This spring, French tea consultant and World Tea News contributor Barbara Dufrene spent several weeks in China’s Yunnan Province. In her first report from these travels, Dufrene relates some of what she learned at the Pu’Er Tea Festival, and describes the bustling Kunming Tea Market.

Puer under control

The longstanding Pu'Er Tea Festival takes place each April in the province's capital city. This year, the festival was abuzz with recent activity in the puer market that made international headlines.

The health benefits of puer tea long claimed by its producers recently have triggered a sharp increase in demand. At the same time, puer producers have promoted the reputation of their aged teas, particularly to affluent, so-called “overseas Chinese communities”; namely, Hong Kong and Singapore. They claim the aging of puer through prolonged storage imbues the tea with an important quality in the cup, and heightens its beneficial effects on the human metabolism.

As a result, a cup of aged puer in a tea house may cost as much as 1,000 Renminbi ($146.26)!

But start asking questions, and you’ll learn that six months of storage in hot and humid Guangdong may have the same effect as two years of storage in dry and high-up Kunming – and that there are no analytical methods for assessing the age of the teas. It makes you wonder what that puer you’re drinking is really worth. This is partly what contributed to the problem of wild speculation on the values of aged puer in China’s tea market, which led to a bubble and crash in late 2008.

A spectacular, not speculative, market

Although mainly a business-to-business market for wholesale supply, shop owners at the Kunming Tea Market will not refuse some retail sales, resulting in the occasional housewife or family strolling through its winding alleys.

Clustered around a monumental Chinese entrance hall, the market’s three distinct sectors demonstrate its gradual expansion. The recent tea market crisis does seem to be taking its toll on Kunming, however, slowing the steady growth the continued for many years. Store owners reported that rents have become so expensive, some traders have moved to cheaper locations nearby.

The foreign, unaccustomed visitor will nonetheless be impressed by the hundreds of wholesalers and shops displaying a vast variety of teas – mainly in open baskets – as well as dried flowers and other special ingredients, such as mountain moss and lichen. The many aisles of shops also include bamboo, tin and carton packaging, tea ware and décor.