66 NATGEOTRAVEL.COM
Company, where his partner, Mr. Liu, leads us through a tea
tasting. He warms a gaiwan—a special type of covered cup used
for tea tastings—and small teacups with warm water. Then he
mounds the gaiwan with loose tea leaves. This tea is from the
village of Laobanzhang, known as the home of the king of Pu’erh
teas, which are prized for their musky, masculine qualities. Tea
from this area can cost as much as $8,000 per kilo, yet there’s
a kind of carelessness to the way Mr. Liu pours it, allowing it to
slosh over the rims of the cups, symbolizing abundance. This
is without doubt the most expensive and delicious tea I’ve ever
tasted, and I’m extremely lucky to be a guest. Even our driver
gets to try the tea, although he takes a rather dim view of the
extravagance. “In 20 years, if the government changes,” he warns,
“I’ll be OK, and all of you will be in trouble.”
Tea Master Chen asks me to look for the hui gan—returning
flavor—that is unique to Pu’erh. As I sip the tea, flavor rises
from the back of my throat and fills my mouth with a minty,
refreshing sensation. This is not your grandma’s Lipton tea. Most
tea comes from tea shrubs that are grown on terraces on vast
plantations. As a result, the leaves have a consistent taste. How
they become Earl Grey, Lapsang Souchong, or English Breakfast
tea is a matter of processing and post-processing. Pu’erh, on the
other hand, comes from the ancient tea trees that grow wild in
Xishuangbanna Prefecture. Some of the trees are hundreds of
years old, with many more than a thousand years old. No one
has watered, fertilized, or sprayed them. Since they’ve survived
on their own for so long, the taste of the leaves from each tree is
unique. Unlike other teas, Pu’erh can be brewed multiple times.
The first brew lasts only a few seconds, while the 10th or even
later brew can take as long as five minutes. With each infusion,
the flavor changes, coming from different parts of the leaf and
invigorating different parts of the tongue. But what makes Pu’erh
truly unique is that its nature changes with age in the same way
that garden leaves turn into mulch. (Pu’erh can age naturally
or through artificial accelerated fermentation.) And, like wine,
its value grows over time. People collect and savor Pu’erh teas
that are 10 to 50 years old. The tea can sell for $10,000 and up
for a few grams.
Tea Master Chen takes us to the Tea Horse Ancient Road
Scenic District, in Menghai County, which features demon-
stration tea terraces, re-creations of tea warehouses, rooms for
processing tea, areas where men and horses slept and ate, and
all the paraphernalia that accompanied tea caravans. For over
a thousand years, men carried 150-pound packs of tea on their
backs through rain, snow, heat, and humidity overland in differ-
ent directions: to the capital, toward Hong Kong and Guangzhou,
to Vietnam, Myanmar, India, and Thailand. The most important
route was to Tibet, where the tea was traded for war horses,
In the last stage of tea processing in Xishuangbanna Prefecture,
leaves are sorted manually to find ones that are older, tougher.
These are discarded or made into a low-grade, cheaper tea.