Travelogue of Visit to Mengku Iceland, Yunnan Province, China, the Origin of Puerh Tea – Understanding and Documenting the Entire Process of Puerh Tea Production
I am Ningbo Lao Chen, I have been drinking tea for nearly 20 years, and there is no doubt that Puerh tea is my favorite. My family’s tea room, a large part of the stock are Puerh tea, Iceland five Zhai, Xigui, Lao Banzhang, Yiwu Zhengshan, Mansong, Daxueshan …… all kinds of famous ancient tree Puerh tea, the market can buy, basically were I buy a whole. However, like my friends around me, I really like Pu-erh tea very much, but I feel that I have not been able to understand Pu-erh tea.
（Tea in my tea room)
In order to drink my favorite Pu-erh tea, last spring, I personally went to the core production area of Pu-erh tea – Icelandic Village, Mengku Town, Yunnan Province, I want to thoroughly understand Pu-erh tea from the source, from the process, from the sales channels, in all aspects.
(In Menghu Town)
Before buying Puerh tea online, I added the WeChat of an Icelandic tea farmer named Xiaohua, and a lot of my family’s tea is bought from Xiaohua, and the quality has always been very good. So, before going to Icelandic village, first gave him a greeting, life is not familiar, said to Icelandic village to meet him first.
(I met Little Flower in Icelandic Village)
Xiaohua’s family has been making tea for generations. If you have a lot of questions about Puerh tea and want to find a Puerh tea professional to answer them, ask him for advice.
(Small square in Icelandic village)
As soon as I arrived at Little Flower’s tea store, he brewed me a cup of very mysterious Puerh tea for me to savor and quench my thirst. He also asked me if I could tell which village’s tea it was, as if he was testing me.
To be honest, seeing this golden and translucent tea soup, neat and fat ropes, full of orchid flavor, dry mouth and tongue, I can not wait to drink it all. As the saying goes, “sweetness in the mouth, sweetness in the mouth”. The tea has almost no bitterness and astringency, and has a good taste, not to mention other strange flavors. After a sip of tea, my back felt slightly sweaty, which was an experience full of surprises! From my experience, this is certainly not the year of new tea, should be stored for at least three or four years or more. Taste carefully, you can appreciate the tea master’s profound skills, as well as the strict requirements of the tea-making process of persistence.
(Photo of tea broth taken by hand)
In front of Little Flower and his father, the old tea maker, I didn’t dare to show off my skills and could only answer honestly that this tea was indeed very good, like Icelandic Laozhai, but I wasn’t sure because I had never experienced this flavor of Puerh tea before.
Xiaohua said with a smile, this tea is used in Iceland old village 600 years old tea tree first spring material, a total of less than 10 kilograms, the material is too precious, do not dare to let the disciples fried, are Xiaohua Abba hand fried tea. Has been stored for 3 years, now there are four or five kilograms. Usually can not afford to drink, today there are distant guests to visit, exceptionally take out to taste.
(Xiaohua’s 2022 Old Iceland)
He said so, I also remembered, this tea before small flowers recommended to me, but I think the price is too high, and online transactions, not too assured, did not want. This time to Menghu, tasted this tea, I can only say that before is really do not know goods. What is not to say, on the spot I have to mention, so good tea, miss it will never again, this money, spend value!
Small flowers of this year’s spring tea began to book, I hastened to order two kilograms of Icelandic ancient tree single plant, such a rare good tea, if the hand is not fast enough, a little inattentive to be other tea friends robbed.
(Xiaohua’s 2022 Old Iceland)
Xiaohua’s father said, you buy tea outside really have to pay attention to, now a large number of terrace tea, are machine mass production of tea, low cost, production, packaging printed with the word “Iceland”, but all are not produced in Iceland. Terrace tea are artificially planted, small trees, bitter taste can not be melted, drink will be numb tongue, there is a sense of locking the throat, is the price is cheap. This is a bitter Icelandic local tea farmers, authentic ancient tree Pu’er tea, the price is relatively high, tea farmers and the lack of export channels, had to sell the quality of the ancient tree tea at low prices to tea merchants.
It seems to want to taste the authentic ancient tree Puerh tea, or to find the right source to do, I recommend to everyone, if you also taste authentic Puerh tea, you can browse our product page.
(Tasting Icelandic Dragon Balls from Little Flower)
Little Flower and his Abba took us to the tea mountain to visit his family’s tea trees, and finally saw the real Pu’er ancient tea trees, although it is a relatively remote mountain village, but the environment is natural and pollution-free, the air is very fresh, tea trees grow recklessly. Ordinary bush tea, I’ve seen a lot, this large-leafed species of ancient tea trees is really the first time to see, Pu’er tea tea tree basically can grow to four or five meters high, and ordinary Terrace Tea is not the same, can be considered a long time to see.
(A look at the old fortress in Iceland)
I also learned that the hundred years of ancient tea trees are wild, almost exclusively in the wilderness of the mountains free growth, very few people to intervene, especially some rare thousand years of ancient tea trees, because of the mountainous terrain, the cost of harvesting is too high, a kilogram of several tens of thousands of dollars, more than 100,000 on the market is also very difficult to buy, not to mention a few tens of dollars a cake of a hundred years, thousands of years of ancient Puerh Tea.
(Come to Little Flower’s Ancient Tea Garden to get a better understanding)
Because it happens to be the tea picking season, I had the honor to see the whole process of handmade tea of ancient tree Puerh, this technique retains the most primitive aroma of Puerh tea, can play the tea charm of ancient tree tea to the fullest, want to learn about the handmade ancient tree Puerh tea production process of tea friends, you can add the next small flower of WeChat: gsc515 (long press the micro-signal to copy), Puerh tea tea process is to determine the quality of Puerh tea is the key to the quality of Puerh tea, want to drink a good tea, it is necessary to understand the process. The tea is a good choice, but it’s important to understand the process.
(Tea farmers are picking fresh leaves)
Tea makers will decide the picking time and the degree of picking according to the climate and the growth of the tea trees every year, so the picking time will be slightly different every year. Ancient tea trees are generally taller, and can only be picked manually, time-consuming and laborious, very hard, a skilled tea picker, you can pick 40-50 pounds of fresh leaves per day, that is, less than 10 pounds of dry tea.
(Fresh leaves withering)
Proper withering can make the fresh leaves partially dehydrated, which is conducive to the next step of greening.
(Killing)
Killing is frying tea, is the key to determine the quality of the ancient tree tea, killing temperature, time, degree, each item has a great impact on the later taste of Puerh tea. Listening to the masters say, each mountain, the requirements of the greening are different, without a twenty or thirty years of experience in tea production, is not fried famous mountain tea. Little Flower’s father said that the tea flavor and late storage transformation is good or not, have a lot to do with the killing of the green, kill the green to kill just right, fried light aroma can not be, fried heavy late transformation of the space is small.
(Kneading)
After the tea has been fried and cooled down, it should be kneaded. Kneading can break the cell walls of the tea leaves and spill out the inner substances. This step has a great impact on the taste of Puerh tea.
（Sun-dried Tea)
Sun tea is also known as sun-greening. After the tea is twisted and dried in the sun, it becomes what tea farmers often call: sun-dried green tea.
(Picking Yellow Pieces)
Inevitably, some old leaves will be mixed into the tea picking process, and the taste and flavor of these tea leaves are different from the young buds, so they need to be picked out one by one. The process is known as picking yellow pieces. Knowledge of the old tea drinkers naturally will not let go of the yellow piece, because it is very light bitterness and astringency, and the sweetness is particularly good, loved by tea lovers.
(Tea Cakes Drying)
Through the contact with tea farmers in the past few days, I have a new perception of Puerh tea. It solved a lot of my doubts about Pu-erh tea.
When I was leaving, I brought a lot of tea from Xiaohua’s house, of course, Iceland Five Villages is one of them, and Xigui, Mole and Xiaotousai are not left behind. Even the small flower just pulled back from the Menghai relatives of the old Panzhang, also grabbed a mention. This old Banzhang is this year’s new tea, tea is really enough, worthy of “Banzhang for the king”, I go back to put on a few years in the taste, absolutely amazing!
This year I have been in contact with small flowers, and then brought a lot of new tea from his home, the quality and taste of raw and ripe tea are very good. Especially the 2009 [Icelandic Golden Flower Tribute Tea] ripe Pu, without exaggeration, is the best taste I’ve ever tasted ripe tea. Drinking friends, later also began to take tea from the small flower family.
It’s time to book the spring tea, the current situation, not quite suitable to go to the Mengku tea mountain, on WeChat to find the small flower booked some well-known mountain spring tea, according to past experience, wait until the spring tea market, the price is bound to rise, booking ahead of time can be a lot of concessions it.
Want to drink authentic ancient tree Puerh tea friends, you can browse our website. If you think it’s good, please help recommend it to your tea friends, help the hard-working Yunnan tea farmers, and share the authentic and high-quality ancient tree Pu’er tea with more tea lovers. Let Pu-erh tea go out of the mountains of Yunnan, so that consumers all over the world can enjoy the fresh fragrance and health care functions brought by this Pu-erh tea.
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