Anyone who had been working with reliable, established producers and traders and had stayed clear of the fortune-hunters was not affected by the sudden craze.

Ed Eisler of Jing Tea in London has found that, "Attitudes among the producers I buy from have not changed over the past few years. They have always taken a quality, long-term view, did produce quality and still do. My friends in the puerh tea trade are still collecting the best teas both old and new."

Nigel Melican of Nothing But Tea has always bought his puerhs from suppliers who were "more level headed throughout; we avoided the bubble phenomenon where traders expected high margins for sometimes dubious quality due to undersupply."

Producer Dong Bi Lien, wife of Master Liu of Kunming’s Jin Damo Teas, explained, "Prices have dropped by more than half but we have not changed ours. Our customers know puerh and know what is good and bad and know what they want to buy."

Customers of respected companies such as Jin Damo continue to buy from them because they trust and respect them for their consistently high quality traditionally-aged puerhs and for the fact that they maintain total integrity and refuse to get caught up in short-term trends, irrelevant marketing ploys or fancy claims. Their prices reflect the excellent quality of the teas but remain reasonable and realistic and allow connoisseurs with widely varying budgets to continue to purchase and enjoy their compressed cakes.

As well as causing confusion and some rogue trading, the recent boom and bust period did have some positive effects. The increased demand meant that the smaller traders started to order higher quality teas and so manufacturers in famous mountain areas responded accordingly. As a result, the established quality producers are thriving and some quality new brands and tea shops have been established, are continuing to make and sell good teas and are doing well. And as supply now outstrips demand, manufacturers are keen to make higher quality teas in order to capture the attention and money of discerning traders.

Edgar Thoemmes, who buys puerhs for The Canton Tea Company in the UK, agrees that "manufacturers are concentrating on producing better quality puerh instead of dropping prices significantly", and he says that the downturn in the puerh market "was a good thing for consumers; as the price went down it made the genuine quality stock more accessible. And the reduced price offered less incentive to fraudsters who were releasing fake puerh onto the market – a practice that was rife during the boom."

Dan Robertson, who has been buying puerh for years for his Chicago-based company The Tea House, has noticed that "a lot of small manufacturers have closed down and are struggling. I get the feeling that the tea trading business there has still not settled down and is still a bit confused. Now that the bottom has basically fallen out of the market, some people are trying to revert back to other teas. One factory that I used to visit completely converted to puerh even though they had been making greens and blacks for years. The puerh tea quality was not so good but it was profitable and in demand. Now they and the people they sell to are shifting back to the conventional items."

In Kunming, the tea market is quiet and row upon row of open-fronted tea stores, with shelf upon shelf of puerh and other teas, wait for the customers who don’t come. Perhaps more buyers are now working through private traders they know they can trust.

For example, Master Liu and his family, who have been making Jin Damo puerhs since the 1920s, have won the respect and trust of customers in China, Japan and the UK by their willingness to share their knowledge, experience and passion for fine quality teas.

Like other reputable companies, they own ancient trees and process the leaves by hand according to the traditional method; they have trained a dedicated team who lovingly work the leaves into top quality puerh cakes; they never cut corners and only produce a limited quantity of high quality teas each year. They claim for their teas only what they know to be true and they work closely with their customers so that their respected buyers can take the story out into the tea drinking world with understanding and integrity. Customers go back and back because they have total trust in the quality and the prices.

Whether or not such high prices are justifiable, the question remains as to whether they are realistic or sustainable?

Edgar Thoemmes thinks perhaps they are.

"Vintage puerh is still in short supply and with high domestic demand and increased demand from the West, prices for rare puerh will stay high and increase over time," he said. "Younger puerhs and, increasingly, cooked puerhs, will continue to improve and mellow with age – so they too will increase in price over the next few years."

But Dan Robertson says, "When I first started buying puerhs, they were quite expensive. The really old ones were dear but nothing near as much as they go for today. But I don’t think we will see those outrageous prices for mediocre teas again."

And Marcus Wulf of Hamburg Teehandlers says that "Prices reached a high point in 2007 but since 2008, they have been going down and have now reached a more normal level. I believe that prices should be stable for at least a year."

Nigel Melican of Nothing But Tea agrees.

"Our puerh cost prices are stable which in the light of reduced purchase power of the pound indicates perhaps some decline in price at source," he said. "I am happy that the puerh bubble price driver in South East Asia and the USA is now reduced so I would expect a period of price stability."

Tim d’Offay prefers to only buy from Jin Damo, the company he trusts and respects more than others. Jin Damo understands the needs of the avid tea drinker and produces puerh cakes in different sizes ranging from 750g to 100g to meet customers’ needs.

"Although people will pay high prices for special tea, the normal large size of puerh cakes means they have to buy puerh in larger quantities than their more usual 50g bags of loose leaf teas," D’Offay explained. "We sell a lot of Jin Damo 100g cakes because of the incredible quality of the tea and because the size is more convenient and cost effective than a larger cake."

"Prices are more negotiable now than they were 2 years ago – it depends on your relationship with your suppliers," Dan Robertson said, but: "Just watch out and be sure of what you are getting – a lot of tea shops really don’t know what they are selling," he warned.

"China is perhaps entering a bull financial market (maybe) with very strong gains in its equities. Ed Eisler pointed out. "This should aid the recovery of the puerh market but I think it will be harder to find the kind of huge short term gains from newly produced puerh tea that you saw a few years back."

One aspect to be aware of is the fact that some maocha for making puerh in Yunnan has in the past (and still today) been grown outside the province in GuangXi, Szechwan, GuangDong, Thailand and Vietnam, for example, and some teas sold as puerh have been made totally or partially from teas grown outside Yunnan.

In order to protect Puerh teas, new government regulations now state that, as from January 2009, new teas may only be sold as ‘puerh’ if they have been "made with large-leafed sun dried maocha grown within the designated area of Yunnan. The production must be completed within the geographical area indicated and make use of a specific process."

There are 639 townships in 11 prefectures and cities that may grow and process puerh and these include the city of Puerh, Kunming City, Xishuangbanna in the south and Dai Autonomous Prefecture further north. Even if teas from outside those designated areas are made by the traditional puerh methodology, they cannot be sold as puerh – an even more powerful reason perhaps to only buy puerh teas from a trusted and approved source.

Today, fortunately, information is becoming more available to help in understanding and choosing puerhs. But the best advice still seems to be to only buy from established, reliable, trusted suppliers.