The Tea That Is No More. Sheng Pu-erh from the Ancient Trees of Yiwu

Not long ago I got a message from the person through whom I find rare teas. Short and to the point: “Kostya, there is nothing above this.” He meant a pu-erh that is no longer on sale. The whole run is gone, and one single set was left. Now it is mine.

A message you don’t think twice about

In tea, as in business, the best offers never sit in the shop window. People mention them quietly, and only to those who understand what they are looking at.

This is a 2023 sheng pu-erh from the ancient trees of Yiwu. The workshop is Gong Cha Yuan, the name is “Yi Tong Jiang Shan”. In Chinese the phrase means “rivers and mountains united”, one country under one hand. You will soon see why the name is no accident.

Officially the set is sold out. I got the last one. You don’t buy things like this on impulse: I bought it as an investment, deliberately, the way you buy a good property in a good location. And at what price I am ready to part with it, I will tell you at the end of the article.

Yiwu: where pu-erh’s fame began

Yiwu is a mountain area in the far south of Yunnan, in Xishuangbanna, on the border with Laos. In the Qing dynasty, especially in the second half of the 19th century, this was the heart of the pu-erh world. Yiwu became the main trading centre for tea from the six great tea mountains. Caravans left from here along the Tea Horse Road, and tea went on to Hong Kong and across Southeast Asia.

The old tea houses worked here: Tong Qing Hao, Song Pin Hao and others. Their cakes, which have survived a century, now sell at auction for sums that make outsiders’ eyes go round. A red-label Song Pin has sold for more than two million yuan. At a Poly auction in Hong Kong in 2022, seven cakes from the old Yiwu house of Tong Xing Hao, made around the 1920s, went for 5.28 million Hong Kong dollars. That is about 670 thousand US dollars.

Young Yiwu is deceptive. It is soft, floral and honeyed, with no sharp bitterness, and newcomers often underestimate it. But Yiwu is made for time. After 15–25 years of proper storage it gains depth: camphor, dried fruit and mineral notes appear. It is no accident that the world’s most famous old pu-erhs come from here.

Four villages in one cake

The leaf is the first spring harvest of 2023, only from trees older than 300 years. In pu-erh the spring harvest is valued above all: after winter the leaf is at its richest.

And this is where the part I respect begins. The blend brings together four famous places of Yiwu, each with its own story.

Wangong. The Chinese call it the home of “the first tribute tea under Heaven”, the tea sent to the imperial court. Most trees here are between one hundred and five hundred years old; the oldest is over five hundred.

Guafengzhai, “the village where the wind blows”. A village of the Yao people right on the border with Laos. Until recently there was no proper road: to buy supplies, locals walked along a stream for almost a week. The ancient trees grow in virgin forest far from any houses. That is why tea from Guafengzhai is one of the most prized in Yiwu today.

Luoshuidong, a couple of kilometres from the famous village of Mahei. It is valued for its soft, silky liquor and fruity, floral aroma.

Tianmenshan, “the Mountain of the Heavenly Gate”. A quiet place, little known to the general public. Connoisseurs love places like that.

Four characters gathered in one cake, like four provinces under one crown. Hence “rivers and mountains united”.

A canister with nine dragons

But the most remarkable thing is not even the tea. Seven 357-gram cakes, made for long-term storage, lie in a handmade tin canister. It weighs 1.6 kilograms and carries the “Nine Dragons” relief.

Behind this relief stands one of the most famous paintings in Chinese history. In 1244, in the Southern Song dynasty, the painter Chen Rong created the “Nine Dragons” scroll. It is almost fifteen metres long. Dragons surge out of clouds, mist and waves, and the artist did not only lay the ink with a brush but spattered it, like rain. That was the idea: in his inscription on the scroll Chen Rong writes of dragons that bring rain to people who have long waited for it.

The scroll passed through the hands of the Qianlong Emperor and later belonged to Prince Gong. In 1917 New York dealers sold it to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for 25 thousand dollars. Today the piece simply has no price. A good illustration of how real value reveals itself over time.

Tin has long been prized in China for storing tea: it keeps out light and protects the leaf from foreign smells. And this canister also has a vacuum lock, the like of which I had never seen. The canister is a collector’s piece in its own right. Together with the tea, it is no longer a purchase but an heirloom.

What’s in the cup

Good ancient-tree Yiwu is recognisable at once. A deep forest character, a delicate orchid aroma, honeyed sweetness. The bitterness is soft and fades quickly, while the sweetness comes back and lingers, sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes after a sip. The Chinese call it “huigan”.

And then there is what people drink old trees for: the tea state. A calm, even, very clear strength. Neither a buzz nor relaxation, but focus.

A tea like this is not brewed in passing. It is opened for a special occasion.

Tea as an investment, honestly

Can tea be an investment? It can. But the same way as property: if you know what to buy and where.

Here are the numbers. A Dayi 801 “Gaoshan Yunxiang” cake cost about 25 dollars in 2008 and about a thousand in 2023. Nearly forty times more. Century-old cakes from Yiwu sell at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now the other side. In 2006–2007 pu-erh was inflated like a bubble. The most popular cake, Dayi 7542, rose almost fivefold in a year, and then within a few days in April 2007 its price collapsed from 22 to 8 thousand yuan. Most traders at Guangzhou’s main tea market suffered serious losses. They were not buying tea, they were buying hype.

Hence my rules. They are the same as in real estate.

• Location. A famous mountain, ancient trees, spring harvest. Like a good neighbourhood, its value does not depend on fashion.
• Developer. A serious workshop and a clear origin of the leaf.
• Paperwork. Original packaging, a complete set, a transparent history. There are plenty of fakes in pu-erh.
• Upkeep. Storage. Pu-erh fears foreign smells and sharp swings in temperature and humidity. Badly stored tea loses value, like a neglected flat.
• Limited run. A limited edition that is no longer on sale is like a top floor with a sea view. They will not build a second one.
• Horizon. Five, ten, twenty years. There is no quick money here, and that is a good thing.

And most importantly: buy what you would be happy to drink. If the market does not live up to expectations, you are left with a magnificent tea. Not the worst risk there is, you will agree.

This is my personal approach, not financial advice. Everyone decides for themselves.

Why I bought it

This set ticks every box. Ancient trees, the best places of Yiwu, spring harvest. The run is closed. A collector’s canister that is a work of art in itself.

There is a beautiful way to treat a tea like this. Open one cake and drink it little by little, on special occasions. Leave the other six in the canister for five, ten, twenty years and watch what the tea becomes: every year it is a little different. That is its magic. It is not an asset gathering dust in a portfolio. It is an asset that lives.

Instead of a conclusion

Chen Rong painted his dragons eight centuries ago, and in 1917 the scroll went for 25 thousand dollars. That seemed like a lot of money then. Today it is almost funny to compare.

It is the same story with good tea. Time works for those who chose quality and know how to wait. In tea, in real estate, in business.

At what price I am ready to part with it

I promised to tell you at the end. I will say it as an entrepreneur: a good investment is not only buying at the right time, but also knowing when and how to exit.

The price of this set will not be named by me. The auction will name it.

The set will go to a private auction of the Bon Vivant club, a club for those who value rare things: tea, wine, cigars, collector’s pieces. The announcement and the start of the auction will be on my Telegram channel “Delovoy Dubai”. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

This tea will go to someone ready to wait twenty years. Or to someone who understands what it will be worth in twenty years.