Puer Tea Processing Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
By the Tang dynasty, Pu'er tea was already sold far to the interior and Tibet. In the Song dynasty, it occupied an important position in the trade policy of the "tea-horse exchange." In the Ming dynasty, Pu'er tea sold even more widely, with the grand situation that "everything owned by scholars and commoners alike was Pu'er tea." In the Qing dynasty, Pu'er tea was listed as a tribute item, and the court established an official tea bureau specifically in charge of related tea affairs. In 1939, the famous tea master Fan Hejun founded the Menghai Tea Factory and produced "Dayi"-brand Pu'er tea; after more than sixty years of unremitting effort, "Dayi" has become a renowned tea brand at home and abroad. In 2006, "Dayi" Pu'er tea was rated by the Ministry of Agriculture as a "Chinese Famous-Brand Agricultural Product."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The traditional Pu'er tea-making craft of Yunnan has a long history, traceable as far back as the Shang and Zhou periods. Yunnan Pu'er tea is mainly produced in Ning'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County, Menghai County, and other places, where a unique making technique has formed through long-term production. Menghai County of Yunnan Province, formerly called "Fohai," is one of the birthplaces of tea plants in the world. The key to the Dayi tea-making technique lies in blending and fermentation. Blending is the effective and reasonable combination of various tea varieties according to their characteristics, taking the strong points to offset the weak, so as to make up for the shortcomings of any single variety; fermentation refers to the special skill of "artificial post-fermentation." The successful research of the Dayi tea-making technique has made a major contribution to the development of Pu'er tea production.
Blending to offset weak lots
Lots are combined so each offsets another's shortcoming, making the tea's quality repeatable year after year.
Controlled post-fermentation
A deliberately managed fermentation stage is added to natural ageing, setting the final thickness of the brew.
Menghai, formerly Fuhai
The former name Fuhai and the monasteries around the basin recall a tea history far older than any factory.
Fan Hejun and the Menghai factory
Fan Hejun founded the Menghai factory in 1939; six decades of work turned the Dayi brand into a national name.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The distribution center of the Dayi tea-making technique is Menghai County, Yunnan Province. Menghai, formerly called Fohai, is one of the birthplaces of tea plants in the world; within it, mountains and ridges crisscross and forests are dense, with tea gardens mostly distributed on slopes at the edges of dam areas. The Menghai Tea Factory is the main transmission vehicle of this technique, concentrating Pu'er tea processing in one place. Menghai and Ning'er are both important towns of Pu'er tea, but Ning'er is known for tribute tea and the compressed-tea line, while Menghai excels in the large-scale production of blending and artificial post-fermentation; the two places share the same origin of technique yet differ in emphasis.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Puer Tea Processing Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The value of Dayi tea concentrates on its blending and artificial post-fermentation. Blending combines teas of different varieties and plots to take the strong to offset the weak, making up for the shortcomings of a single variety and stabilizing the finished tea's quality at a reproducible level; artificial post-fermentation adds a controllable fermentation stage beyond natural post-fermentation, allowing the tea liquor's flavor to mature more quickly. Both rely on long-accumulated judgment and data — quality cannot be determined by a single trial. In 1939, Fan Hejun founded the Menghai Tea Factory to produce Dayi-brand Pu'er tea; after more than sixty years of operation, Dayi became a well-known tea brand at home and abroad and was rated by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2006 as a Chinese Famous-Brand Agricultural Product. The significance of this item therefore goes beyond a mere local brand: it pushed Pu'er tea from a scattered handcraft product toward standardized, inspectable modern production.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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