Pu'er in Recent Years: Output, Jingmai's World Heritage Listing, and Younger Drinkers

Is pu'er still popular? If you only look at the stacks of old tea in a tea shop, you might think of it as your elders' tea. But look at the changes over the past 10 years and pu'er has actually kept taking on new forms: output keeps growing, a tea mountain has become a World Heritage site, small formats let young people brew a cup easily, and the place where tea is sold has moved from the tea shop to the phone.

How Much Pu'er Is Produced a Year Now?

According to 2024 figures from the China Tea Marketing Association's Briefing on the Development of the Pu'er Tea Industry (2025) (as reported by Fujian Daily):

A few observations worth noting:

• Much more raw than ripe: Raw tea accounts for about 3/4, ripe tea about 1/4.
• Pu'er is Yunnan's largest tea category: Yunnan has about 8 million mu of tea gardens in total, and its 2023 tea output was about 556,800 tonnes (by National Bureau of Statistics measure); pu'er makes up more than 40%.
• Mostly drunk at home: Exports are a very small share of output; the vast majority is consumed within China.

Compared with the roughly 100,000 tonnes the association cited during the 2007 bubble, output 17 years later is about double. The bubble's story is in The 2007 Pu'er Bubble.

Jingmai Mountain Becomes a World Heritage Site

On September 17, 2023, at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Saudi Arabia, the "Cultural Landscape of Old Tea Forests of the Jingmai Mountain in Pu'er" was inscribed on the World Heritage List, becoming the world's first tea-themed World Cultural Heritage site.

What Impact Has It Had?

• Protection and regulation: There are now clearer requirements for protecting the old tea forests and villages, and the management of understory gardens is getting more attention.
• Tourism and visibility: More people know the name Jingmai, and more are visiting the tea mountain and staying in traditional villages.
• A model of "ecological gardens": Growing tea trees together with the forest is held up as a model worth learning from, prompting people to rethink the difference between terrace tea and understory tea.
• Regional fame: Jingmai tea has become far more recognizable, which also means watching out for impostors.

Jingmai's history and villages are covered in Jingmai Mountain: A Thousand-Year Tea Garden Under the Forest.

How New Products Like Xiao Qing Gan and Tea Bags Took Off

A traditional 357-gram cake has to be pried, weighed, and brewed with proper teaware, which is a real hurdle for newcomers. The most obvious change of the past 10 years is that pu'er has become "easy to get into":

• Xiao qing gan: Green mandarins from Xinhui, Guangdong, are hollowed out and filled with ripe pu'er. They took off rapidly around 2014–2016. One mandarin per session and an appealing citrus aroma made them the first pu'er many people ever tried. See Xiao Qing Gan: Ripe Pu'er in a Mandarin Peel.
• Tea bags: Pyramid and flat tea bags let you brew pu'er in a mug at the office or on the road; see Pu'er Tea Bags.
• Dragon pearls, mini tuo, and "chocolate" bricks: Tea is pressed into one-session pieces or snap-off squares, so there's no prying. The association's briefing notes that in 2024, sales of these portable small formats generally rose by more than 10%.

Guyuntang's two teas follow the same direction: Bingdao Old Village Dragon Pearls are 8 grams per pearl, one session each, and the Pu'er Pyramid Tea Bag Gift Box holds 24 bags, ready to brew right at your desk.

How E-Commerce and Livestreaming Have Affected Pu'er

Over the past 10 years, pu'er sales channels have shifted heavily from tea shops and tea expos to the internet:

• Short-video platforms have become one of the main marketplaces: The association's briefing says that in the first half of 2024, pu'er held about 36.44% of the tea category on Douyin, the largest single category.
• Livestreams from the mountains: Tea farmers and merchants livestream picking, shaqing, and sun-drying right on the tea mountain, letting consumers "see the origin" and giving small regions a chance to sell directly to faraway customers.
• More transparent prices, but more chaos too: Comparing prices has become easy, but exaggerated claims in livestream rooms are common, and the association's briefing lists "livestreaming disorder" as one of the problems the industry has to face.

For tea buyers, the internet has brought more choices, and more homework in judging them. Buying principles are in Six Tips for Buying Pu'er.

A Younger Pu'er

Small formats, citrus pu'er, cold brew, and milk tea, along with tea-mountain livestreams and the World Heritage buzz, are moving pu'er away from its image as "elders' tea." The association's briefing also notes that product development still needs to align more closely with what young consumers want. For people just starting with pu'er, the simplest path is to begin with tea bags or dragon pearls, find a style you like, and then move on to cakes, mountains, and vintages. How to get started is in Your First Pu'er.

FAQ

Is pu'er still popular? Very. Pu'er output in 2024 was about 196,000 tonnes, up 7.7% from the previous year, making it Yunnan's largest tea category, and it also holds the largest sales share among teas on short-video platforms.

How much pu'er is produced a year now? According to the China Tea Marketing Association's briefing, about 196,000 tonnes in 2024, including 147,000 tonnes of raw tea and 49,000 tonnes of ripe tea, or 42.2% of Yunnan's total tea output.

What impact has Jingmai's World Heritage listing had? Since its inscription on September 17, 2023, protection of the old tea forests and villages has received more attention, tourism and name recognition have grown, and understory tea cultivation has become a model to learn from.

When did xiao qing gan and tea bags become popular? Xiao qing gan took off rapidly around 2014–2016. Small formats like tea bags and dragon pearls have kept growing in recent years, with sales generally up more than 10% in 2024.