Original title: CCTV exposed the chaos of 'ancient tree tea': ordinary tea can be wrapped into ancient tree tea, and the price has doubled! Shopkeeper: hell if you can see it & hellip;
'if you don't drink ancient trees, you won't be reconciled. You can't rest assured if you drink ancient trees.'
Ancient tree tea is now a popular object in the Pu'er tea market. In the tea market, there are countless kinds of Pu'er tea with ancient tree tea signs, such as' ancient tree tea ',' ancient tree pure material ',' ancient tree head spring ', etc. from dozens to thousands of ancient tree tea, it is often difficult for consumers to distinguish between true and false.
Yunnan is recognized as the birthplace of tea trees in the world and the origin of Pu'er tea. The ancient tea tree community distributed in Yunnan is known as the living fossil of tea in the world. What is the proportion of ancient tea in these Pu'er tea?
Taidi tea and Xiaoshu tea become ancient tree tea in seconds with outer packaging
In Xishuangbanna, Gaozhuang in Jinghong City is a destination that many tourists must go to. This is a resort and leisure area integrating food, housing, tourism and shopping. Shops selling Yunnan specialties can be seen everywhere in the scenic area.
Yunnan Jinghong Gaozhuang scenic spot
On the shelves of a shop, you can see ancient Icelandic trees, Yiwu trees, banzhang single trees, old tree BRICs, Hekai ancient trees, Xigui ancient trees and other famous tea mountains. When the reporter asked whether these tea leaves were real ancient tree tea, the shopkeeper answered skillfully.
Tea Retailer: I don't have pure ancient trees here. This is a patchwork. It's made up of a little ancient trees and some other small trees.
Yiwu ancient tree tea
The ingredient is that there is ancient tree tea in the tea cake, but mixed with small tree tea or Taiwan tea. Taidi tea is the tea produced by modern tea gardens with dense planting and high yield. Usually, the tree age is short and the variety is new. The ancient tree tea, usually refers to the tea tree with a tree age of more than 100 years and growing in the forest, without too much artificial yield increase intervention. Tea retailers confidently say that guests can't see it at all.
Tea retailer
Shopkeeper A: for example, if there are ancient trees, we just say that they are ordinary materials.
Shopkeeper B: if you want to make packaging, you must not write about Taidi tea. Which tea seller should tell the truth.
Shopkeeper C: you can't tell what season, village and tree materials are used for each tea. If you can see it, there's a ghost. Stop talking about you. We can't see it.
Menghai is located in the west of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, 50 kilometers away from Jinghong. It is recognized by the tea industry as the center of origin of tea trees in the world. In Menghai's tea wholesale and retail market, ancient tree tea and famous mountain tea are also everywhere.
A tea wholesale and retail market in Menghai
A tea wholesaler told reporters that wearing the coat of ancient tree tea, the price of these tea can be doubled immediately.
Tea wholesaler: like me, it sells for 35 yuan, and the retail price is generally 180 yuan, at least double or triple. I can sell almost dozens of tons of tea a year.
Tea wholesale shop
It's really surprising that such a small shop has to wholesale and retail dozens of tons of so-called "ancient tree tea" every year. The owner told the reporter of economic half hour that the processing materials of these so-called "ancient tree tea" are only Taiwan tea, and the price is only 30 or 40 yuan.
Taidi tea covered with 'ancient trees'
On the shelf of another wholesaler, Lao banzhang offered 20 yuan for a cake and Iceland offered 80 yuan for a cake. Interestingly, Iceland's origin is clearly in Lincang, 300 kilometers away, but the owner told reporters that Iceland's origin is also in Menghai. In order to make their tea easy to sell, no matter what materials they are, they can be sold as long as they are packaged with an ancient tree and a famous mountain and mark a price at will. And all this, in this tea wholesale market, is an open secret.
Tea wholesaler
Yunnan Province should build a 100 billion level cloud tea industry
Establish a long-term management mechanism before 2020
A small shop can sell dozens of tons of so-called ancient tree tea. How many ancient tree tea are there on the tea mountain?
Banpo old village, gelanghe Township, Menghai County
Banpo old village is located on the hillside of nannuo mountain, gelanghe Township, Menghai county. The whole village is built close to the mountain. Tea farmers are scattered among tea trees and Fengwei bamboo on the hillside. In an ancient tea garden in Laozhai village on the half slope of nannuo mountain, there are towering ancient trees and dense forests.
In mid September, it is the time to pick autumn tea. Local tea farmers also call the tea picked during this period Gu Hua tea. Tea farmer Zhang Shan comes to the tea garden every day, but there are few fresh leaves on these ancient tea trees. After working for two hours, he picked a handful.
Ancient tea tree
Zhang Shan introduced that tea trees with a tree age of more than 100 years are recognized as ancient tea trees. At present, the whole Banpo old village villagers' group has more than 3200 mu of ancient tea gardens, but the tea gardens are in the wild state of "tea in the forest and forest in the tea", which can not be calculated simply by mu. There are only more than 15000 ancient tea trees in the whole village.
Zhang Shan, leader of the villagers' group of Banpo old village, gelanghe Township, Menghai County, Yunnan Province: the output is pitifully small. On average, an ancient tea tree can produce about 2.5kg of fresh leaves. If the whole year is counted, it may be less than one kilogram of fresh leaves made of dry wool tea.
Fresh leaves on ancient tea trees
Bulang mountain, located in the south of Menghai county and close to the China Myanmar border, is a famous Pu'er tea producing area in recent ten years. It is also an area with more ancient tea gardens. For many tea lovers who like Pu'er tea, the old banzhang in brown mountain is a familiar name.
Brown mountain
In late September, when the reporter of "economic half hour" came here, he didn't see many people picking tea, but saw the villagers at the gate of the village, paying close attention to the traffic 24 hours a day to prevent outsiders from bringing in tea for counterfeiting.
Ge San, deputy leader of laobanzhang villagers' group, introduced that the ancient tree resources of the whole stockade are about 4000 or 5000 mu. It is roughly estimated that the annual output of ancient tree tea in laobanzhang stockade is about 50 tons of dry wool tea. But they can't control whether they can sell 5000 tons or 50000 tons outside.
Notice at the gate of Laoban zhangzhaizi
The village group of xinbanzhang is only a mountain away from the old village of banzhang. It was separated from the old village of banzhang decades ago. The ancient tea garden in the village is connected with the old village, but in the new village, more tea trees have been planted in recent decades. During the spring tea season this year, the price of one kilogram of ancient tree dried wool tea in xinbanzhang rose to 6000 yuan, but the number of ancient trees is limited and the output is not high. It is like the decline of the elderly, and the output will deteriorate.
Ancient tea garden in xinbanzhang Village
Zhu Jiajun, Party Secretary of Bulang Nationality Township, Bulang mountain, Menghai County, Yunnan Province: now there are 245600 mu tea gardens in Bulang mountain, of which we mainly include ecological tea and ancient tree tea. There are only about 20000 mu of ancient tree tea, less than one tenth of the total. It can produce about 250 tons of ancient tree dry wool tea a year.
Brown mountain
Since 2015, the tea area in Menghai County, Yunnan Province has increased from 386000 Mu to 810000 mu, of which the ecological tea garden area has increased from 116300 Mu to 610000 mu, and the output of crude tea has increased from 13800 tons to 26700 tons, but there are only so many ancient tree tea gardens.
Yang Fohai, deputy county magistrate of Menghai County, Yunnan Province: now our ancient tea resources of more than 100 years are 46000 mu. Its output and output value are there. It can not be copied. We still need to make the ecological tea garden solid and good and make high-quality products. This is the original intention of Yunnan Pu'er tea and the ultimate goal of Yunnan Province to build a 100 billion level cloud tea industry.
Ecological tea garden
Statistics show that 14 of the 16 prefectures and cities in Yunnan Province produce tea, with more than 8 million tea farmers and more than 11 million people engaged in the tea industry. In 2018, the tea area in Yunnan Province exceeded 6 million mu, the output was nearly 400000 tons, and the comprehensive industrial output value of the province was 84.3 billion yuan. The output of Pu'er tea exceeded 140000 tons.
In recent years, with the rising price of ancient tree tea, ancient tree resources are facing the current situation of over exploitation and picking in the origin. In the end consumer market, tea products are mixed, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish between true and false. In view of this situation, in July 2019, Yunnan Province issued the opinions on protecting ancient tea mountains and ancient tea tree resources, which clearly pointed out that it is necessary to comprehensively investigate and find out the base number of ancient tea trees and ancient tea mountain resources in the province; And establish a long-term management mechanism before 2020.
Half hour observation:
At present, affected by the contradiction between supply and demand of ancient tree tea, 'ancient tree tea' has become a hyped concept, making it difficult to distinguish between true and false. This year, Ruan Chengfa, governor of Yunnan Province, suggested in his research on Yunnan tea industry that Pu'er tea production should establish a whole process and whole chain quality traceability system, and high-end tea should be "one cake, one yard", highlighting uniqueness, so that consumers can buy and drink at ease.
Ancient tea mountains and ancient tea trees are precious heritages left to us by our ancestors. They not only have great economic value, but also have important cultural value and species protection value. During the interview, we found that the survival status of ancient tea trees in some places is in danger due to over picking. Therefore, while standardizing the Pu'er tea market, we should also pay attention to the protection of ancient tea trees, so that their branches and leaves will be evergreen, leaving a refreshing fragrance of tea for future generations. Only in this way can the Pu'er tea industry be prosperous and green.