WILLIAM Osmont was making his first batch of autumn tea on Jingmai Moun­tain in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. It was on a sunny early au­tumn day. He lit a fire with pine wood to heat the wok, poured in tea leaves, donned gloves and began to stir the leaves by hand.

The tea’s aroma filled the air as his hands shuffled rhythmically through the wok. Behind him, a sea of clouds slowly parted, revealing lush, ancient tea forests that have stood for over 1,000 years.

Jingmai Mountain is the world’s first tea-themed World Cultural Heritage site and is one of the most renowned areas for Pu’er tea production. Fifteen years ago, 19-year-old Osmont left Provence, France, for Jingmai. He was drawn by Pu’er tea and stayed for love, becoming part of the land and its traditions.

From Provence to Pu’er

“I kind of grew up with tea in a way. My life is all about exploring tea mountains and learning about tea, “ Osmont said. “I cannot really imagine another life path.”

His journey with Pu’er tea began in high school. He frequently visited tea shops in southern France, developing a deep affection for Pu’er tea. This dark tea, originating from Yunnan, has a history dating back to the 7th century.

Osmont found that Pu’er tea is different from all other teas for its complexity. “You can brew it many times, and you have the taste developing over the session in a way that few other teas do,” he noted.

However, at that time, Pu’er tea was not widely available in France. Osmont decided to travel to Yunnan in 2010 where he immersed himself in both tea and Chinese language studies.

The southern part of Yunnan, particularly the regions of Pu’er and Xishuangbanna, is the heart of Pu’er tea production. There are more than 100 famous tea mountains in this region, including the Jingmai Mountain, a three-hour drive west of Pu’er City.

The mountain boasts over 1,180 hectares of an­cient tea forests and is home to five indigenous ethnic groups, including the Blang and Dai peoples. Around 90 percent of the local workforce are en­gaged in tea cultivation and processing.

While most tea in the world is plantation-grown, Jingmai’s ancient tea forests preserve the traditional method of forest understory planting, dating back to the 10th to 14th century when the Blang and Dai peoples began domesticating wild tea trees.

The indigenous people manage the forest to foster an environment conducive to tea growth, with the natural ecosystem playing a crucial role in disease and pest control and in enhancing the tea’s distinc­tive aroma.

Osmont quickly made friends with locals on the mountain, including Yubai, a young Dai woman from a tea-farming family who aspired to open her own tea processing factory. The two bonded over their love for tea and soon began a romantic relationship.

To deepen his understanding of tea, Os­mont returned to France to study agricultural engineering.

During summers, he and Yubai traveled across China, visiting tea-producing regions and learning tea-making techniques from local farmers.

In 2011, the couple launched an online tea store, selling tea from Yubai’s factory and other farmers, helping them not only cover their travel expenses but also deepen their knowledge of tea production and trade.

After completing his studies in 2016, Osmont returned to Yunnan. He and Yubai got married. Together, they established their own tea brand, Farmerleaf, which now ships Pu’er tea worldwide.

Despite his business achievements, Osmont remains dedicated to tradi­tional tea-making methods. During the spring and autumn tea harvests, he and his wife always return to the mountain to craft their own tea.

On that autumn morning, he stood in front of the wok, shuffling with hands tea leaves that had been newly collected from the mountain.

This step is called “sha qing,” or “kill the green.”

The heat evaporates the moisture, destroys the cell structure, and al­lows the tea’s natural aroma to be released during brewing.

Most importantly, the step will kill most of the enzymes in the tea leaves, but not all, so that Pu’er tea can age with time — a key determinant of its market and investment value.

“Sha qing” is widely recognized as the most crucial step in tea mak­ing. It’s the art of control. “If it’s too gentle, the tea ages quickly and turns red. If it’s too strong, it becomes more like green tea, which takes longer to age,” explained Osmont.

With advances in machinery, certain steps are more effectively handled by machines. Osmont had tried to use scientific methods to precisely con­trol all factors, but found that it was a bit impractical.

“Just like frying vegetables, it’s all about experience — you’ll just know,” he said.

He insists that the finest teas are crafted by hand, and they offer a more personalized experience and reflect the terroir of tea. Terroir, a term often used in the context of French wine, is a blend of natural factors such as soil and climate, as well as human elements.

“For example, if the tea had a smoky flavor, it likely came from southern Xishuangbanna. People stored the tea in their living rooms, where a fire was constantly burning,” Osmont observed.

These distinctive characteristics have somewhat faded with modern­ization, but the story still resonates. People long for a connection with na­ture and a break from their busy life.

“By tasting tea, you can travel to different environments. It’s a very appealing idea,” he noted.

Legacy and price

About 20 minutes later, “sha qing” is finished. Osmont then places the tea leaves on a bamboo mat for cool­ing. Later they’d go through steps including rolling, sun-drying and so on before they are ready to be savored.

This method dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). The result is raw Pu’er tea — a major category of Pu’er tea, which undergoes a slow, natural oxidation over time.

This is the tea traditionally enjoyed in Jingmai, offering a vibrant, slightly bitter taste accompanied by a light green color.

In contrast, ripe Pu’er tea — an­other major category that emerged in 1973, is crafted using artificial heat and humidity to expedite the fermentation process, resulting in a deep, richly sweet tea with a dark red or brown complexion.

Both raw and ripe Pu’er teas, much like exquisite French wines, mellow with time. “The older they get, the better they become,” is a common saying.

This aging quality of Pu’er tea, how­ever, wasn’t considered a big selling point until the 1990s. That’s when tea enthusiasts from Hong Kong, Taiwan and southern Guangdong Province began to see Pu’er tea as collectibles and investment, as noted by antholo­gist Zhang Jinghong in her book “Ways of Being Raw and Cooked: the Jianghu of Pu’er tea.”

The trend led to increased specula­tion in the market, which in turn drove up prices. For instance, a type of Pu’er tea called Lao Ban Zhang saw its price surge from less than 10 yuan (US$1.44) to thousands of yuan per kilogram between 2000 and 2007, according to a Beijing Youth Daily report.

The ancient tree tea has been espe­cially popular. And there are about 126,000 ancient trees aged over 100 years on Jingmai Mountain.

“The ancient tea trees are a leg­acy,” noted Yubai. Even in the face of hunger, her ancestors valued the preservation of these ancient forests above all, never sacrificing them for short-term gain.

She recalled the days when her ancestors ventured out to trade tea for food, salt and cloth as far as the neighboring country of Myanmar. Then in the 1990s, the mountain began to draw visitors eager to col­lect tea.

Osmont has observed that the local community has become richer. Recently, Jingmai Mountain gained another opportunity for development as its cultural landscape, featuring ancient tea forests, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 2023.

Yet, this newfound prosperity is bringing new infusions of change and challenge to the ancient mountain.

As reported by China Youth Daily, the mountain saw a tourism revenue of approximately 158 million yuan in 2023, up 43.6 percent year on year.

In the ancient villages on the mountain, road signs with online celebrity slogans such as “I miss you very much in Jingmai” have been erected. Many new hotels and home­stays also opened.

Traditional roasted tea has evolved into a trendy milk tea, adding ingre­dients like milk, goji berries, honey, or brown sugar...

UNESCO has warned that increased tourist activity could negatively impact the traditional villages on Jingmai Mountain.

Locals may also face an oversupply of Pu’er tea, as production exceeds domestic demand, according to a re­port by Jiemian, a Shanghai-based news outlet.

Osmont sees exporting as a solu­tion, but it requires educating the overseas market, a task that should largely fall on big companies.

“Pu’er tea is still a niche product abroad,” he explained. “It was like coffee in China before Starbucks — people didn’t know much about it.”

Amid growing tourism and chang­ing markets, local families continue their tea traditions.

Andui, a 43-year-old Blang woman, has noticed that selling tea has be­come more challenging. However, she remains patient.

Andui’s family has relied on tea for generations. Neither market fluctua­tions nor tourist numbers will alter this reality. Her children are expected to return and inherit the tea garden in due time.

Pouring a cup of raw Pu’er tea for herself and this reporter, she remarked, “Tea is our livelihood. If it doesn’t sell fast, we’ll just sell it slowly here at home.”