how is pu-erh wrapping paper made?

Have you seen the onionskin-like paper that we use to wrap our pu-erh? While using plant-based eco-packaging for all our products to strive for a sustainable practice, we'd like to talk more about this traditionally handcrafted paper produced by Dai minority group in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.

In 1734, Yin Jishan (the governor of Yunnan-Guizhou Provinces) proposed tea regulations to Yongzheng Emperor. The central government of Qing approved the proposal and established Yunnan Chafa (Yunnan Tea Law) in the following year, which specifically regulated the form, weight, and packaging of pu-erh tea for ease of transaction and taxation in local sales and export trades. Pu-erh once traded and transported on the ancient tea-horse route were wrapped with the same handcrafted paper.

The production of this paper starts with harvesting the inner barks of paper mulberry. They are soaked, boiled, pounded into paste, and then sun-dried to sheets. The long wood fibres give very good durability to the paper, therefore this paper had been used for pu-erh wrapping and calligraphy for centuries.

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