#Pu'er Tea# When it comes to ripe Pu'er tea, you have to mention 7581. It is a heavy product of Kunming Tea Factory, born in the 70s, has been living endlessly, standing in the Pu'er tea rivers and lakes for more than 40 years, and is known as "national ripe tea".
▲1998 raw materials, 2006 7581 ripe bricks, collection Pu'er collection
However, the birth of 7581, as well as the identification of different batches and versions in various eras, has always been very controversial, which has cast a layer of mystery on 7581 and made many tea lovers feel confused.
In this issue, the "Collection Puer" flagship store manager, after reading many books and materials, tried to sort out the birth process of 7581 and the characteristics of each stage, and shared it with tea lovers here.
Collection Pu'er, Tibetan brand good Pu'er, a professional original article every day, more than 150 star old tea introduction, sharing brand Pu'er tea identification, purchase, storage, brewing and other professional dry goods knowledge, all in the WeChat public account "Collection Puer", welcome to communicate!
Backtracking: The Origins of Pu-erh Ripe Tea
In 1973, Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company began to export Pu'er tea by itself. In order to open up the market, the company sent people to Guangzhou to participate in the Canton Fair, and the investigation found that the red soup Pu'er tea after artificial fermentation in Guangdong sold well in Guangdong and Hong Kong.
The company's leaders attached great importance to this matter, so they dispatched technicians from Kunming Tea Factory, Menghai Tea Factory and Xiaguan Tea Factory to Guangzhou to investigate and learn the artificial rapid ripening technology of Pu'er tea. After returning to Yunnan, each tea factory set up a fermentation group to continue research and experimentation.
In the Pu'er ripe tea research tool book "Ripe Tea: The Butterfly Change and Sublimation of a Tea Leaf" compiled by Pu'er magazine, Mr. Zou Bingliang dictated this incident in detail:
▲Infographic
One of the key points: After the technicians of each factory returned to Kunming from Guangdong, they each tried to produce cooked tea, and it was not until 1975 that they succeeded.
Mr. Yang Weiren, who was working in the accounting department of Kunming Tea Factory at that time, witnessed the process of exploring and experimenting with Pu'er tea fermentation in Kunming Tea Factory:
▲Infographic
At that time, the employees of the tea factory were very cautious about fermentation tests, because tea leaves with water were easy to get damp, moldy, rotten, everyone was afraid of wasting raw materials, first with a wooden frame small pile for fermentation, and then slowly increased the volume of the pile, trying to use cold water, warm water and even steam tide water, repeatedly groping and testing.
It was not until 1975, after changing the sprinkling of warm water in Guangdong to sprinkling cold water, that Kunming Tea Factory finally mastered the fermentation process of Pu'er tea. However, because most of the fermented teas made by various factories at that time were half-cooked and the soup was not red, they did not dare to hit "Yunnan Pu'er tea", but exported it in the name of "Yunnan Qing (loose tea)". At this time, the fermentation process is not called "Pu'er tea process", but more accurately described as "rapid fermentation method".
The birth of 7581 ripe tea bricks
In 1975, the Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company asked the Kunming Tea Factory to increase the variety and mass production of fermented ripe brick tea, requiring thick branches and large leaves, but the strips must be obvious.
Kunming Tea Factory uses fermented ripe tea 80% tea, grade 9 tea 30%, and grade 10 tea 50% pressed into brick tea. Before the official production, the company first sent the tea samples to Hong Kong, and after obtaining the approval of Hong Kong companies, it sent the production plan to Kunming Tea Factory.
▲1998 raw materials, 2006 7581 ripe bricks, collection Pu'er collection
In December 1976, in order to regulate the number of Pu'er tea, Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company issued the "Interim Regulations on the Production of Pu'er Tea Samples and Related Issues". The content is: 4 digits for pressed tea, 5 digits for loose tea, the first two digits are the year of tea creation, the 3rd place of pressed tea is the raw Mao tea grade, and the 4th place is the tea factory number (Kunming 1, Menghai 2, Xiaguan 3, Pu'er 4).
Since this batch of exported cooked tea bricks, the formula was determined in 1975, and the comprehensive grade of raw materials was grade 8 tea, and it was from Kunming Tea Factory, so the mark number was determined as 7581.
▲1998 raw materials, 2006 7581 ripe bricks, collection Pu'er collection
The first batch of ripe tea bricks for artificial fermentation in Wudui, 7581 ripe tea bricks, was born and was specially exported to the Hong Kong market. This time seems to be slightly later than the Menghai Tea Factory developed 7572 cooked cakes.
7581 ripe bricks mass production and export opportunities
In the article "The Story of 7581 and Kunming Tea Factory", Mr. Yang Kai described in detail the history of the mass production of 7581 ripe bricks after 1976, which is actually related to the sale of a batch of Tibetan brick tea in 1973.
According to Mr. Yang Kai, in 1973, a batch of side-sale brick tea from the Xiaguan Tea Factory was shipped to Tibet, but Tibetans reported that the tea was dizzy and diarrhea. The provincial company sent people to investigate and transported the tea back to Kunming.
▲Infographic
Subsequently, the provincial company decided to use the fermentation technology developed by the Kunming Tea Factory nearby, and then blend into other tea products to produce a batch of export tea. They used Lancang eighth-grade tea as a sprinkle and Taikai tea as the heart, blended raw materials from various places together, and pressed them into 7581 finished products.
▲Infographic
The second key point is that the 7581 ripe bricks in the mid-to-late 70s were mainly Lancang materials, mass-produced, and changed from domestic sales to export.
It can be seen that 7581, as a formula tea, has different ingredients for different stages. It can be the eighth-grade tea of Menghai material, the eighth-grade tea of Lincang material, or the eighth-grade tea of Yiwu material, which leads to 7581 ripe bricks of different eras, and the taste is different.
The shape of the 7581 tea brick is deciphered
7581 cooked bricks were packaged in chicken paper in the early days, the raw materials were imported from Canada, and the paper was manufactured in Tianjin. This wrapping paper is very tough and not easy to tear. Later, due to the unfavorable environmental protection, it was changed to bagasse paper, which is relatively fragile and easy to break.
▲Infographic
As for the packaging characteristics of 7581 ripe tea bricks over the years, Pu'er Magazine's article "7581 in the Mist" has been analyzed in detail.
▲Infographic
▲Infographic
The original text reads as follows:
On the packaging tea plate, the regular 7581 packaging is white paper and red letters. In order to be different, some overseas customizers require a slight change in the wrapping paper when ordering, which is why the slightly smaller 7581 appears. In addition, a small number of brick teas with white paper and green characters were produced in the 80s.
▲Infographic
However, according to Mr. Chang Jinqiang, former manager of the special tea department of Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company, these 7581 tea bricks are different except for the packaging paper, and the materials and recipes of these tea bricks are the same.
By 1993, the 7581 system produced a brick tea with a laser mark, and there was no 7581 mark on the outer packaging. This 7581 laser brick belongs to the trial product, the output is very small, only two batches, and later because the cost of laser standard is too high, the production was stopped.
▲Infographic
The 7581 bricks produced by the Kunming Tea Factory have a long flat shape and loose edges. There are many raised breast nails behind the tea bricks, which are special traces left by the traditional brick tea making at that time.
▲1998 raw materials, 2006 7581 ripe bricks, collection Pu'er collection
Overall, 7581 occupies a very important position in the entire ripe tea system, and can even be said to dominate the entire Pu'er ripe brick system from the late 70s to the 90s.
Today, the 7581 ripe tea classic is still continuing, and when tasting this "national ripe tea", I think of the difficult way of the predecessors of tea people to trial fermentation and improve products, and my heart cannot help but be awe-inspiring!
Resources:
- DENG Shihai, GENG Jianxing. Kunming: Yunnan Science and Technology Press, 2005
- Xiao Younan, "7581 in the Fog"[J].Pu'er Magazine,2018(121)
- Editorial Office: "The Story of Kunming Tea Factory and 7581"[J].Pu'er Magazine,2010(38)
- Pu'er Magazine. Ripe tea: butterfly transformation and sublimation of a tea leaf[M].Beijing:China Forestry Publishing House,2021
Solemnly declare: This article is originally compiled by the public account "Collection Puer"! Without authorization, no one shall reprint, plagiarize, copy or use the content of this article.