Puerh.uk was founded based on an insight gained over a long practice of drinking puerh: “most puerh, even good puerh, should only be consumed after many years of aging“.
Indeed, our first successes came because puerh.uk was the only website one could find clean stored big and old tree puerh from 1990s-early 2000s, and even some 1980s and 1970s.
In terms of teas available to buy online or at shops anywhere in the world, this was true then and still is: even high quality Puerh when not enough aged it’s harsh on the stomach and just not as satisfying to drink.
I tried so many ‘ancient tree’ teas, many very expensive (3-5x as our pricing below), and even made by small boutique asian producers, and I have found nothing available on the market with a quality that truly transcends the need for aging.
What is Benchmark Ancient Tree Puerh?
The good news is that in the last 10 years, a quality higher than it has ever been made, this is either 100% pure ancient tree (ancient, not old) or, even better, 1 single ancient tree in the classic Puerh areas (Mostly Yiwu, with a little bit of nearby places like part of the 6 famous tea mountains, the area of Laos bordering on Yiwu and some more isolated pockets in the rest of Banna and very few others in the rest of Yunnan: BingDao and Xigui are possibly the two most famous areas truly worth drinking).
We call this “Benchmark ancient tree” because it is the highest quality that can be found.
There should be no gotchas/tricks whatsoever:
- the varietal is standard puerh, not a wild one
- the area is a classic puerh area
- the picking is 1st spring pick (and there are no more than 2-3 picks each year)
- the environment is clean, no pesticide fertiliser, etc.
- the trees have never been cut down before, but have been left to grow undisturbed
A minor deviation in one parameter is sometimes permitted, but no more. For instance we offer a purple tree varietal youle guoyoulin (state protected forest) because it has amazing Qi.
Also we offer an extremely old tree puerh (JiGuShu) from BangDong and the reason it’s outside the classic areas is that only there can trees this old be found. BangDong normal ancient tree is not that interesting, and we don’t offer it.
So various lincang (or almost anywhere in simao, jingmai, thailand, etc etc) ancient tree, yesheng varietals of all sorts, yellow leaves in Yiwu, unclean environment, ancient trees that have been cut down but are still alive… People will say it’s “ancient tree tea” and it’s technically correct, but we count this as not benchmark puerh.
We commissioned a few benchmark quality puerh 2024 (+ a few backlog cakes 2022-2023): this is the hardest project we’ve ever undertaken, and together with the 01-02 CYH (which are pure ancient tree of already over 20+ years), our most significant contribution to making available a type of puerh that simply wasn’t available before (unless you were both very rich and extremely well connected and lucky).
Age of trees
All tree ages are approximations, and one should always doubt when an age is given as a single number.
In fact, we think the practice of saying ‘tea tree is x years old’ is near cheating as nobody really knows for certain. There are no certain scientific methods to identify the age of a tea tree. The only possible way to tell how old (and healthy) a certain tree is is by drinking its leaves and comparing it to its neighbours: the older the tree is, the thicker the soup and the more comfortable the ChaQi and your body. This is the only way that can tell you the truth, everything else is stories.
With that said, we’d rather say we’re confident that the single trees are in the top oldest/healthiest of the area, and the average age of ancient tree puerh in benchmark series are in the top 10-20% of the area (also called “grade 1 ancient tree”).
So here are the reference tree age:
- Yiwu/Manzhuan/Laos: Experts believe the oldest trees are between 500-800 year old
- BangDong: Experts believe the oldest trees are between 500-1200 year old (some people say less or more than these numbers too!)
People, even experts, have very different opinions about what age of tree is in a specific area, to skip all that we simply say: If you think there are 800/1000+ years old in BangDong, this is definitely one such tree. If you think there are 500+ years old in Yiwu, this is definitely one such tree. Etc.
Of course also note we didn’t just select the biggest trees, but also the healthiest and in the cleanest possible environment.
The quality is obvious when drinking them, the sweet purity, loong aftertaste, strength, Qi and lack of astringency are typical of very old trees and can’t be faked. Once you drink it, you know it. And indeed, this is the only reliable way to authenticate tree age, by how they taste.
Tip: put 2-5 grams of a benchmark ancient tree puerh in a gaiwan and the same amount in the same size gaiwan of another tea that claims to be ancient tree from a similar area. Steep them for the same duration at 100c (try a long duration like 1 minute): the truth will be very obvious. Don’t trust stories, you can verify them with your own mouth!
It’s actually not that “green”/young
Just like the 01-02 CYH Yiwu feel older and overall way better tea than the 88 Qing Bing despite being 10 years younger, in the same way this sky high ‘benchmark’ ancient tree teas have the characteristics of much older tea: very little astringency and harshness, good sweetness and thickness, comfortable ChaQi. Aromatics, Huigan, Intensity of ChaQi are also off the charts, but this is also found in merely good ancient tree puerh.
Because benchmark ancient tree teas start feeling older than they are, even 2-5 years of aging make them really quite remarkable and comfortable, and easily feel more aged (in the sense of less harsh) than 1990s/2000s factory cakes.
They will gradually improve (mostly in the sense of getting smoother, thicker, sweeter) also when aged in a normal western environment (just keep it a bit warm), but most are also very ready to drink right now too, way smoother than most puerh you’re used to.
After drinking benchmark puerh for a while, it becomes clear how they don’t have the defects/unsatisfactoriness you normally associate with younger puerh. I suggest starting with the Yiwu and nearby, the BangDong JiGuShu is a super refined experience which will make more sense after you’re well acquainted with the more familiar sweet-thick Yiwu taste.
A brief timeline of Ancient tree Puerh
- 1950s red mark and some antiques (before 1950s): old tree Yiwu
- 1950s-today: factory cakes are nearly all plantation tea (mostly menghai)
- from late 90s: there’s a bit of big/old tree tea, including famous 99 yiwus (with outrageously high prices)
- 94-97 ZhenChunYaHao: first old/ancient tree puerh cakes in new era
- 01-02 CYH starts making ancient tree puerh
- Big/old and Ancient tree production intensifies from mid 2000s, particularly from taiwanese makers
- From early-mid 2010s: 100% pure ancient tree and single tree of benchmark quality starts (there’s extremely little left)
- Late 2010s-early 2020s: nearly all the best trees in benchmark classic puerh areas are picked in single tree productions, quality of general gushu pick is decreased as a result
- 2024: you get to buy some benchmark puerh before the prices skyrocket (a forecast which I trust says prices for the best of these teas will be rising +20% or so next year, and likely similar for a few years after)
The Puerh.uk Benchmark ancient tree series
This is the opposite of mass production: we’ve selected not only the best gardens but also the best microarea in each garden and even the best trees in each garden, as a result the production of this quality is extremely limited (generally 1-2kg per each tea).
It’s the difference between seeing your favourite artist play live and a cover band, the cover band (normal real gushu teas, let alone the fakes) are an approximation of the quality of this benchmark teas.
These teas will coat your throat with silky sweetness, have extraordinary energy, and are much more powerful than usual, often people use 50-75% of their usual amount of tea (My usual daily session with these teas is 2 grams or less, and it still lasts a long time!).
They’re all very sweet, good thickness, strong aromatics, strong huigan/aftertaste, very strong and comfortable Qi, can be pushed without being ‘stewed’ or getting harsh, and in general have low astringency. I won’t repeat this but just 1 sentence of unique character about each tea.
In terms of the Elegance—-Power balance most teas are about halfway, while TianMenShan is almost pure Power and BangDong JiGushu is almost pure Elegance. I personally like my tea super-smooth, so the two TianMenShan are the only teas I personally find too strong at the moment and would prefer them aged 3-5 years, but I know many people like their tea potent and these are still a smoother tea than anything made from younger trees or from other areas in Menghai for instance.
See the currently available teas here.