Pu'er and Taiwan: From Hong Kong's Aged Teas to Cross-Strait Tea Ties

In Taiwan, pu'er often carries an air of being "old-school and refined": stacks of tea cakes wrapped in bamboo husk in the cabinets of old tea shops, and tea people talking about Red Mark, Songpin, and qizi bing. Taiwan grows no pu'er, yet it has left deep footprints on pu'er collecting, research, and the revival of traditional craft. The story begins in the teahouses of Hong Kong.

How Pu'er Came to Taiwan

Exactly when pu'er reached Taiwan is hard to pin down. In earlier years, Taiwan mainly drank its own oolong and baozhong. Pu'er arrived bit by bit, carried in with Cantonese-style yum cha and by travelers and merchants going back and forth to Hong Kong, and circulated in yum cha restaurants and among a small number of discerning tea people.

What truly turned pu'er into a field of study in Taiwan was the late 1980s through the 1990s. After the government allowed people to visit relatives on the mainland in 1987, cross-strait contact grew, and Hong Kong became the window through which Taiwanese tea people encountered pu'er. Hong Kong teahouses had long used pu'er in large quantities. "Yi zhong liang jian" (a pot of tea with two dim sum) very often meant a pot of ripe tea, and chrysanthemum with pu'er, known as "guk pou," was an everyday drink for many people. With demand that large, tea shops and warehouses accumulated plenty of tea that had been stored for decades. For the relationship between Hong Kong teahouses and pu'er, read Hong Kong Teahouses and Pu'er.

Three Roles Played by Taiwanese Tea People

Collectors

In the 1980s, Taiwan's teahouse culture was in full swing, with many people drinking tea, talking tea, and collecting teaware, and they were interested in "old things" too. Taiwanese tea people went looking for aged pu'er in Hong Kong's teahouses, tea shops, and warehouses, bringing Hao-grade and Yin-grade teas back to Taiwan to drink. According to the recollections of Hong Kong tea merchants, around 1997 many of Hong Kong's old teahouses and old warehouses were demolished or closed one after another, and their aged teas flowed onto the market. A Global Views Monthly report noted that more than 60% of the aged tea released in Hong Kong at that time ended up in Taiwan. Taiwan thus became an important hub for aged pu'er.

Researchers and Writers

In 1993, Simao in Yunnan hosted the first International Pu'er Tea Academic Symposium, attended by 15 people from Taiwan, including tea people Lü Lizhen, Zhou Yu, He Jian, and Deng Shihai. In 1995, Deng Shihai published the book Pu'er Tea, which systematically laid out pu'er's history, its eras, and tasting insights. It sparked a pu'er collecting craze in Taiwan and later influenced the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan alike. The "Hao-grade, Yin-grade, qizi bing" system of eras that collectors use today reflects the work of Taiwanese tea people; see Hao-Grade, Yin-Grade, and Qizi Bing and Taiwan's 1990s Pu'er Collecting Boom.

Reawakeners of the Craft

Taiwanese tea people discovered that nearly all of the best Hao-grade aged teas in their hands came from Yiwu. In 1994, Lü Lizhen led a group of Taiwanese tea people into Yiwu to seek out the sites of old tea houses and learn from tea workers who still remembered the old methods, and afterward commissioned tea cakes pressed by hand in stone molds. The full story is told in Taiwanese Tea People Return to Yiwu; the tea world regards it as one of the key starting points for the revival of Yiwu's private tea houses.

2004: Pu'er Becomes the Only Mainland Tea Category Opened to Import

Taiwan has long restricted imports of agricultural products from the mainland. According to a press release from the Ministry of Agriculture (then the Council of Agriculture), pu'er was opened to import in 2004, while other mainland tea categories remained restricted. Official imports rose markedly after the opening: according to the same press release, about 2,920 tonnes in 2009, about 5,213 tonnes in 2010, and about 4,067 tonnes from January to September 2011.

In other words, most of the pu'er circulating in Taiwan before 2004 came by way of re-export through Hong Kong or other channels; after 2004, pu'er had an official import channel, and it became available at tea shops, supermarkets, and online stores. In 2010, the then Department of Health also announced stronger border inspections of imported tea and required that tea blended from two or more origins list all origins on the package. For details of the import rules, read Taiwan's Rules for Importing Pu'er.

The Rise and Fall of 2007

In the mid-2000s, pu'er took off on the mainland and prices climbed rapidly, then fell sharply after 2007. Taiwan's collecting world felt this wave too. On one hand, mainland collectors began coming to Taiwan looking for aged tea, so some of the tea that had stayed in Taiwan for years flowed back across the strait. On the other hand, after living through this wave, many people turned their attention back to "does it taste good" and "has it been stored well." The market story is in The 2007 Pu'er Market Bubble.

Taiwan Storage: A Gentle Stop

Hong Kong is hot and humid, and aged tea changes quickly in Hong Kong storerooms. Taiwan's climate is somewhat milder, and what tea lovers call "Taiwan storage" usually tastes cleaner than Hong Kong storage. The tea world has a rule of thumb: "stored in Hong Kong, aired out in Taiwan." Tea kept for years in Hong Kong is moved to a drier environment in Taiwan, where the storage taste gradually fades and the liquor turns cleaner and brighter. This is lore from experience; storage conditions vary widely, and it still comes down to the condition of each individual tea. Further reading: Taiwan Storage and Storing Tea in Northern, Central, Southern Taiwan, and the Mountains.

Taiwan's Pu'er Market Today

Taiwan's pu'er market today has roughly several faces:

• Aged tea and collecting: Old tea shops and collectors still hold plenty of tea from before the 1990s, and there are dedicated tasting gatherings and auctions.
• Single-mountain and ancient-tree tea: Since 2008, single-mountain teas from Bingdao, Lao Banzhang, Yiwu, and elsewhere have become popular, and drinkers have started paying attention to growing area and tree age; see The Era of Single-Mountain Tea and the Ancient-Tree Craze.
• Everyday drinking: Ripe pu'er with dim sum, a pot after a meal, or tea bags and dragon pearls at the office. Pu'er has become an everyday cup of tea.
• New tea lovers coming from oolong: Many people only got to know pu'er after growing used to Taiwan's high-mountain teas and Oriental Beauty. For a way in, read Pu'er for Oolong Drinkers.

Guyuntang's Bingdao Old Village Dragon Pearls and Pu'er Pyramid Tea Bag Gift Box, one for slow brewing at home and one for easy everyday drinking, are both what pu'er looks like in daily life in Taiwan. To find out where to buy tea in Taiwan, read Buying Pu'er in Taiwan.

FAQ

When did pu'er come to Taiwan?
The exact date is hard to pin down. In earlier years it was mostly brought in along with Cantonese yum cha and by people traveling to and from Hong Kong; large-scale collecting and research came in the late 1980s through the 1990s.

When did Taiwan open pu'er to import?
In 2004. Pu'er is currently the only mainland tea category opened to import; other mainland tea categories remain restricted.

What did Taiwanese people contribute to pu'er history?
They collected the aged teas that came out of Hong Kong, organized and wrote about the "Hao-grade, Yin-grade, qizi bing" eras (for example, Deng Shihai's 1995 book Pu'er Tea), and from 1994 returned to Yiwu to commission handmade tea cakes, helping revive traditional craft.

How is Taiwan storage different from Hong Kong storage?
Hong Kong is more hot and humid, so tea changes faster and may have a heavier storage taste; Taiwan is relatively milder, and the liquor is usually cleaner. In practice it still depends on the conditions of each storeroom.