods and promoted them throughout the province. The 2008 national standard, GB/T 22111-2008, formally wrote ripe tea into the definition of pu'er. For differences in fermentation level among ripe teas, read Fermentation Levels in Ripe Pu'er.

FAQ

When did ripe pu'er first appear? The usual account is that the Kunming Tea Factory successfully developed it in 1973, the Menghai Tea Factory followed, and mass production began in 1975. Another account says the Menghai Tea Factory was already experimenting with wet piling in 1964–1966.

Who invented ripe tea? Not a single person. It was a process worked out collectively by technicians at Yunnan's state-owned tea factories, drawing on the water-sprinkling experience of Guangdong and Hong Kong. Mainstream accounts point to the Kunming Tea Factory.

What does ripe tea have to do with Hong Kong's water-sprinkled tea? Tea merchants in Guangdong and Hong Kong first developed the fashui method of sprinkling and piling tea to speed up aging. Yunnan's factories sent people to study it and refined it into a controllable, mass-producible wet-piling process.

Why was ripe tea invented? Hong Kong and other export markets liked the taste of old tea, with its deep red liquor and mellow mouthfeel. Raw tea takes many years to get there; ripe tea makes that taste possible after a few dozen days of wet piling.