Identifying the quality of Pu'er Tea mainly relies on four criteria: tenderness, color, uniformity, and expansion. The better the tenderness, the more supple and resilient the tea leaves will feel when squeezed between fingers; hard leaves that do not spring back when released indicate older leaves. High-quality Pu'er tea leaves will fully unfurl after being steeped in boiling water, while lower quality tea leaves will only partially open and appear wrinkled and uneven. Good Pu'er tea has a lively leaf base and a rich, bright liquor.

How to Identify Old Ban Zhang Pu'er Tea?

Some Main Methods Used for Faking Old Ban Zhang Tea

1. Downgrading Raw Materials. This involves passing off inferior materials as high-quality ones, a common tactic used by unscrupulous merchants to reap huge profits. Some brands that claim to set standards are not immune to this practice. One common method is to sell ecological small-tree tea or plantation tea as ancient tree tea. The price difference between pure ancient tree tea, mixed ancient tree and ecological small-tree tea, ecological small-tree tea, and plantation tea can be significant. For example, the price of high-quality pure ancient tree tea from Jingmai in the current season can be over ten times higher than that of ecological small-tree tea, and ecological small-tree tea can be three to four times more expensive than plantation tea. Another common method is to sell autumn tea or rainy-season tea as spring tea, capitalizing on the price difference between spring tea and other seasonal teas.

2. Origin Forgery. This involves selling teas with similar taste profiles from nearby areas as those from famous mountains and villages. In recent years, small-yield famous mountain ancient tree teas like Old Ban Zhang, Bingdao, and Xigui have suffered greatly from this. The market is flooded with fakes, making it difficult to find genuine products. Origin and age forgery not only harms consumers financially and health-wise but also deprives them of the unique characteristics that make Pu'er tea so charming. When I offered true Old Ban Zhang ancient tree tea to friends who had tasted “Old Ban Zhang” before, most were surprised at how different the flavors were. Even two friends who specialize in selling Pu'er tea and consider “Old Ban Zhang” their flagship product mistook it for tea from outside the Menghai region.

3. Packaging Forgery. This is very common in tea counterfeiting. Unscrupulous merchants use privately printed packaging for high-priced teas to wrap cheaper teas of the same specifications to gain illegal profits.

How to Distinguish Old Ban Zhang Tea

How to distinguish genuine Old Ban Zhang tea? Reflecting on my eleven years of drinking Pu'er tea, I've heard countless stories and seen numerous “experts.” Being a Chinese Tea enthusiast is no easy task. Not only must one possess a discerning palate, keen eyesight, and acute hearing, but also a keen mind, honed through repeated trials and errors in the tea market to develop the ability to discern authenticity. Based on my experience, I believe we can apply methods from antique identification to differentiate Pu'er mountain teas, which can be summarized in three phrases: “Do not blindly believe, do not easily trust. Follow lineage, trace origins. In tea tasting, truth lies in the taste.”

1. “Do not blindly believe, do not easily trust.”

As they say in the antiques trade: “The forgers are experts.” The same applies to Pu'er tea counterfeiting. In the market, the largest quantities of fake Old Ban Zhang tea, with the closest taste profile, come from certain unscrupulous “manufacturers” and “experts.” Micro-region teas have been particularly popular in recent years, becoming a hotbed for origin fraud. I conducted a survey and found that the annual yield of a highly sought-after micro-region ancient tree tea from Yiwu is only a few hundred kilograms, yet a well-known brand introduced dozens of cases of this product to the market, far exceeding the actual production. Another brand launched hundreds of cases of tea from Old Ban Zhang without ever having purchased a single leaf from there. It's clear which is real and which is fake.

I once tasted an exorbitantly priced “Old Ban Zhang ancient tree tea” from a renowned master, but it lacked the characteristic aroma and taste of the Old Ban Zhang region, clearly “not authentic.”

Poor enthusiasts who love the ancient tree tea from the Old Ban Zhang region but cannot afford the exorbitant prices often have to put aside their pride and beg for tea. However, they find that the Old Ban Zhang ancient tree teas available in the market and among tea circles vary widely in taste, rarely matching the style of the genuine Old Ban Zhang ancient tree tea gifted by friends in Yunnan. To distinguish the authenticity of Old Ban Zhang ancient tree tea, one must not blindly trust “brands,” nor easily believe “experts” and “masters,” and should approach tea with a healthy dose of skepticism.

2. “Follow Lineage, Trace Origins.”

A practical method for identifying antiques is “follow lineage, trace origins,” which is also applicable to distinguishing genuine Pu'er mountain teas. If a tea can be accurately traced back to the specific forest where it was picked, who processed it, who transported it, and how many dealers it passed through, its authenticity can be accurately determined.

Many enthusiasts believe that Pu'er tea bought directly from the source is guaranteed to be genuine, with some even going to villages to purchase it, assuming it must be authentic. Many of my friends hold this belief, but in reality, many have purchased Pu'er teas that do not match the flavor profile of the origin, and age fraud is even more common. As the price of tea increases, local tea farmers may also resort to counterfeiting for profit.

In recent years, many capable enthusiasts have gone up the mountains to track the entire process of fresh leaf picking, withering, fixing, sun-drying, and cake pressing to ensure they can trace the origins and guarantee they drink genuine tea. This extreme tea-seeking method is not feasible for all enthusiasts. Even when supervising the tea-making process on-site, it is challenging to prevent the tea from being switched at certain stages, making it difficult to ensure authenticity.

I believe that Old Ban Zhang tea that can be traced back to its origins is truly Old Ban Zhang tea.

3. “In Tea Tasting, Truth Lies in the Taste.”

The simplest and most practical method for enthusiasts to identify tea is to judge its authenticity and quality based on the aroma and taste after brewing. Traditional Chinese medicine uses four diagnostic methods: observation, auscultation and olfaction, inquiry, and pulse-taking. A similar approach can be applied to evaluate tea quality and origin: observation, smell, inquiry, and taste. These four methods provide a relatively objective and accurate overall evaluation of a tea through visual, olfactory, verbal, and gustatory senses. Using these four methods to judge tea, akin to traditional Chinese medicine's diagnostic techniques, is a comprehensive and objective way to assess tea quality and origin, a shortcut I recommend.

One of the most captivating aspects of Pu'er tea is the diverse flavors across different mountains, each with its unique charm. Old Ban Zhang is known as the king due to its powerful character and regal qualities. The strength of Old Ban Zhang tea is widely recognized, but it does not mean it lacks finesse. Its strength lies in its intense flavor, full-bodied mouthfeel, pleasant aroma, coolness upon entry, strong throat resonance, and quick aftertaste, giving a strong impact upon tasting.

Many people think Old Ban Zhang is just bitter tea, but there is a distinction between sweet and bitter teas within Old Ban Zhang itself. During my second visit to Old Ban Zhang in 2015 to explore the truth about Pu'er tea, I tasted fresh tea buds from different parts of the village, each with distinct bitterness, sweetness, astringency, and fragrance, unlike what you would expect from a single village. In the Shanghai tea enthusiast circle, there is a widespread belief that Old Ban Zhang tea leaves have sword-like points, but upon examination, few actually do. We cannot accurately determine the origin of tea based solely on the shape of its leaves.