Thursday, October 19, 2006

Puerh revolution

Starting this year, puerh cakes start to have such standard labels printed on them with all the information (factory name, date of production, weight, certification number...) that we all wished for so long.

This year, Yunnan started this system on a voluntary basis, but intends to make it compulsory next year onwards, according to my understanding from Teaparker's account. The QS (Quality System) logo on the cake will become a must. Only factories that work according to standard procedures will receive the certification allowing them to print the QS logo.

This is quite an improvement over the current situation where many factories accept big customer orders and then ask what wrapping paper the customer wants. While there is no magical solution against fakes, giving the customer more information is a good way to let him recognize what's original and what's fake. In the world of puerh, such clear labels are a revolution against forgers and crooks!

6 comments:

Groumpf said...

It's great and strange, to see this at last.

Strange, because we've been used to keep having "out of time" and non informative wrapping, the barcode is a striking modern touch.

Great, if this system expands widely and remains a reliable and unified piece of information.
Hope these won't become untrusted certificates like the ones we see around yixing for instance.

Future will tell...

Philippe said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Philippe said...

It's very strange because this kind of cakes seems more futuristic than the others without the data code barre !

Finally, the first real 21st century's Pu Er !!!

Anonymous said...

Great!
Any news from the 2006 Wild Yi-Wu Cake?

Groumpf said...

A question rises suddently : will there be puerhs from past years repacked in these new papers by factories which have stocks, or does this only concern 2006 and future vintages ?

TeaMasters said...

Only 2006 and future vintages. It's too unlikely that merchant would repack in a new package, thereby making their cakes 'younger' and -for most people- less valuable.

The contrary is more likely: some fakers will continue to use traditional wrappers to pretend their puerh is old.