Taikonauts drink Pu’er tea in space station

“Apart from water, what else do you drink?” asked Sa Beining, host of CCTV.

“We also brought Pu’er tea this time” said Jing Haipeng, one of the taikonauts.
“What does the tea taste like?” asked Ma Long, Ping-Pong world champion.
“It tastes so good”, said Jing.

This was a TV show called “Challenge Impossible Missions” in 2016. The host interviewed Chinese astronauts what they drank, and the show made a hit among the public because it was the first cup of tea that made in spacecraft.

China launched its seventh manned spaceflight Shenzhou XII spacecraft on June 17. After the spacecraft successfully completed a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the orbiting Tianhe module, the crew entered the orbital capsule and they will stay in orbit for three months.

So, what do they eat and drink in space? Not surprisingly, Pu’er tea is one of their drinks. Actually, it is not the first time that Pu’er tea has been sent to space. In 2016, Pu’er tea was taken to space with manned spaceflight Shenzhou XI.

South Yunnan’s Pu’er City is home to Pu’er tea and it is called “the World of Heaven, Heaven of the World” by the United Nations Development Programme and a team of experts from the World Tourism Organization.

As the origin of the Tea House Ancient Road (also called the South Silk Road), Pu’er has ancient tea trees with a thousand years old. Besides, there is a long history of people planting and making tea here. With its fame spreading out in these years, the Pu'er tea is widely sold in the world.

Reporting by Zhu Zheng (Pu’er Bureau of Culture and Tourism); Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi