Puerh Perplexity

Can you help a Puerh Junky out?  The Puerh Junky finds himself twisted in knots over what it means when one says “They don’t care for factory productions.”  Does that mean they don’t like recipes?  Maybe it means they like young productions.  Perhaps it means they only go for small factory productions.

As you’ve already discerned, the Puerh Junky is clueless.  He’s read of famous puerh vendors who’ve bought tea here and there, only to take it to be processed at reputable factories.  What does it mean to not be a fan of factory teas?

Factories often have so many selections, styles, and grades.  Even if it means not caring for a particular house style, this still confounds.  House styles vary, so it’s impossible to speak of factory productions as a monolith, unless there is some elusive trait that they all share.  It is true that among the factories emerging on the scene since the late 90s that they overwhelmingly descend from the Menghai TF.  Still, these meistras and masters bring their own touch to productions and are frequently commissioned to oversee special offerings by vendors.  What on earth is “the factory style”?

Maybe it’s the pressing and aesthetics, but pretty much all productions since ’14 have gone the way of Yiwu in making their teas look pretty. . . except for recipes.  This leads back less to factory productions per se than to production styles of a particular era.  Even so, there are plenty of old Yiwu offerings hailing from the factories that are gorgeous.

Maybe it’s the quality, but this is a very tricky matter, especially if one is tasting a five-year old recipe and expecting it to taste like a similarly aged production from some Lincang village.  “Factories” have been offering more and more of these type of selections, and the question begs to what degree these bear the classical factory traits.  As the market has evolved, offerings and production styles have evolved.  Surely, these factors enter into the calculus of one who doesn’t like “factory productions.”

The best bet is that “factory” is shorthand for “recipe.”  Certainly, “8582” doesn’t have the curb appeal of say, Cosmic Bitch Slap or Orgasmic Shortcake both with histories reaching as far back as 2016.  Are these even puerh, really?  And how is it possible to have any reasonable clue about a five-year old recipe?

Now before casting the Puerh Junky as an inveterate curmudgeon, understand that he likes a young production as well.  However, it seems that age is the crux of puerh.  Only factories have productions old enough to determine the spirit of an offering.  Factory productions come from a lineage that is true to either the region or school or both.  What you end up getting then is a factory’s rendering, not dissimilar to the differences in pianists playing Schubert.  Such renderings make it nigh impossible to be categorically dismissive without sounding a smidge inexperienced.