Yunnan's Ancient Tea Trees - A Timeless Beauty(3)	Page 1 | 2 | 3

Over 90% of old growth Puerh tea sold at the Kunming Tea Market contains little to no geniune leaves from ancient tea trees.

The escalating demand and soaring prices for old growth tea has made it more and more difficult to attain genuine old growth tea at a reasonable price. The majority of tea sold on the markets today labeled as ancient tea trees are plantation teas coming from small tea bushes of between 30 to 50 years old. The limited quantity of old growth tea means that less than 10% of the leaves harvested annually for Puerh production comes from these ancient trees. The highest quality old growth tea from popular regions such asYiwu and Banzhang are rarely available to Western consumers with most making their way to high end markets in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. These teas are sold at very high prices, commanding upwards of US$80 per teacake for current year releases.

BUYING ADVICE

It is important to buy from a knowledgeable and trustworthy vendor. New vendors with little experience will find it difficult to tell the difference between old growth tea and plantation tea. When buying from a vendor, always contact the vendor and ask to buy in small samples. It’s near impossible to judge by appearance alone. Puerh tea leaves come in an assortment of sizes, leaves from old growth tea trees can be big and small. The one sure way to verify Puerh tea is through taste.

There are 2 significant characteristics of old growth Puerh teas to look out for -

1)The taste and flavors of old growth tea is rounded, possessing a certain softness to its overall character. It can be strong but the differences when compared to plantation tea are that it won’t have any noticeable high notes or sharpness.

2)The body of an old growth tea possess a unique viscosity. There is an almost gelatinous nature to it that is very mouth filling when you sip the tea. By comparison plantation tea is thin.