Visit WWW.PUREPUER.COM Yang Su and Larry's journey started in Kunming, China. The manager of the factory drove us 13 hours east to the tea factory in the remote mountains of Feng Qing.
Schoolboys we met along the way.
Enroute to the tea factory in Feng Qing. The journey takes us through many mountains such as these.
A natural mountain spring. The water is very pure.
Enroute to see the oldest tea tree in the world.
This puer tea tree is reported to be the oldest tea tree in the world, at about 3750 years old.
Some of our tea trees in the foreground. These trees are about eighty years old. They live in a very natural forest environment.
This tea tree is about eighty years old.
A puer tea tree used to make our tea.
This leaf is as big as Larry's hand. The younger leaves are used to make tea.
Our pesticide-free puer is sometimes eaten by the insects. Here is another sign of life among the tea.
Sometimes insects find our tea tasty too.
Yang Su holding what is used to make the one sprout two leaves green puer.
This is one of our tea trees. It is over one hundred years old.
These tea trees are over one hundred years old. They have been cropped lower to make it easier to pick the leaves.
Another natural insect repelling tree found among our tea trees.
Picking tea on a slope.
We finally made it to our factory located in the remote mountain town of Feng Qing in Yunnan (elevation 5900 feet, 1800 meters.) This is where the tea is collected, rolled and sun dried before it is shipped to our other factory in Kunming.
The tea pickers selling the tea to the Feng Qing factory, where it is immediately rolled and sun dried.
The raw puer tea is allowed to breathe prior to being rolled.
The leaves are tumbled in an air drying machine for 3 minutes to soften them.
The leaves are rolled to loosen the natural outer leaf coating.
The inside of the roller is hollow like a tin can.
The rolled tea is then sun dried for three days. This mao cha (raw puer tea) is used to make green and black puer.
The mao cha is being loaded on a truck to be taken to the Kunming factory.
The drive to the Kunming factory will take 13 hours over mountain roads.
The entryway to the Kunming factory.
The changing room.
Mao cha stored before processing.
The tea is weighed and placed in the bucket. Then it will be steamed for 25 seconds to soften the leaves and to allow the leaves to stay together when pressed.
Cloth is placed over the bucket and the tea is emptied into the cloth. The cloth is tied.
Closeup of the wrapped teacake being pressed. It takes about 1 second.
The cloth containing the tea is placed on the press.
Our highest quality tea is still pressed with stone.
The factory owner (wife.)
Larry with the owner of the factory (husband.)
The worker is unwrapping the cloth from the teacakes after they have been pressed.
Green teacakes are stored in a drying room for a day. Black teacakes are stored two or three days in the drying room.
The teacakes before being wrapped.
This worker ensures that the correct date is stamped on each wrapper.
Yang Su holding a teacake in the packaging room.
Larry (left), the manager of the Feng Qing factory (middle), and the Feng Qing mayor (right) enjoy some puer tea brewed in the traditional way.
This certificate from the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Government shows that our tea is pesticide free. On the left is the name of the pesticide that they test for. "ND"stands for "Not Detected."
