Tea quality and price aren’t exactly cause and effect. There’s alot of factors that go into pricing tea and there’s a reason why hunting white labels can be lucrative. It’s important to know what exactly goes into the pricing of tea, in order to know where your money is going and to most obviously not get ripped off. Ripe pu’erh occupies a different niche for most tea drinkers compared with raw pu’erh. For many that specialize in other tea genres like Taiwanese oolongs or Tieguanyin, it is their easy-drinking pu’erh of choice. Inexpensive young raw pu’erh is often quite harsh and ripe pu’erh is a far cheaper alternative to drinking aged raw pu’erh. However, there are also more serious drinkers of ripe pu’erh that seek out higher-quality, premium ripe pu’erh. This article will break down the pricing factors and categories of ripe pu’erh.

Here are the major factors that will determine a ripe pu’erhs price.

• Size (loose 50g, 100g tuo/mini-cake, 250g brick, 357g beeng, etc.)
• Brand (factory)
• Age (price jumps at 5-7 years)
• Base Material

These are more or less the same factors as raw pu’erh. However, due to the economics of pu’erh many of these must be approached differently than their raw cousins.

Size

An obvious and simple factor. The larger the amount of tea you buy the more expensive it will be. You will also typically get a more favorable price/quantity as the quantity of the tea goes up (aka buying in bulk).

Brand

Brand plays an important part in the pricing of both raw and ripe pu’erh. Brands are treated differently in both cases. Whereas for raw pu’erh, the most premium labels are frequently specialized operations sourcing from individual areas. In the case of ripe pu’erh, big brands are still dominant. Since the advent of ripe pu’erh in the 1970s, Menghai Tea Factory has been the industry leader in pu’erh production. This can be attributed to their experience in the wo dui process, their much-mimicked and marketed recipes and blending skills.  As a result, buying Menghai ripe pu’erh will nearly always be more expensive than the equivalent alternatives from other brands.

Brand plays a role in both the tea’s resale value and quality assurance. It’s alot easier to sell a known brand like Menghai rather than a white label. Other large factories like Xiaguan and Haiwan exist one tier below Menghai when it comes to ripe pu’erh. They don’t have the same reputation, but are generally considered more reliable and respectable than other options.

Note #1: There aren’t nearly as many independent producers of ripe pu’erh as raw pu’erh.

Age

The most obvious reason to age ripe pu’erh is to get rid of the wo dui taste. Big factories (Menghai) will help to address this problem by aging the ripened leaves for 1-2 years before pressing. For freshly ripened and aged teas the time it will usually only take a couple years. This means a 2014 Menghai or a 2012 ripe pu’erh from a smaller factory are rough equivalents in overcoming the nasty pile taste.

The other reason to age ripe pu’erh is the improvement of taste. While the change is not as dramatic as raw pu’erh, ripe pu’erh will change and evolve with age. This is especially true for lighter fermented recipes like the v93. When young, the price of ripe pu’erh will gradually increase with age, with much larger leaps once the tea hits certain age thresholds (also true for raw pu’erh).

Note #1: At ~5 year mark, the tea price starts to rise more per year. Storage also becomes more of a factor at this point.
Note #2: Many tea-drinkers believe purchasing aged ripe pu’erh (10+ years) is a bad value proposition due to the high prices and less dramatic taste evolution (compared with raw pu’erh).
Note #3: Others will seek out aged ripe pu’erh partially due to the change in processing.

Base Material

The better the base material, the more expensive it will cost. Ripe pu’erh is usually made up of plantation tea with nearly all the gushu used for raw pu’erh production. For ripe pu’erh, simply having Spring Harvest material can help to elevate its quality.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Some productions are done by boutique labels that usually produce primarily raw pu’erh and others will be special productions by a large tea factory where higher-quality leaves will be blended into the recipe (see Ziyun, Anxiang).

Note #1: Partially as a result of lower-quality base material, the price cap on newly pressed ripe pu’erh cakes is much lower than the raw pu’erh equivalents.
Note #2: It is important to note that leaf grade indicates leaf size, not leaf quality. High grade does not imply high quality.

A Rough Price Range

This breakdown iassumes western-facing vendors, not Taobao purchases.

Cheap (<$25/357g beeng or equivalent size)

Menghai

Age