Although tea drinking has been part of Chinese culture for 3,000 years, the capital's connoisseurs have only recently developed a craze for pu'er, a special aged tea indigenous to Yunnan Province in the southwest. Like vintage wine, pu'er, which is stored in compressed cakes, mellows over time, and its value appreciates. In China's supercharged economy, where no investment opportunity goes unnoticed, pu'er's popularity has sparked a wave of collectors, many of whom see the tea as a worthy speculation.
"Tea never goes bad, so it's a good investment," said Ji Xiaofeng, who manages a stall at Maliandao, Beijing's wholesale tea market. Last year, 500 grams of tea, or about 17 ½ ounces, preserved since the 1940s sold at auction for 1 million yuan, or about $125,000, he said. More modest investors can expect new tea, which sells for about 2,000 yuan per kilo, to double in value in five years.
"If you invest in the stock market, you might lose every penny. But if you invest in pu'er, it will only go up," Yang Chang, a pu'er tea collector based in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, said. "This is a good, low-risk way to earn money."
Prized for its earthy, rich flavor, pu'er is a large-leafed tea gathered from centuries-old trees that thrive in Yunnan Province's changeable climate and acidic soil. After the leaves are harvested, they undergo a traditional process of compression and fermentation, which brings out the tea's particular qualities. "It has a special mildewy scent," said Shi Zongkai, a Tsinghua University professor and pu'er tea enthusiast. Some believe this mildew, which accumulates as the tea ferments, has unique health benefits, including weight loss, he added.
Yang Chang, who has collected pu'er for more than 30 years, has spent two decades researching the tea's purported medicinal properties at the Yunnan Kunming Miao Xiang Research Center.
His studies examine the effects pu'er may have on lowering cholesterol and preventing cancer. "This is my life's work," he said. Yang said these perceived medicinal qualities have contributed to pu'er's recent increased popularity. Pu'er has long been celebrated as a folk remedy, he said, adding, "Now, people care more about their health than ever before."
Though pu'er tea collectors abound in southern China, particularly Hong Kong, Taiwan and Yunnan, tea companies have only recently started to promote their product to northern Chinese consumers. Four years ago, the Yunnan provincial government sponsored a pu'er advertising campaign in the capital to promote the brew's health benefits.
Pu'er's new popularity has had an impact at Beijing's Maliandao tea street market, where a two-story building filled with stalls dedicated solely to pu'er opened last year.
Source:佚名