Taiwanese Tea People Return to Yiwu: Commissioned Tea of the 1990s

Mention Yiwu today and many people think of smooth, fragrant, sweet ancient-tree tea and the private tea houses dotting the tea mountains. But in the early 1990s, almost no one in Yiwu was making pu'er on any scale. Among those who brought this old tea town back to life was a group of tea people from Taiwan.

Yiwu Before the 1990s

From the Qing through the Republic, Yiwu was a center of pu'er tribute tea and private tea houses; old houses like Tongqinghao, Songpinhao, and Fuyuanchanghao all came from here; see Yiwu's Old Tea Houses. After the 1950s, pu'er production was concentrated in state factories in Kunming, Menghai, Xiaguan, and elsewhere; Yiwu's private tea houses closed, and its gardens were either abandoned or switched to other crops. Tea on the mountains was mostly made into sun-dried maocha and sold to factories for blending, and traditional handmade cake pressing was all but abandoned. The rise and fall of the Six Tea Mountains is covered in The Rise and Fall of the Six Tea Mountains.

Why Did Taiwanese Tea People Go to Yiwu?

In the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwanese tea people collected many Hao-grade aged teas from Hong Kong. After drinking and comparing them for a long time, they noticed something: the most highly prized Hao-grade teas almost all came from Yiwu.

If the quality of aged tea came from Yiwu's raw material and methods, could they go back to the source and make it again the old way? That idea was the starting point of Taiwanese tea people's journey into Yiwu.

The 1994 Trip

In 1993, 15 Taiwanese tea people attended the first International Pu'er Tea Symposium in Simao. The next year, in 1994, Lu Lizhen, then president of a tea arts association, led a group of Taiwanese tea people to Yunnan and deep into the Six Tea Mountains and Yiwu, accompanied by Zeng Zhixian, Chen Huaiyuan, and others. Accounts of how many went vary: one says 19, another more than 20.

In Yiwu, they visited the sites of old tea houses and met a local man, Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi had served as Yiwu's township head and became a key figure in making connections and producing tea; they also found Zhang Guanshou, an old master who had made tea at Songpinhao, and asked him about the old process: how to sort sun-dried maocha, how to press with stone molds, how to wrap in bamboo sheath.

Zhenchunya Hao: The First Commissioned Tea

Trial production began in 1995 and was formally completed in 1996; this is what tea drinkers later called "96 Zhenchunya" (Zhenchunya Hao). Its features:

• Raw material: Sun-dried maocha from the Yiwu area.
• Pressing: Pressed by hand with stone molds, not by machine.
• Packaging: Cakes wrapped in cotton paper and then bundled into tong with bamboo sheath, in the style of the old tea houses.

According to participants' accounts, between 1996 and 1998 Zhang Yi and others made about 6 tonnes of cake tea for Lu Lizhen. This tea later came to be seen as one of the landmarks of the revival of Yiwu's traditional craft.

The Teas That Followed

After Zhenchunya, a series of commissioned and private tea-house teas appeared in Yiwu, and the tea world often calls the decade from 1994 to 2004 Yiwu's "revival era." Ones often mentioned include:

• Shunshixing (around 1998).
• Yichanghao (1999): Produced by Yunnan Changtai Tea Company, its first batch of cakes made from Yiwu material.
• Green Big Tree (Lü Dashu) (1999): Commissioned by tea merchants from the Menghai Tea Factory and pressed from Yiwu-area material, with a green tree on the wrapper; about 2 tonnes were made, and most reportedly went to Taiwan.

These teas had different backers and producers and weren't all commissioned by Taiwanese; but demand from the Taiwanese market for Yiwu material was an important reason Yiwu tea was rediscovered during that period.

Taiwanese Influence on Yiwu's Revival

1. Proving private tea houses could work: In an era dominated by state factories, Zhenchunya showed that a tea made by traditional handcraft from a single region's material could be accepted by the market.
2. Recovering old craft: Details like stone-mold pressing, bamboo-sheath tong wrapping, neifei, and neipiao were made again from the memories of old masters. The pressing process is covered in Pressing Pu'er.
3. Spurring local tea houses: After 2000, many local and outside tea houses opened in Yiwu town, and the fame of Yiwu ancient-tree tea kept rising; today's Yiwu is described in Yiwu Zhengshan and The Villages of Yiwu.

What Has Become of These Teas?

These 1990s Yiwu teas are now nearly 30 years old. Most circulate among collectors in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the mainland, occasionally appearing at tastings or auctions. Because they're old enough and have so many stories, there are imitations on the market, and the same tea can taste very different depending on storage conditions.

If you have the chance to taste one, pay attention to:

• Packaging and neifei: Compare with reliable catalogs or collectors' actual pieces; see How to Read Pu'er Tea Packaging.
• Storage: Tea stored cleanly in Taiwan and tea that's been through wet storage will look and smell very different in the cup; see Dry Storage and Wet Storage.
• Mindset: Approaching it as a tasting that introduces you to Yiwu's history is more relaxed than seeing it as a collectible target.

FAQ

Why did Taiwanese tea people go to Yiwu?
Because the Hao-grade aged teas they collected nearly all came from Yiwu, and they wanted to return to the source and make tea like that again the old way.

What tea did Taiwanese commission in Yiwu in the 1990s?
The most famous is "Zhenchunya Hao," commissioned by Lu Lizhen and completed in 1996, made from Yiwu material, pressed by hand in stone molds, and wrapped in bamboo sheath; about 6 tonnes were made between 1996 and 1998.

Were Zhenchunya, Yichanghao, and Green Big Tree all commissioned by Taiwanese?
Not all. Zhenchunya was commissioned by Taiwanese tea people; Yichanghao was produced by Yunnan Changtai Tea Company; Green Big Tree was commissioned by tea merchants from the Menghai Tea Factory and reportedly sold mostly in Taiwan.

Can you still drink these teas?
Small quantities circulate among collectors. They're nearly 30 years old and there are imitations on the market, so when tasting, look at the packaging details and the state of storage.