Ⅱ.Pu’er Tea in Macao

In the 17th century, Macao became the most important transit port for China’s tea exports to western countries.It played an important role in trade and spread of Chinese tea and also spread the Chinese tea culture to the world.As a unique big-leaf tea of Yunnan, Pu’er tea was recognized by Chinese people in the early 21st century.Before that, Pu’er tea was only supplied as an export product to specific areas, such as Macao, Hong Kong, Japan, etc.At that time, it was a long way to transport the tea from Yunnan to Hong Kong and Macao.In order to facilitate transportation and save space, the tea was compacted into cake tea and Tuo tea.To prevent the cake from breaking,it was watered during transportation, which accelerated the fermentation process.After the tea was transported to Hong Kong and Macao, it has been fermented into brownish red tea cake.As a result, the tea completely lost its bitter taste, but showed a mellow taste.Since then, the locals of Macao have fallen in love with drinking Pu’er tea.Among the teas sold in Macao, Pu’er tea accounts for about 70% of the tea market in Macao.

Macao is a simple city with a small place and a small population, but strong cultural atmosphere.The tea culture in Macao is rich and diversified, including the Macao Tea Art Association and the Macao Tea Culture House, which promote tea culture.Even in 2000, Macao issued a package of Tea Art, which showed the characteristics of drinking tea (Longjing), sipping tea(Shoumei), enjoying tea (black tea)and brewing tea (Pu’er).The rich and diversified tea culture fully shows that under the long-term intersection of Chinese and Western cultures in Macao, people live leisurely and value the enjoyment of life, which is also a unique tea culture characteristic of Macao.

With tea as the medium and Macao as a new starting point, the Pu’er tea culture was further promoted, the Pu’er tea industry was developed, the profound cultural heritage and traditional spirit of Pu’er tea were better spread, making Pu’er tea go abroad and integrate into the world.