At last summer’s World Tea Expo in Las
Vegas, I had the opportunity to meet with representatives from Longrun Tea Group based in Yunnan, China. They had a booth set up on the Expo floor, and served
shou puerh tea. This booth was not very crowded compared to many other booths,
and watching people walk on by I surmised that puerh is still a rather
confusing tea for many people, and I suppose typical US restaurants are not
necessarily looking for shou puerh. I had the booth to myself which is mighty
fine for someone like me.
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| Longrun Campus source longruntea.com |
Longrun is one of the largest puerh
factories in China, and the only large factory with shares traded on the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange. (see here for English website) The impressive company campus resembles some of the technology
campuses we have in the US. In addition, Longrun funds the Yunnan Tea Research
Institute, and Tea College at Yunnan Agricultural University, a think tank, and laboratory. These facilities produce many scientific journal
papers flooding the research market over the past few years, many with a "pharmaceutical" bent. I have noticed
that our National Institute of Health journal archives contain a huge number of
papers from the Yunnan Tea Institute. These papers have some critical issues
worth discussing in scientific and academic settings. However, this goes beyond
my blog and my blood pressure. Younger people looking for research topics and
literature review opportunities will hopefully deal with these. A thorough
grounding in statistical methods of analysis at the doctoral level is required.
Suffice to say, Longrun is at the heart
and hub of the major puerh industry in China. The company produces well over
200 products a year, according to their website. Shou puerh is a particular
specialty and the company boasts modern stainless steel production and no fewer
than 86 quality checks performed on their shou puerh teas. If you want clean shou,
this is where you go to find it. Longrun reports their tea is one of the
popular gift teas and ceremonial teas at the national level served to visiting
foreign guests. To me this is indeed wonderful, that puerh tea which is a
traditional craft product is proudly served and homage is paid to it at the
national level. Government dollars invested in research is “walking the talk”
of the importance of tea as an industry and culture in China.
Prior to 2005, Longrun was one of the
state-owned factories producing tea under the government label. The company was
sold into private hands in 2005, and this coincides with the fall-off of
writing among many collectors. The teas mainly of interest over the past decade
are mostly those produced by the old factory prior to 2005. More famous
factories like Menghai (Taetea) still retain collector caché whereas Longrun
might be more comparable to Lipton in the US. Such a comparison is perhaps
something of a compliment: past articles on puercn have stressed that a goal of
shou puerh factories is to find a way to market shou in the west comparable to
companies like Lipton.
The professional corporate image of the
company was well on display at the World Tea Expo. This is not “flip flops and
a rock” factory business. The three men representing the company wore formal
business suits, and one member of the team was an American who said he grew up
in California. All three men displayed friendly enthusiasm and repeated what
other puerh and heicha sellers said, that they found relatively few Americans
interested in their type of teas. I could see all the traffic at the green tea
and flavored tea booths. I was happy to reassure the gentlemen that I have
undivided attention to give a puerh company and am more than willing to drink
everything they have, all by myself. In terms of dollars spent, one puerh buyer
easily outspends and generally out-drinks a hundred green tea buyers.
Longrun served shou puerh at the Expo,
and the company produces both sheng and shou teas. Surprisingly, the shou puerh
is the more expensive product in their online catalog, some teas well on
upwards of $150 per beeng. This probably reflects the greater production costs
of shou puerh compared to sheng. Their leaves are obtained from plantation
farmers who must meet strict criteria set by the company. Thus, the sheng products are not the super
premium old arbor “hike up the mountain” teas, but raw versions of the tea they
purchase for shou production. I did not try their sheng, and while they had
some on display I imagine these are not considered “ready to drink.” Instead, I
drank a decade old shou with surprisingly perfect “old book” dry storage, and
not much wo dui flavor remaining. This shou was quite impressive, actually.
I have been storing shou myself for
going on a decade, and lately I appreciate more and more a decade or older shou
teas rather than younger shou. The wo dui tends to overwhelm other flavors in
young shou, and I really like a bit of storage flavor. Dry stored shou gets
that old book or old wood flavor, and wetter stored shou can taste like oak leaves
under wet snow. Storage flavor is one of the flavors to appreciate in any puerh.
Of course the more flavor notes the better, but the storage note is one reason
aged tea is so wonderful. Longrun’s aged shou is remarkably well-stored, rather
unexpected for a company that produces new and gift teas. My appreciation was
very sincere: the only other really decent shou I tried at the Expo was a
sourced tea sold by Ito En, a Japanese company who obviously did not produce
their tea.
The Longrun reps were really friendly
guys and they gave me a baggie of tea to drink at home. They said this shou was
a pile of tea found in the Longrun factory when it transferred to private
ownership back in 2005. The door of the factory closed on full production, and
so the new owners acquired everything in it. They found a pile of shou and no idea
how long the shou sat there. The tea was dated 2005 coinciding with finding the
pile, and the owners kept it since then. Wow, this is quite an interesting find
for me!
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| Old tea nuggets, lao cha tou. |
So, I have had this baggie since June
and now we are in October. I let the tea stay open in the baggie for a couple
of weeks but since June it did not develop much smell at all. My older shous in
crocks are more fragrant by contrast. I am guessing this tea is preserved “as
is,” but not as actively aged like the newer company productions.
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I brewed up some chunks, and the tea is
clearly a “lao cha tou,” or the lumps of shou that occur in a pile setting and
are normally broken up before pressing into cakes, unless deliberately sold as
chunks. This tea took several rinses and a sitting in a very hot Jian Shui clay
teapot to open up. The tea is quite lively in the mouth, and to me appears to
be a less heavily fermented shou than is usual with lao cha tou, probably evidence
that the tea was a project that got left unfinished. It has the wine and
mushroom flavors of other lao cha tou teas.
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| Cloudy brew with yellow ring shows the fermentation halted. |
Two issues with this tea, one is I found
some char in the strainer and charred, burnt twigs. The other issue is the tea
lacks clarity, evidence of a bacterial imbalance that probably occurred as a
result of the fermentation left unfinished and uncontrolled. This is not
obviously representative of any of the current products by Longrun, rather this
is a historical vintage product from the old days. So nobody can generalize
Longrun’s current products based on this shou. This tea certainly appears to
match the story of “left in a pile.”
I steeped about eight times before the
steep time needed increasing past flash steeps. The tea is not yet fully
fermented and can benefit from further aging, evidenced by the yellowish ring
around the cup and tinge to the tea, for it is still very slightly raw. The
clarity will improve, the tea cleared up quite a bit for the ninth steeping,
yet fully clearing will take a long time and I doubt this will ever be a great
tea. The brew was not funky or fishy at all, but the wo dui is still strong for a twelve year old tea. In fact, I enjoyed much more Longrun’s later 2007 vintage shou, a cleaner
tea with a perfect storage flavor.
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| Just nothing left after nine steepings, even when boiled. |
The tea fell off after nine steeps. I
tried boiling the leaves hard on the stove which often yields a nice cup from
older shou and lao cha tou, but these leaves were done and I could not get more
than just mildly flavored water. But hey, factories do not make premium shou every
day and this tea was merely one current project when the factory changed hands.
It is what it is. A photo of the wet leaves is difficult to capture the tea, even
with my naked eye the lighter brown leaves are hard to distinguish after all
that brewing.
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| A couple of charred sticks, some lighter brown leaves. |
What is so special is that this 2005 is
a vault tea from Longrun, part of their history as a factory. I am incredibly
lucky to taste a bit of this history, for I doubt many people have this kind of
opportunity and from such a famous factory as Longrun. I can appreciate the
rough character of the old shou because it matches the story behind it, the tea
tells that story perfectly well. I can appreciate also that the craft quality
of shou tea is now at a new level due to science and improvements in industrial
production. A comparison of this tea with Longrun’s newer products illustrates the
company’s journey and achievements. The resulting financial and commercial
success speaks for itself.
I want to thank Longrun for this rare
opportunity to drink a bit of their history. This is a special experience I am
not likely to have again in my lifetime. I feel more favorably disposed to
consider Longrun teas after drinking their finely stored 2007 vintage. I worry
that someday the premium teas may no longer be available in the west. A company
like Longrun aiming for excellence and selling in the western market reassures
me that we will always have something to drink.
