blue wrapper Pu Erh - does anybody know?

[Marco]

Hello all,

this week I had a nice Sheng Pu Erh with a friend who brought it from a trip to China. I think I have already seen the wrapper once but don't know where. Does anybody know this tea?

ciao
Marco

[Zared]

http://www.teacuppa.com/China-Tea-Brand ... a-Cake.asp

[legend]

Characters circular around around a stamp of 茶 Cha is not neccessarily going to tell you anything. It was used for almost all productions of Puer from the MengHai factory 勐海茶厂 for many years and there are countless variations This general design in red or blue is ubiquitous and has been used in a milllion different ways on both authentic and false Puer cakes. It is an older style originally that was actually stamped with ink onto each teacake thats why originally it was just one color-red. This is why it has become so iconic, because it represents the time many years ago when much time and human energy was put into the making of Puer Sheng Cha 普洱生茶. Well obviously now it is used in many cases on false productions to make them look old.

Now if you see a blue label it is worth a second look because it maybe from a smaller producer - in your case it could be and you should have a good quality, true production of tea. Of course there are things you can notice about the leaf quality and consistency that will give you more info, but there is no substitute for tasting. A small factory production is usually an indicator of a true production, whether it is also of high quality depends on other factors.

Here I have a 2001 example with the same characters- zhongguo cha ye gongsi, and at the bottom- zhong cha pai- this is also generic to any Puer under the Zhong cha branding- which would include countless productions through the past 30 years.
In this example it is from the 黎明茶厂 Li Ming factory in Yunnan. They are known for producing high quality Puer especially Sheng cha- here in China it is one of the very best.

[Marco]

Thanks a lot for finding and for the information.

So when Zhong Cha is the brand name doesn't this include the factory as well? Doesn't this brand have its recipes like others?
Can't I tell "this is exactly the cake ..." from the wrapper?

ciao
Marco