Que Liu and his wife Si En spend their mornings picking pu’er leaves in a forest not far from their village in the highlands of southwest China. Pu’er is a kind of tea that is famous for its complex taste. The taste changes with each successive steeping, tea lovers say. But the crop this year has been small at Nannuoshan, one of the six major pu’er mountains in Yunnan Province. The hottest weather and lowest rainfall totals in years have reduced production. “Drought has cut production by about half this spring,” said Zi Sai, the son of Que Liu and Si En. Local officials blame climate change for an increase in drought-like conditions in recent years. The dry weather has worsened over the past 20 years, with this year’s drought breaking some records.