How to Read Pu'er Packaging: Wrappers, Neifei, Neipiao, and Recipe Numbers

When you get a pu'er tea cake, the packaging tells you a lot beyond the tea itself. From the outside in, a traditional tea cake usually comes with the following.

Tong and Bamboo Husk

In traditional qizi bing ("seven-sons cakes"), 7 cakes are stacked into a "tong," wrapped in bamboo husk (the sheath of bamboo shoots), and tied tight with bamboo strips or string. Bamboo husk is breathable and keeps out moisture, a natural packaging material sourced locally in Yunnan's mountains. Some tongs also carry a "tong label" showing the tea factory or product name.

12 tongs are packed into a "jian" (case) of about 30 kg, the unit used for shipping and trading export tea.

Cotton-Paper Wrapper

Every tea cake is wrapped in cotton paper. Cotton paper is breathable, allowing a moderate exchange of air while the tea is in storage. The wrapper is usually printed with:

• The tea factory or brand name
• The product name (for example, a certain mountain's ancient-tree raw tea)
• The tea type (raw or ripe)
• Net weight
• Production date

Packaged foods sold in Taiwan are required to be labeled in Chinese with the product name, contents, net weight, manufacturer information, country of origin, and expiration date. When buying tea, check whether these labels are clear and complete.

Neifei (Embedded Ticket)

The neifei is a small slip of paper pressed into the tea cake during compression, usually printed with the factory name or logo. Because it's pressed in with the leaves, it's hard to replace afterward, so the neifei is often used to identify a tea's origin.

Neipiao (Inner Ticket)

The neipiao (also called a description ticket) is a sheet of paper placed inside the wrapper on top of the cake, usually with an introduction to the factory and a product description. On aged teas, the neipiao is often an important clue for identifying the era.

Recipe Numbers: The Secret of the Four Digits

Many classic pu'er teas carry a four-digit code called a "recipe number" (maihao), such as 7542, 7572, or 8582. The usual way to read it:

• First two digits: The year the recipe was first produced; for example, 75 means 1975.
• Third digit: The main grade of leaf used; the smaller the number, the finer and more tender the raw material.
• Fourth digit: The factory code. Commonly, 1 means Kunming Tea Factory, 2 means Menghai Tea Factory, and 3 means Xiaguan Tea Factory.

So 7542 reads as: a recipe from 1975, based mainly on grade 4 leaves, made by Menghai Tea Factory. The recipe number refers to the "recipe," not the production year, and the same recipe number can be produced year after year. For the production year, look at the date or batch number on the packaging.

Batch Numbers

Some factories add a batch number to the packaging, such as the year plus that year's batch, so different production runs of the same tea can be told apart.

Small Packages and Modern Formats

Besides traditional tea cakes, modern pu'er also comes in many small formats: dragon pearls, mini tuos, tea bags, and individual sachets. These packages are usually labeled with the product name, tea type, specifications, weight, and date, making them easy to brew directly.

Take two of Guyuntang Tea's teas as examples:

• Bingdao Old Village Dragon Pearls: raw pu'er, 8 g × 10 pearls per bag.
• Pu'er Pyramid Tea Bag Gift Box: 24 bags per box.

Tips When Choosing Tea

• Tea with clear, complete packaging information is more trustworthy than tea with vague information.
• The aged tea market has plenty of counterfeit packaging. For valuable aged tea, buy from a reliable source and ask the seller to explain its provenance.
• Packaging is only a supporting clue. In the end, you have to rely on tasting: look at the liquor, smell the aroma, and examine the spent leaves.

The Order for Reading Labels

When you pick up a pu'er, you can read it in this order:

1. Product name and tea type: Is it raw or ripe? Which region, which mountain?
2. Net weight and specifications: How much one cake weighs, how many pearls per bag, how many sachets per box.
3. Production date and expiration date: Know the tea's "age" and the suggested drink-by period.
4. Manufacturer or importer: There should be a clear company name and contact information.
5. Storage instructions: The packaging usually suggests something like "store in a cool, dry place."

Keep the Wrappers, Too

The cotton-paper wrapper, neipiao, and tong label of a traditional tea cake are that cake's "ID card." For tea you plan to keep long-term, try to preserve the original packaging; it will come in handy later when you want to identify or share the tea. When prying tea from the cake, open the wrapper carefully and wrap it back up afterward.

The Wrapper Design of Yin-Grade Teas

At the center of the wrapper of the 1950s "Zhongcha brand round tea" is a design of eight "zhong" characters (as in Zhongguo, China) forming a ring around a "cha" (tea) character, the logo of the China Tea Company. The central "cha" character was printed in different colors, which collectors call Red Mark, Green Mark, and Yellow Mark. The design was used on qizi bing packaging for a long time afterward, and you can still see traces of it on many factories' wrappers today. For the eras of aged tea, see Hao-Grade, Yin-Grade, and Qizi Bing.

Jian and Tong Specifications

A traditional qizi bing tong holds 7 cakes, and 12 tongs make a jian of about 30 kg. This specification relates to the Chinese market units used after 1959 and to export packaging, and it's also the most common explanation for the 357 g cake. In earlier years, whole jian shipped in transit were also wrapped in bamboo baskets.

Ripe and Raw on the Packaging

China's national standard for pu'er requires the label to state whether the tea is raw or ripe. When buying tea in Taiwan, you can also check whether the Chinese label clearly states the tea type, country of origin, and expiration date. Taiwan opened to pu'er imports in 2004, and tea imported through official channels usually has complete Chinese labeling. More tips before buying are in Six Tips for Buying Pu'er.

FAQ

Is tea with a lower recipe number better? The third digit of the recipe number indicates the main grade of raw material; a smaller number means finer, more tender leaf, but "tender" doesn't mean "tastier." Coarser, sturdier raw material often holds up to more infusions and has a fuller sweetness; it's simply a different style.

Is tea without a neifei fake? Not necessarily. Neifei are common in tea cakes, but formats like dragon pearls, tuos, and tea bags don't necessarily have one to begin with. To judge a tea's quality, look at whether the labeling is clear, whether the source is reliable, and how it actually tastes.

How many cakes are in a jian of pu'er? The traditional specification is 7 cakes per tong and 12 tongs per jian, so a jian holds 84 cakes, about 30 kg.