For All the Tea in China: China's premier teas growing in popularity in US

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02:21

Revenue for the US tea market hit 3.7 billion dollars in 2017, and more growth is expected. China is the world's biggest tea exporter. The most common teas consumed by Americans are green and black teas, but interest is growing in one of China's premiere teas - called pu'er. Karina Huber has more.

Pu'er tea is a centuries old fermented tea grown exclusively in the forests of China's Yunnan province.

Often compared to a fine wine, it gets better with age and can fetch more than its weight in silver. It's one of the only teas to be designated a protected-origin product by the Chinese government and is now a hot export.

KARINA HUBER NEW YORK "China is the world's leading exporter of tea. In 2016, it shipped 1.4 billion dollars of it. The U.S. is one of its biggest markets where interest in pu'er is growing. This shop called Puerh Brooklyn specializes in the specialty."

"People just come in the shop and says oh I heard about this tea. What is it about? Can I try it?"

Co-owner Grippo, says pu'er is the world's most original tea in part because it contains micro-organisms due to the fermentation process.

GABRIEL GRIPPO, CO-OWNER PUERH BROOKLYN "That makes the plant more connected with the environment. It's kind of like a little blueprint of where it came from."

Tea experts say pu'er has more than mere fans. It has a cult-like following.

JORDAN HARDIN, CO-FOUNDER AMERICAN SPECIALTY TEA ALLIANCE "People obsess about the different labels that go on it because it's actually wrapped with paper typically, the different processing facilities. People get to really geek out on it, which isn't always the case."

Green and black teas represent the bulk of Chinese tea imports in the U.S. but experts say interest in pu'er, especially among millennials, is growing.

JORDAN HARDIN, CO-FOUNDER AMERICAN SPECIALTY TEA ALLIANCE "I think you're going to see more and more of it. It's actually a really great way to get coffee drinkers into tea because it has a much richer, much darker, much earthier flavor than a lot of teas so I've actually converted a lot of coffee drinkers to become pu'er drinkers."

Tea aficionados in China and abroad have long coveted pu'er but with a growing interest in tea in general, it may soon be time for pu'er to go mainstream.

Karina Huber, CGTN, New York.