The Wall Street Journal – Asia edition

Vol. XXXII No 25:
Front page lead full with two page article.
“Why tea is hot among China’s investors”
Front Page:Double page layout:
Focus on Pu-erh:
The New Tea Trade
Puer, an ancient Chinese tea that improves with age, is the latest investment fad in China. The previously obscure drink reflects how China, awash in cash, is primed for speculation of even the most ordinary assets.
Puer, (pronounced "poo-ahr"), once a gift for emperors, was long relatively unknown in mainland China. But the drink's popularity skyrocketed after a 2005 promotional campaign by the Chinese government.
Puer is cropping up in restaurants, which display prized vintages like a wine list. Exclusive clubs are also opening in Beijing and Guangdong, where the rich gather to drink the tea and learn about its history. Now, businessmen armed with cash have been elbowing for puer by the case. Tea leaves are being hoarded by tea farmers and long-time collectors.

Last April, as investors began pouring into cakes of pressed tea leaves, the price of one of the hottest varieties of puer soared to nearly $35 a cake. Tea traders say that's seven times the $5-a-cake value from just three years ago. Today, a cake of puer sells for nearly $16, a 60% backslide from the peak, fueling fears of a crash in the market.

Hong Kong collector Bai Shuiqing, 52, prepares cups of 100-year-old puer tea. This earthy, medicinal-tasting tea mellows with age if preserved properly, turning into a clear, brandy-colored liquid.
Experienced drinkers like Mr. Bai say they can divine the drink's vintage by taste alone, and claim health benefits from drinking, such as weight loss and lowered blood pressure. At his tea warehouse, Mr. Bai stores puer in its most common form: leaves pressed into a round, Frisbee-sized cake
Puer in its loose-leaf form. The oldest teas are more than a century old, and fetch prices of more than $13,000 for one cake.Each cake of puer carries a certificate of its production for authenticity. Mr. Bai keeps the authentication papers for his prized, aged teas -- some up to 150 years old -- carefully sealed in plastic.