The Marvel on Horseback

3 min read

The world famous pu’er tea was actually the result of a wonderful mistake.The first flat cake of pu’er tea took shape on a jolting horseback ride amidst the long tickling of the horse bell.Tradition has it that during Emperor Qianlong’s reign（1736-1796）of the Qing Dynasty，Pu’er prefecture of Yunnan paid tea tribute to the imperial court every year.One year，it was exceedingly wet.As the time to pay tribute was drawing close，the shipment of the tea started before it had been air-dried.It was a two-to-three month journey from Yunnan to Beijing (the capital of the Qing Dynasty). The tea cakes carried on horseback had fermented during this time, but the bright, reddish tea made with it won the favor of Emperor Qianlong, who then bestowed it the name “Pu’ er tea.”

Aside from the round, flat, cake-shaped tea, pu’ er tea is also made into various other shapes, such as bowlshaped tuo tea, square-shaped brick tea, bar-shaped qian-liang tea, half-melon-shaped, gold-melon and tribute tea.

The main purpose of pressing the tea into various shapes is to transport more easily. The non-pressed tea is usuallyfor local tea-drinkers. Pu’ er tea can be classified according to the shapes it takes; also, it can be further classified into prepared tea and unprepared tea, according to dif-ferent processing methods. Prepared tea is accomplished by adding water to and heating the tea to make it ferment rapidly through the reaction of moist and heat. Unprepared tea is cold in quality and harsh in flavor. It should be preserved for a long time in a dry storehouse, and aged and matured slowly and naturally over the course of years. The lifespan of top-quality pu’ er tea can be dozens of years or even close to 100 years. Over the long years, pu’ er tea gains the fresh aroma of camphor wood, the pleasantly sweet perfume of lotus and the sweet fragrance of orchids. Keeping a pu’ er tea cake for yourself for an extended period is a continuation of the life journey of the pu’ er tea. As reading text is like a re-creation of the work being read, keeping pu’ er tea itself is also like a re-creation of pu’ er tea. This characteristic of pu’ er’s worthy cache creates a miraculous affinity between pu’ er tea and red wine. Similar to red wine, pu’er tea is closely associated with its origin and age, and the way that it is stored. It is red, resembling the color of red wine, and tastes sweet and refreshing. People even enjoy pu’ er tea the same way as they enjoy red wine. Pu’ er tea is regarded as the Oriental”drinkable marvel.”

Talking about pu’ er tea cannot be done without talking about the ancient roads of tea and horses, zigzagging along the Hengduan Mountains in southeast China. It was on these ancient roads by which pu’ er tea had been carried to distant lands all over the world. The north road leads to many inland provinces via Kunming and it was on this road that the tribute tea to the Emperor had beencarried to Beijing through express delivery. The northwest road leads to Tibet via Dali, Lijiang and Zhongdian, and from Lhasa extends to Nepal and India and so on. There are three southern roads, respectively, the east leadingto Vietnam, the south leading to Laos and the southwest leading to Myanmar and Thailand. The horses travelled to and fro in an endless stream. There were far more than cakes of air-dried pu’ er tea in what they were delivering.

On their backs were also the mystical sights, the legendary fate of the people and their pious beliefs, as well as their soul-stirring history.