Firstly, not recommending doesn't mean opposing; it merely represents a personal stance.

Let's analyze the specific reasons first. Then we'll discuss what Ming Shou Tang does and our solutions.

It should be noted that we are talking about ancient tree raw Pu'er Tea here, not involving ripe tea or pesticide-laden teas.

The first reason is health-related.

This point is highly controversial. Many tea enthusiasts strongly oppose drinking young tea, considering it akin to poison. Yet the mainstream market trend is towards drinking young tea. If you completely refute it, you're refuting the livelihood of many people.

This involves the biochemistry of EGCG and other contained substances, which is complex to argue in detail, and the research is still relatively preliminary. It hasn't reached a point where the impact on human health is immediately apparent. I will write a separate article to explain this. Here, let's just analyze based on practical experiences rather than from a scientific perspective.

In my practical experience, those who encounter health issues after drinking young tea are mainly tea makers or shop owners, who drink tea from morning till night, tasting many different kinds and many infusions each day. This is more likely to cause problems. Of course, there are also shop owners who drink tea all day long for many years without any issues. This is due to individual differences in constitution. You can't generalize based on your own experience, nor can you assume the opposite.

If we talk about ordinary tea enthusiasts, I haven't encountered anyone with health issues after drinking one or two teas a day. Those who occasionally have problems tend to drink tea from morning till night and have a naturally weak constitution, lack exercise, and poor Metabolism.

This is the situation I've encountered over the years. On one hand, I don't think it's necessary to adopt an overly radical attitude like some tea enthusiasts, who harm themselves by overdrinking. On the other hand, while moderate consumption of young tea may not cause obvious harm, it still requires our attention. If there are alternatives or if it can be avoided, it would be better. People have different metabolic capacities, and these capacities change at different stages of life. The amount consumed and the time accumulated also vary. Therefore, it's best to avoid risks altogether.

Currently, the Pu'er tea production process has shifted towards making young tea more enjoyable. This process of stir-frying until thoroughly dried reduces the stimulating nature of young tea, but the fundamental nature remains unchanged. Compared to Green Tea, it's less thoroughly stir-fried, and Yunnan large-Leaf varieties contain more substances. Excessive consumption of green tea also has negative effects, so this new process of young Pu'er tea is still unsuitable for heavy consumption.

Therefore, from a health perspective, if you do drink young tea, it must be done in moderation.

The second reason is related to its appreciation value.

As a beverage, while some people focus on social or financial value, from our perspective, the primary consideration is its appreciation value.

From the perspective of appreciation value, is it better to drink young tea or medium-aged or old tea? There's a premise here: whether the storage and aging methods are appropriate. If improperly stored, leading to loss of aroma or contamination with foreign odors, the appreciation value of medium-aged or old tea might be lower than that of young tea. This is the fundamental reason for the market and production shift towards drinking young tea.

The storage and aging of Pu'er tea is a vast topic. One could say that the current mainstream understanding of the mechanisms and methods of storage and aging is significantly biased or even contradictory.

A simple example is that there are massive quantities of medium-aged tea in both Guangdong and the original production area of Yunnan. In Dongguan and other places, there are collectors with thousands of tons of tea. Even if the quality of the raw materials varies, if properly stored, many impressive products would emerge. However, such products have not appeared. So-called medium-aged teas are still mostly mass-produced teas with little appreciation value.

Especially for Pu'er tea products from around 2007, the inventory is very large. If scientifically stored, they should be at the peak of their second optimal drinking period. These teas should be much more valuable than young tea. In reality, however, these teas are not more valuable than young tea. The better the raw materials used initially, the more their value depreciates now, while plantation teas retain their value better.

These are all issues arising from improper storage. We'll discuss them specifically when we have the chance. Here, I mention them to remind everyone that there's a fundamental difference between scientific storage and casual storage. If stored scientifically, Pu'er tea, after three to five years of transformation, has much higher appreciation value than young tea.

This is also the fundamental reason why we insist on recommending storing tea. The conversion in Kunming warehouses is too slow, leading to many tea enthusiasts' stored teas transforming better than those in our Kunming warehouse. Thus, we repeatedly selected locations to open our second warehouse. Currently, there are very few early stored items in the Kunming warehouse, none of which are for sale. Interested collectors can come to Kunming for tasting and exchange. With the launch of the second warehouse, many teas will perform exceptionally well within three to five years. More tea enthusiasts will be able to appreciate the charm of scientific storage.

In today's market, due to a lack of understanding of scientific storage, storing tea brings significant uncertainty. The more precious the tea, the more likely its quality will decline over time. As a result, production processes have shifted towards making young tea more enjoyable. This is particularly evident in famous mountains, where the entire Menghai tea is becoming sweeter and more fragrant as young tea. Many other tea mountains are also moving in this direction. I've met many tea makers who have made Ban Zhang pure ancient tree tea, but none of them have been able to demonstrate that old Ban Zhang tea is better than young tea under current processing techniques. Even using our scientific storage, it's impossible to change this situation under current processing conditions.

This is a vicious cycle: because of a lack of understanding of storage, people cannot experience the transformation and elevation but instead bear the risk of spoilage. So, the process is changed to make young tea more enjoyable, and after changing the process, even with scientific storage, further transformation and elevation become impossible. As a result, the idea of Pu'er tea getting better with age gradually becomes a legend.

Despite the broader market environment, once you've experienced truly scientifically stored Pu'er tea, you'll understand that the pleasant taste of young tea and the transformation through storage are entirely different concepts. The latter's appreciation value far exceeds the former. One could even say that properly processed and stored Pu'er raw tea over seven years old provides a completely different experience from any other type of tea. Simply in terms of appreciation value, it surpasses any other tea, regardless of price.

This is another reason why we advocate storing tea for later consumption.

The third reason is the insights gained from storing tea.

In terms of Pu'er tea, Ming Shou Tang not only doesn't recommend drinking young tea, but we also don't sell young tea. The samples and cakes we sell are all aged teas. Once a tea enthusiast understands and isn't short of funds, if they want to acquire large quantities of scientifically stored aged teas, we limit sales because our stock is indeed limited.

Of course, as our capital gradually turns over and our stock of old tea increases, this situation will gradually change. However, given the current market environment, this process won't be fast.

We even write on our new packaging, “Do not consume young tea in large quantities,” fearing that others might quickly consume it. In this fast-paced era, this is indeed a peculiar existence.

We recommend that everyone store young tea themselves because our technology has solved the problem of home storage. Everyone can confidently start their tea storage journey at home, simpler than storing wine or cigars.

Although previously mentioned, aged Pu'er tea, after several years of storage, has much higher appreciation value than young tea, on a completely different level. We believe that the experience of storing tea is even more valuable than its appreciation value.

Through the changes in these leaves, you can converse with nature, with heaven and earth, feel the changes of the seasons, the wonders of time and place, and also feel your own changes. This experience is