Recently, Mike Petro has dug up evidence that, over the last ten years or so, scientists have been devoting serious attention to Puerh. These scientists seem to be mainly Chinese, but some are Japanese. Some are trying to determine what health benefits may be attributable to Puerh. Some, and these are the ones I find interesting, are trying to figure out exactly what goes on chemically and microbially in the manufacture and aging of good Puerh.
There's a parallel here with the explosion of science and engineering over the last few decades in the manufacture of another microbially fermented beverage: wine.
In what follows, when I say "Puerh", I really mean "hei cha", a more general term meaning a tea subjected to microbial fermentation and (almost always) aging.
Let's assume that the current boom in the popularity of Puerh isn't just a transitory fad. Couple that with the extremely informal microbial technology that producers now wield, as well as the fact that trained scientists are now (paid to be) figuring out the details, and a possible future for Puerh becomes visible.
Relatively high-tech industrial methods are going to be used to produce teas related to what we know as Puerhs, teas that a purist might not recognize as true Puerhs. Let's call them "Puerh analogues" (PEAs.)
I think PEAs won't be created initially to get a cheaper and faster ripe PEA, for the current technology seems to be pretty cheap and fast. (Here I'm talking about the technology for artificially aged, "dark" or "ripe" Puerh, a technology dating back to the seventies.)
I bet the engineers will be aiming for a more reliable - and quicker - way to get the flavor and aroma of a green Puerh.
I suspect that this experimentation will, at least initially, avoid using leaf from the most prestigious tea mountains in Yunnan, for the high end of the market will demand the "real thing" for a long time. The same logic probably applies to Liubao and Liu An. But I think it'll be interesting to taste heichas from outside Xishuangbanna, Liu An, and a couple of other canonical areas.
Perhaps it won't be too long before, either from traditional methods applied to nontraditional sources of leaf, or from novel manufacturing methods, PEAs become available with aromas and tastes previously unknown. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing can't be known now, I suppose.
/Lew