Tea gone wild

A pu'er cake produced by a Kunming tea company. [Photo by Zhang Jing / For China Daily]

"Unlike green tea, pu'er tea has no shelf life. That's why some nouveaux riches try to save the tea and corner the market," says Dong, noting that the price of wild tea has almost overtaken that of the 2007 bubble.

Some professionals, meanwhile, urge the crowd not to blindly follow the trend.

"Ancient tea trees need to be protected instead of exploited," says Yang Chongren, a researcher at Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Some of them are on the verge of extinction. We should make relevant protection laws and regulations before it's too late."

Yu Xiang, president of Kunming Junxianghao Tea Co, warns that more than 98 percent of "Iceland tea" in circulation is fake: "The village only produces 8 tons of tea every year but there are more than 300 tons in the market."

Tong Xiaofeng also admits it's hard to clarify the standards of real wild tea, although he takes a sip almost every day.

"It's all in the taste," he says. "But just like a jeweler, you really have to be experienced to spot the true treasure."