Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the ?Six Great Tea Mountains? of Yunnan Province, and in imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea's noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse.

Puer Tea traces the rise, climax, and crash of this phenomenon. With ethnographic attention to the spaces in which Puer tea is harvested, processed, traded, and consumed, anthropologist Jinghong Zhang constructs a vivid account of the transformation of a cottage handicraft into a major industry?with predictable risks and unexpected consequences.

Watch the associated videos at https://archive.org/details/PUERTEADVD1.

Jinghong Zhang is a lecturer at Yunnan University.

Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the Six Great Tea Mountains of Yunnan Province, and in imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea's noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse.

Puer Tea traces the rise, climax, and crash of this phenomenon. With ethnographic attention to the spaces in which Puer tea is harvested, processed, traded, and consumed, anthropologist Jinghong Zhang constructs a vivid account of the transformation of a cottage handicraft into a major industrywith predictable risks and unexpected consequences.

Watch the associated videos at https://archive.org/details/PUERTEADVD1.

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Transliteration, Names, and Measures

Maps

Introduction

Spring

1. ?The Authentic Tea Mountain Yiwu?

2. Tensions under the Bloom

Summer

3. ?Yunnan: The Home of Puer Tea? 81

4. Heating Up and Cooling Down 106

Autumn

5. Puer Tea with Remorse

6. Transformed Qualities

Winter

7. Tea Tasting and Counter?Tea Tasting

8. Interactive Authenticities

Conclusion: An Alternative Authenticity

Appendix 1: Puer Tea Categories and Production Process

Appendix 2: Supplementary Videos



Notes

Glossary

References

Index