Trading towns: Kunming
Prices of teas claiming this origin: 'Kunming storage' is a selling point in the trade. TeaDB's climate comparison finds it cool rather than very dry (about 72% average RH), so tea stored there changes much more slowly than in Hong Kong or Guangdong-type storage.

TeaDB (James), 2016-11-05

History#

1939-10Kunming Tea Factory's predecessor founded (Chinese Wikipedia: 1938, as Fuxing Tea Factory).
Sohu
1960Officially named Yunnan Kunming Tea Factory.
Wikipedia (zh)
1973Kunming joins the team learning pile fermentation in Guangzhou, then develops ripe pu'er.
Sohu
1975Assigned factory number 1 in recipe codes.
Sohu
1984Factory (China Tea) draws up the ripe pu'er process and spreads it province-wide.
Xinhua
1992Production stops; the factory closes in 1994.
Wikipedia (zh)

Other names and written forms 2#

Chinese variants

昆明仓Kūnmíng cāng(Kunming storage)Trade term for pu'er aged in Kunming. It is often called 'dry' but is cool rather than very dry.

Romanisations

Kun Ming

Names and ambiguities#

Kunming Tea Factory founding: 1938 or 1939

Chinese Wikipedia: Fuxing Tea Factory founded 1938, with Tong Yiyun as director. Sohu's history of the four state factories: built October 1939. A vendor page that gives 1973 as the founding confuses it with the start of ripe production.

2 3

Notes#

The Kunming Tea Factory grew from the Fuxing tea works founded in 1938 (Chinese Wikipedia) or October 1939 (Sohu history). It made Fuxing-brand tuocha, was named Yunnan Kunming Tea Factory in 1960 under the China Tea Company's Yunnan branch, and used the 八中茶 mark. In 1973 a joint team from Kunming, Menghai and Xiaguan learned pile fermentation at the Guangzhou Tea Factory, and Kunming developed ripe pu'er from it. Early products include the 73 thick brick and the 7581 ripe brick. When factory numbers were assigned in 1975, Kunming got '1', which is the last digit of its recipe codes.

In 1984 the factory drew up the ripe-process specification that was spread across Yunnan. Production stopped in 1992 and the factory closed in 1994. 'Kunming storage' (昆明仓) refers to the city's climate: about 15 °C (59 °F) and 72% average relative humidity. That is cooler and somewhat drier than Hong Kong or Jinghong but not very dry, so tea there changes slowly. Kunming is in the pu'er GI area, but it is not known for growing tea itself.