“A Tree's” Glorious Journey

99 Green Great Tree

From the comprehensive cancellation of the unified purchase and sales policy in 1993,

to the full implementation of the Pu'er Tea national standard in 2008,

during these 15 years,

the Pu'er tea market could be said to have entered a new era of diverse voices and perspectives.

The “China Tea” brand's dominant position had changed with the times,

and new theories were constantly being proposed. Amidst the transition between old and new systems,

there might have been some dark chaos,

but it was during this “darkness before dawn” that custom-made teas sparked a movement, eventually leading to an “all-encompassing” trend,

and ultimately ushering in a new era for Pu'er tea.

Like today's protagonist, “Green Great Tree,”

after it, custom-made teas brought about a world of diversity for Pu'er tea,

especially from the late 1990s to 2004,

which was practically the domain of large factory custom-made teas.

Peacock, Chinese Cabbage, Red Ribbon series,

Yiwu Zhengshan Collection, Green Great Tree, 7262, and more,

too many to name, after washing away the patina of time and standing the test of the market,

these products commanded high prices,

with prices casually reaching several thousand per cake, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, which became quite commonplace.

Custom-made teas achieved a qualitative leap in Pu'er tea quality,

enabled the comprehensive development of Pu'er tea culture,

restored traditional tea-making techniques, among other things,

all laying a solid foundation for the future revival of Pu'er tea.

Green Great Tree, the tea tree in the ideal realm of the heart

The reason why Green Great Tree became Green Great Tree is a story of whether the chicken came before the egg. Many people only know about Green Great Tree and Ye Binghuai, but few know that 99 Green Great Tree was originally commissioned by a Taiwanese tea enthusiast through Mr. Ye Binghuai. The well-known Taiwanese tea enthusiast Wu Muqi once conducted an exclusive interview with the principal party, Mr. Zhuang Rongjie, thereby uncovering the past and present of Green Great Tree.

In December 2015, Wu Muqi visited Zhuang Rongjie's residence in Kaohsiung City. At that time, Zhuang Rongjie had been paralyzed in bed for over ten years, and according to Wu Muqi's description, “Apart from still being able to speak, only his left wrist could move slightly.” His daily life was taken care of by his wife. Despite his fate, Zhuang Rongjie seemed to maintain a relatively positive attitude, and he chatted with Wu Muqi in his hearty southern Taiwan accent about the past events.

In the 1980s, Taiwan's economic environment was prosperous, and there were more and more wealthy Taiwanese people who began to take a keen interest in drinking tea and playing with Yixing Teapots. It was also during this period that Zhuang Rongjie first saw Mr. Deng Shihai's new book “Pu'er Tea” (1995 edition), and he keenly sensed a business opportunity, starting to delve into Pu'er tea.

However, in an era when Hong Kongers held sway over the Pu'er tea discourse, many Hong Kong-stored Pu'ers were damp-stored teas. As Zhuang Rongjie learned more about Pu'er tea, he grew increasingly eager to taste Pu'er tea that had not been stored in warehouses. He wanted to experience the authentic flavor of Pu'er tea straight from the tea tree, without ever having been to Yunnan or seen a tea tree. Nevertheless, the yearning for this green great tea tree gradually took root in his heart, prompting him to want to produce a batch of pure Yunnan Pu'er tea that had never been stored in Hong Kong warehouses.

In 1998, Zhuang Rongjie bypassed all the channels of Hong Kong tea merchants and first walked into the Fangcun tea market. Back then, Fangcun was not as prosperous as it is now. Zhuang Rongjie noticed that most of the tea shops operated mainly in Tieguanyin or Wuyi rock tea, and counted only three shops that specialized in selling Pu'er tea. Ye Binghuai's Xin Ye Tea Shop was one of them. After conducting thorough research, Zhuang Rongjie chose Ye Binghuai as his partner to collaborate on this batch of tea, placing an order.

This order was for Green Great Tree. As it was Zhuang Rongjie's first time customizing Pu'er tea, he was full of anticipation for the Pu'er tea of his ideal realm. Due to the scarcity of information at the time, Zhuang Rongjie could not make too many demands, and he put forth five requirements: 1. The batch must be made by a major factory; 2. Ye Binghuai must entrust a local collector nicknamed “Drunkard” to directly procure the materials; 3. The materials must be from large trees in the Yiwu tea area; 4. The materials must be from the first spring harvest; 5. The packaging paper of the major factory should not be used; 6. The quality of the tea cakes must be personally approved by him after brewing. After these instructions were given, he felt reassured.

Because major factories would naturally have stable craftsmanship, entrusting someone familiar to collect the first spring harvest materials could ensure the authenticity of the tea as genuine Yiwu large tree tea, and the quality of spring tea is the best throughout the year. Taiwanese people have a special sentiment for Yiwu tea, due to the emphasis on the phrase “Yiwu Zhengshan” on the inner flyers of popular Taiwanese aged teas at the time.

These requirements may seem simple today, but they were not easy to achieve back then. This required both parties to continuously adapt based on practical conditions, and the considerations could not be overly idealistic. Therefore, every month, Zhuang Rongjie would regularly fly from Hong Kong to Guangzhou to discuss the progress of making the tea with Ye Binghuai and taste the tea together, while Ye Binghuai did not slack off either, after all, in the context of the declining Pu'er tea market at the time, Zhuang Rongjie's order could be considered a significant one.

To create the highest quality tea, Ye Binghuai sought out Mr. Su Pinxue from Menghai Tea Factory, who was an expert in tea-making and selection. At the time, he already had over two tons of tea materials collected, probably from the Luoshu Dong area. Later, when they went to see the tea trees, they found that the tea trees were quite majestic. Thus, they decided to use the image of Yiwu large tree tea for the outer packaging, giving birth to the prototype of the Green Great Tree packaging.

Ye Binghuai and Zhuang Rongjie, two people with high standards for tea, continued to work together through countless tea tastings and discussions, eventually selecting two types of raw materials and packaging paper. Menghai Tea Factory was responsible for pressing the tea, and the first product was “99 Green Great Tree.” This was merely an alias, and the official name of Green Great Tree was “Yiwu Zhengshan Wild Tea,” with a total of approximately 90 cases produced. Another product was called “99 Red Seal Chun Jian,” with a total of 90 cases produced as well.

This batch of tea was transported to Guangzhou upon completion. The entire shipment started delivering the first batch in 1999, and the whole batch of tea was not fully delivered until 2000. Once the batches of tea arrived in Guangzhou, they could