The mystery of the raw materials for 99 Yichanghao.
99 Yichanghao is often positioned in the market as: the first large-scale production of Yiwu wild arbor Tea by a private tea factory, and it is considered the ancestor of today's pure single-origin teas.
(The concept of “wild tea” was popularized by Taiwanese people in earlier years, now we generally call it “ancient tree tea” or “arbor tea.”) Prior to this, in the era dominated by the China Tea trademark, state-owned tea factories produced blended products. It's not to say that blending is bad, but after decades, the market remained unchanged, with packaging and raw materials remaining the same, which inevitably became monotonous. In contrast, 99 Yichanghao, with its orange packaging, still appears rustic yet fashionable even today.
Regarding the raw materials, it can be definitively stated that the raw materials for 99 Yichanghao were indeed arbor teas. Why? Zou Shouyuan, an eyewitness, told me an unknown story. There was originally a town enterprise called “Yiwu Tea Factory” in Yiwu Township, which mainly produced baked green tea, under the management of the Yiwu Township Enterprise Office. In 1999, due to owing bank loans, the tea factory was unable to pay its debts, so the bank took over the tea factory and sold it to Longsheng Company, renaming it “Simao Longsheng Green Industry Group Yiwu Longma Tea Factory.” At that time, Longsheng Company signed an agreement with the Yiwu Township government, stating that no outside tea factories could come to Yiwu to compete with Longma Tea Factory for raw materials.
Since Longsheng produced green tea, the raw materials required high tenderness, such as one bud and one leaf or one bud and two leaves. The only ones that met the standard were the local terrace teas. Arbor teas have coarse branches and large leaves, low refining rates, and thus were rarely purchased by tea factories. It's important to note that in those days, the price of arbor tea was actually lower than that of terrace tea, and the yield was low, making it difficult to pick. Many remote tea gardens were abandoned.
Therefore, all the terrace tea raw materials in Yiwu that year were delivered to Longsheng's Longma Tea Factory. As an outsider, Changtai Tea Shop could only choose from what was left over by Longma Tea Factory, which was the Raw material of arbor tea. Zou Shouyuan still remembers that the price of arbor tea raw materials at that time was only 5-6 yuan per kilogram. By the end of 2000, Menghai Tea Factory also came to Yiwu to purchase materials, competition drove up the prices, reaching a maximum of 10.5 yuan per kilogram. History always has surprising reversals; the cheap arbor tea raw materials that were left over back then have become a classic that is hard to surpass today. “The luck of being backward” plays out once again in the story of Pu'er tea.
The inner ticket of 99 Yichanghao.
Also because of the agreement signed that year between the Yiwu Township government and Longsheng Group, prohibiting outside enterprises from setting up factories in Yiwu to compete with Longma Tea Factory for resources, Changtai Tea Shop's business license was delayed by the county leadership. It wasn't until the end of 2000 that the business license was issued, and it was set up as the headquarters of Xishuangbanna Changtai Tea Co., Ltd. in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, with Yiwu as a branch, namely “Changtai Tea Shop Yiwu Branch.”
As for why 99 Yichanghao cake tea is divided into genuine, fine, and supreme grades? Zou Shouyuan introduced that these are classified according to the grade of the raw materials. High-grade raw materials with good tenderness and beautiful twigs are made into the supreme grade, slightly lower-grade raw materials are made into the fine grade, and the lowest-grade raw materials are made into the genuine grade. There were fewer supreme grade teas, while the fine and genuine grades were more common. Back then, everyone's approach to making tea was still dominated by green tea thinking, but the aging process of Pu'er tea requires the fermentation space built by coarse branches and large leaves. In practice, the fine and genuine grades performed better in the later stages.
As for the distinction between seal script and regular script, Zou Shouyuan indicated that they used whatever packaging paper was available, without strict differentiation, leaving some room for arbitrariness.
The Transformation from Ugly Duckling to Swan
After all 50 tons of Yichanghao were made and sent to Shenzhen, they entered the warehouse of Fu Hua Company. Wei Xuefeng and Tai Junlin began looking for buyers everywhere, focusing on the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets. Tai Junlin said that he had initially invited Mr. Huang Jinzhi of the Hong Kong Concordia Tea Shop, proposing that they split the batch of goods, but after Mr. Huang tried the tea, he found it too light and did not accept Tai Junlin's proposal.
In the previous 20 years, the entire Hong Kong Pu'er raw tea market had been almost entirely dominated by Menghai Tea Factory's 7542. Only after 1985 did Nan Tian Company's custom-made 8582 appear. Therefore, Hong Kong tea enthusiasts had long become accustomed to the intense flavor of Menghai Tea, and since raw cakes were aged, they believed that only strong and thick teas would age better. Therefore, Yiwu tea, known for its sweetness and gentleness, was not favored at that time, and tea merchants generally felt that the tea was too light and did not expect it to age well.
The initial sales of 99 Yichanghao in the Hong Kong market were not good. On one hand, this pure Yiwu tea did not meet the standards of many old Hong Kong tea enthusiasts; on the other hand, the price of this tea was simply too high. Tai Junlin still remembers the ex-factory price of 99 Yichanghao cake tea: genuine grade was 28 yuan/kg, fine grade was 38 yuan/kg, and supreme grade was 48 yuan/kg (the unit is “kilograms,” not “cakes”).
In Shenzhen, the price increased by a few to ten yuan per kilogram, and the most expensive supreme grade was no more than 60 yuan per kilogram. Tai Junlin said that this price was already the highest in the Hong Kong Pu'er tea market at the time. For reference, 7542 was only about 10 yuan per kilogram at that time. Some leading Hong Kong wholesalers even complained to Zou Jiaju, the general manager of the Provincial Tea Company, saying that Fu Hua Company was disrupting the market in Hong Kong. However, at that time, operations had already been liberalized, with departments operating independently, so the complaints were fruitless.
A good horse needs a good jockey, and 99 Yichanghao finally found its own jockey, Mr. Chen De of the Hong Kong Mingxiang Tea Shop (referred to as “Uncle Si”). Chen De's evaluation of 99 Yichanghao at the time is still frequently cited today: “This batch of 99 Yichanghao tea is the highest-quality Pu'er tea I've encountered in my many years of Pu'er tea business, and never before has a Pu'er tea given me such a pleasant surprise upon my first sip.” Chen De purchased a large quantity of 99 Yichanghao back then, part of which was quickly sold to Taiwan.
At the beginning of the millennium, Pu'er tea was just gaining popularity in Taiwan. Taiwanese people did not have deeply rooted concepts about Pu'er tea, and their tradition of drinking Oolong tea made them more focused on the aroma and freshness of the tea. The gentle, fragrant, and water-like Yiwu tea, with less stimulation, suited their taste. Furthermore, after the first trip to Yiwu in 1994 by a group of Taiwanese tea enthusiasts led by Lü Lizhen and Chen Huaiyuan, there was widespread dissemination about Yiwu. Therefore, at that time, Yiwu tea had a significant presence among tea enthusiasts in Taiwan and Malaysia.