Liquid asset
Like wine, pu-er tea ages well and the more mature the tea, the higher its price..
AT THE Pek Sin Choon tea company in Singapore’s Chinatown, a golden gift box with floral motifs is brought out.
The round, burnt-looking object inside is carefully taken out for a closer look.
The untrained eye can’t tell what it is. But show it to a tea collector and his heart will beat faster.
That is because the undistinguished looking thing is a valuable disc of pu-er tea from the 1930s. It has been in the family of Peh Ching Her, 39, the shop’s marketing manager, for many decades.
Chinese tea is not just a beverage to sip along with dim sumand bak kut teh. Pu-er tea, in particular, can be an investment.
He has more than 10 years’ experience dealing with tea and says he is not sure how his family got hold of it.
The pu-er is considered a rarity and is worth a fortune – about S$150,000 (RM345,000) he estimates – although he also adds that “it is definitely not for sale”.
The fragile disc is carefully returned to the box. If broken, it loses its value.
If you think Chinese tea is just a beverage to sip along with dim sum, think again. Pu-er tea, in particular, is seen as an investment.
Named after the Pu-er county in Yunnan province, China, the tea has a woody taste and is dark golden red in colour. It comes in various forms: disc-shaped cha bing or tea cakes, hump-shaped lumps or brick-like blocks. It is usually wrapped with paper and the name of the tea and date of manufacture stamped on it.
Because it is fermented, pu-er ages well, unlike other teas such as jasmine which lose their fragrance with time.
Carrie Chen, 38, owner of Tea Bone Zen Mind, a 14-year-old tea house in Seah Street, says the taste of pu-er gets milder with age, and the colour of the tea becomes more “shiny”.
Another tea master, Chen Lian Wei, 24, from Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant in Beach Road, adds that the taste and aroma of the tea improves as it matures, contributing to its value.
On the health front, aged pu-er is said to help lower high blood pressure and cholesterol, and some believe it can help with weight loss.
It’s no wonder then that pu-er is a collectible, and people can make a tidy sum from collecting discs of the tea.
In 2002, Peh was selling a disc of pu-er for S$6. He says that same disc is worth S$60 (RM138) today, as the tea has aged.
Similarly, Chen says a 20-year-old pu-er can be worth three times more than 10-year-old pu-er, which is selling for about S$80 (RM184) for a 250g disc.
Pu-er tea can last a long time, a century or more. The oldest pu-er is supposedly 200 years old and is considered an artefact.
Peh says whether or not collectors drink their aged pu-er depends on two factors.
“If they have more than a piece, and if they can afford it, they will drink it,” he says. Otherwise, most collectors tend to keep their pieces.
There are more than 10 grades of pu-er tea and the ones usually drunk now are those made during the 1980s.
As a rough guide, Si Chuan Dou Hua’s Chen says pu-er aged 30 years and above are stored and not drunk as they are expensive.
He says people began investing in the tea about 20 years ago in Taiwan. Then, goods could not be directly imported from China to Taiwan for political reasons.
“As such, traders could only bring in small quantities of pu-er from China to Taiwan through Hong Kong, making it more valuable,” he says.
In Singapore, pu-er collecting began in the mid-1990s. The tea experts say collectors here are mostly businessmen who prefer to keep a low profile, and collect only tea that is at least 30 years old.
But younger people are catching onto the trend, buying younger teas, he says.
The good news is you don’t have to be filthy rich to invest in pu-er. The younger teas cost between S$12 (RM27.60) and S$100 (RM230) a disc, depending on their quality.
Collectors should store them in a dark, dry and cool place, and be patient.
“You can buy pu-er when it is young and inexpensive, and sell it for a high price when it matures over time,” says Chen. – The Straits Times, Singapore / Asia News Network
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