Home Tea Storage
and Warehouse Storage Evaluation
1. Home tea storage originated in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the mid-20th century, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Pu'er tea consumption (except in Tibet) largely ceased on the Chinese mainland. Only Hong Kong retained a partial market for Pu'er tea. Hong Kong introduced Pu'er tea to Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries. As such, due to its unique trading position, Hong Kong naturally became a distribution center for Pu'er tea. In fact, the concept of tea storage and even post-Fermentation of Pu'er tea was born out of trade.
In other words, although there has been a saying in Yunnan since ancient times that “grandfathers make tea, grandsons sell it” (another version is “grandsons drink it”), the initial concept of tea storage in Hong Kong was simply about stockpiling goods. However, over time, this gradually evolved into a more conscious approach to tea storage, with various methods being explored and moving towards professional tea storage. Due to Hong Kong's high population density and limited land, as well as limited warehouse conditions, along with the relatively small proportion of tea in overall trade, the capital and economic strength of those involved were restricted. This led to a model of home tea storage. This model expanded to the Guangdong region in the mid-1990s and reached its peak at the turn of the century. Leveraging its larger scale as a Pu'er tea distribution center, Guangdong transformed the storage of Pu'er tea into a new “economic hotspot” and quickly spread it across China.
Home tea storage in Mainland China from the beginning of this century differs fundamentally from that in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, home tea storage was a means of livelihood, a way to make a living; whereas in Mainland China, home tea storage is mostly driven by personal preference and has become a form of consumer behavior. Therefore, it generally leans towards smaller scales, sometimes integrated with personal living spaces or in separate areas like rooms, garages, or cellars.
One advantage is that it ensures the environment remains clean and tidy, allowing the tea storer to frequently visit the storage area. On one hand, this satisfies the storer's pleasure as a “connoisseur,” enriching their disposition; on the other hand, it allows them to keep a close eye on the tea and carefully observe and experience its changes. This is a method worth emulating and promoting for those who love Pu'er tea. It is similar to French red wine: while all French wineries have their own cellars, many French people still maintain small home cellars. They prefer to purchase a certain amount of red wine each year to store in their home cellars, not for extravagant drinking needs or future appreciation but rather as a leisurely activity, involving attention, appreciation, or tasting. It is essentially an embodiment of an elegant lifestyle. Thus, their home cellars do not follow a uniform model but are instead unique, and when guests are invited to their homes, visiting the cellar is often a must, showcasing the owner's taste and spiritual realm.
One thing we need to remind you is that home tea storage cannot complete the entire post-fermentation process in the shortest possible time. This is because home tea storage is constrained by two factors: first, the home environment cannot reach the required “concentration” of microorganisms, which naturally reduces the fermentation rate; second, the limited quantity of tea restricts the occurrence of “bulk reactions” during post-fermentation.
Because “bulk reactions” require a certain volume of tea. Therefore, we can say that professional fermentation is like a “bulldozer,” clearing a path through wilderness, while home tea storage is more like a “roller,” smoothing out the newly opened road.
Similarly, home wine cellars in France also differ fundamentally from the winery's cellars. On the surface, they share similarities, both maintaining light avoidance and stable temperature and humidity. However, they intentionally distinguish themselves from professional cellars, such as controlling and weakening the “concentration” of microorganisms in the environment, having no mold spots on the walls, good air circulation, and no noticeable “cellar smell.” They lean more towards smaller sizes, are more refined, have a stronger cultural atmosphere, and better visual effects. In fact, they make a very precise division of labor with professional cellars: professional cellars handle the initial fermentation, while home cellars are responsible for the latter part of “fine-tuning.”
2. Warehouse tea storage. The warehouse storage model. Its most basic characteristic is the warehouse itself. Built upon the rejection of the “wet warehouses” and “dry warehouses” of Hong Kong and Taiwan, this is a more scientifically effective method of tea storage. This tea storage model emerged at the end of the 1990s and rapidly spread across multiple regions in Guangdong alongside the “Pu'er craze.” The vast majority of the massive quantities of Pu'er tea stored in the Guangdong region over the past decade rely on this model. Among these, several Yunnan tea manufacturers have transferred some of their products to Guangdong to participate in this type of warehouse storage.
Warehouse tea storage is primarily carried out by businesses, with individual investors playing a supporting role. This type of warehouse storage is approaching the standards of professional fermentation. It represents a significant technological advancement in the evolution of Pu'er tea over thousands of years. It addresses two key issues:
First, it initiates professional attempts at post-fermentation of Pu'er tea. Although this research is still in its infancy and requires further refinement, before this, Pu'er tea only had harvesting and processing techniques, without any post-processing fermentation techniques. Operators and enthusiasts in the Guangdong region, leveraging natural environmental advantages, conducted extensive experiments on post-fermentation in warehouse storage, gaining valuable experience. This is the largest-scale “post-fermentation” experiment in the history of Pu'er tea as a fermented product.
Second, it approaches the standards of professional fermentation. Firstly, the scaled-up quantities of tea stored generally meet the tea quantity requirements for post-fermentation “bulk reactions,” particularly the ratio of space to tea quantity. Secondly, the stacking of goods is more professional, including control over temperature and humidity in the storage space. It departs from the dirty, disorderly, and substandard storage conditions of earlier “wet warehouses.”
There are two shortcomings of warehouse tea storage:
First, some warehouse tea storage still focuses on the level of a warehouse, or even resembles modern Logistics warehouses. In many places where warehouse tea storage occurs in Guangdong, we see very clean and tidy environments. The floors are self-leveling (epoxy floor coatings, typically used in hospitals and high-cleanliness areas of enterprises), and there are automatic conveyor systems, achieving near-sterile cleanliness levels.
However, there is an issue here: for the post-fermentation of Pu'er tea, microbial “intervention” is needed, and in super-proportional microbial colonies. If the concentration of microorganisms in the warehouse environment does not reach a certain level, post-fermentation will not occur. At the same time, the survival and reproduction of microorganisms require specific temperatures and humidity; otherwise, their efficacy will decrease, directly affecting the post-fermentation rate of Pu'er tea. Therefore, too dirty, too wet, or too hot conditions can cause the tea to mold and lead to secondary contamination, harming the post-fermentation process. However, if it is too clean, or even sterile, post-fermentation cannot occur. Therefore, warehouse tea storage should not solely focus on the concept of a warehouse but should elevate the storage space to a professional fermentation site.
Second, warehouse tea storage is currently limited to the accumulation of experience and lacks the elevation of this experience to a scientific standard. Different types of tea have their own models for post-fermentation. For example, raw tea requires post-fermentation at 30°C to 40°C (optimal temperature for microbial proliferation), then from 40°C to 50°C (optimal temperature for bacterial proliferation), and finally from 50°C to 60°C (optimal temperature for enzymatic fermentation). All these stages are essential and represent a sequential fermentation process. For ripe tea, the post-fermentation process is simpler because it has already gone through these stages during the “pile-fermentation” process and only requires the enzymatic fermentation stage. Therefore, creating fermentation models for different types of tea can bring us closer to professional fermentation and