Category: Articles

All the fragrance of Naka

Naka is one of those places whose tea manages to make the contemplative intent coexist with the liberation that accompanies a state of inebriation, of marked well-being. The teas from this mountain are often not famous for their complexity but rather enliven the experience with their persistent sweetness, an immediate sugary sensation that is almost palpable beyond the blanket of initial bitterness, a sip that returns a sensation that shines through as an existential parable where suffering and gratification alternate.

Teas like those of Naka, Bingdao or Laobanzhang transport us to another dimension of thinking, more ancient and simple, the one that makes us grasp Holderlin’s vision of a “measure common to all”, the one removed from our evaluations, the one of a taste purity capable of embodying the reason and essence of a place.
They are unique scenes, to which even if we don’t belong, we adopt as a spiritual homeland.

Naka’s is perhaps the most representative of Mengsong’s teas; here the woods surround the village in which there are approximately 40-50 hectares of ancient tea trees, most between 300 and 500 years old. The 1660-meter high peak is located on the eastern slope of Huazhuliangzi, the ground is sandy and rocky, the climate is humid and rainfall is abundant and more frequent than in other areas.

The small-leaf variety predominates along with the medium-sized variety, which is a unique condition in the Menghai area. From Da’an to Nongbeng, from Baotang to Damengsong each village here has its own microclimate and its own shrewdness in the processing of the leaves; Lahu and Han with their respective dialects and cultural traditions have lived together for centuries in these mountains where time seems to have stopped.

This 2022 Eastern Leaves sheng pu is a tea that is not afraid of meditation or of the most convivial moonlight. The wet leaves are a unique journey just outside the village, the memory is that of a pastry shop in the middle of the forest where the scents of the woods and wet leaves envelop you, among the rocky tones you can perceive scents of apricot curd, peach , mountain flowers and citrus fruits.
The liqueur has an antique gold dress; on the palate it is soft, enveloping, beautifully balanced and progressive in the bitter tones that quickly unfold in a sugary dimension, an endless sweetness that seems almost chewable. It is a tea with an excellent structure already in its youth but whose time can only act as its guardian.

18 August 2023
Perhaps it’s time to ask what can be called Dancong

Dancong tea is much more than an aromatic concentrate, it is not just a floral punch straight in the mouth capable of anesthetizing the taste buds with its fragrances.
Fenghuang tea is often able to escape the intellect, but the leaves of those trees are able to bring the unintelligible into sensible form.

Make a Dancong is not knowing how to orchestrate a set of fragrances, that is pure appearance. This Wulongs are an epitome of shanyun, the “charm of the mountain”, they seem to enclose a geographical empathy that is consecrated in a sip imbued with historical awareness that gives abode and memory to the course of events in a place, going beyond the material boundary of the drink . This condition derives from three main factors: the intrinsic uniqueness of each tree, the craftsmanship and the mountain terroir.
But what happens when the liquor doesn’t convey a truthful reality?

Fenghuang is a small city of 30-40.000 inhabitants, an out of this world place with about 10,000 laocong of about 100 years and 3,000 trees of 200 years, and from these numbers it is enough to understand that many of the leaves from ancient trees that we find in the western market cannot come from here. The climate is difficult, extremely humid, the moss seems to envelop even the soul of those who pass through it, a very different condition from the neighboring areas.
In Fenghuang village a distinction has always been made between the internal areas of the mountain (neishancha 内山茶) and the external areas (waishancha 外山茶), in order to underline a deep tradition and bond with one’s land.

There are 30 tea towns in the administrative area under the current jurisdiction of Chaozhou City, and one of the problems is that as long as the tea is harvested and processed according to the DB44/T820-2010 standard within the city of Chaozhou all teas can obtain geographical protection marks, and therefore be called Phoenix Dancong.

Fenghuang Dancong’s production method is mainly based on the family and there are no large enterprises comparable to those in Fujian or Yunnan, and it is what is sought to be preserved and must be protected. But every year on the market there are tons of teas at astronomical prices in the western market related to Fenguangshan cha without any territorial distinction, with little or no transparency. But the real dancong is only a small part of it.
One wonders if it is worth spending more and more money to buy something that might not even be real Dancong or settle for a sip of happiness together with that money in case the tea is really good.

18 August 2023
Another soliloquy about Laobanzhang with a 2018 sheng pu from Tianhong tea factory

Laobanzhang has long been an example of ambivalence. Its bitterness contrasts with the sweetness that pervades you a moment later, the exaltation of its essence opposed to the condemnation of the upheaval caused by its own greatness. Its leaves can be as bitter and severe in youth as they are sweet and complex as they age, teaching us that solemnity is not in the present and that it can never be enclosed once and for all. What drives us to buy what now seems so distant from reality? Yet as Sophocles said there is no life without pleasure but, above all, life is more beautiful when one does not think.

This is Laobanzhang, a corner of the world where gods seem to have found refuge, a strip of 300 hectares of ancient trees that have seen the course of the ages so much as to survive the history of the village itself. There are about 120 families mostly of the Hani ethnic group who inhabit these mountains, about 500 people almost all involved in the tea market, that same tea that once animated their ancestors now seems to have took away the soul of their descendants. The radical change in lifestyle, the experimentation of mere materialism have placed the village in front of a test that is only partially overcoming. There are many examples of counterfeiting, of slightly above average tea, quality standards that are not always clear or respected. All at crazy and irrational prices.

However, a sip of a real Laobanzhang is able to enrapture us to the point of blurring the language, words become superfluous and we are ready to resort to the credit card through a disintegration of self-control only to chase the memory of a tea which, when authentic, remains indelible in our memory.
The problem is that by now we risk finding very little of that authenticity in the future and at that point the bitterness will take over even the sweetest of memories.

That of the Tianhong Tea Factory is a centenary trees sheng pu from material collected in the spring of 2018 that contains all the ancient charm of a village. It appears in a brilliant golden color with pinkish undertones; notes of wood burning in the rain and nuances of ripe apricot emerge from the wet leaves than hints of cavendish tobacco, plum jam, light botanical-alcoholic fragrance along with reminiscences of wild flowers, caramelized citrus and subtle scent of violet candy.
I think the measure of a good Laobanzhang is not only the sensory complexity, but the ability to stimulate the memory in a articulated and orderly sense, like an open book on the knees whose pages are nostalgically leafed through; that is what happened with this sheng. On the palate it has an extraordinary balance, the herbaceous flavor is wrapped in a honeyed sensation, the liqueur is thick, juicy, the bitterness allows the aromas to remain for an interminable time and the mouth to salivate while intrepidly awaiting the next sip. The qi is strong and the final notes close on a pleasantly floral and refreshing sensation.

18 August 2023
Reflections about the pu’er market and Laobanzhang

Everything about tea is born from an initial effort and suffering, and through these it is consecrated in a sort of spiritual life that is strengthened over time, in its determined and individual character. Tea is not the immediate gift of nature. Immediacy in tea always comes at a high price.

Laobanzhang is experimenting a pattern already seen in areas where previously a deep famine reigned; now money is spent in the most disparate ways, new contemporary-style buildings arise and what comes from the past is quickly supplanted by the well-being of a conscience that appears liberated from the oppressive spirit of the previous period.

The new generations are not destined to experience that effort and suffering, the natural rhythm of things, the process that brought Laobanzhang tea to what it is even before the invisible hand of Yunnan moved prices in the spring of 2007.
Everything happened very quickly, in 20 years a main road capable of connecting all the villages once disconnected from the world was built, new branches were opened, new investment funds and capital arrived from holding companies which saw a safe source of investment. All of this is reminiscent of a situation before the burst of the speculative bubble, but it is not, all of this is the present.
The price of raw tea has gone from 8 yuan/kg to 1800 in the famous spring of 2007, up to exceeding 13000 today, an escalation that does not seem to stop.

The tea leaves are sold to the shops before they are processed most of the time without any intermediary, just as en primeur wines are sold in Bordeaux before they end up in the bottle. This is what has been happening for years now in these mountains and which has led many merchants to abandon them, in what we can define as the third emigration of Laobanzhang.

How much of the real Laobanzhang is left today and how much it is still worthwhile for tea merchants to look for a product that no longer lives for its uniqueness and soul? How much the economic value of a place can become a burning glass of its greatness and how long will we wait before another crash of the speculative bubble?

18 August 2023
Eastern Leaves Nannuo wild forest sheng pu’er 2020

Nannuoshan is located halfway between two large cities of Xishuangbanna, Menghai and Jinghong, and has long been a destination for tourists and enthusiasts who crave the cakes of this mountain, who hike the summit in the day and return home with tea bought for be given to family and friends. Now it’s always good to remember that in areas where teas are sold by themselves, those intended almost for Eucharistic acts, there’s an obligation to search for the truth in those leaves, which are translated into a corresponding liquid that doesn’t tell of simple poeticisms, but which as a disembodied voice tells of who is there and who has been there, of millenary soils, extreme climates and plants that seem to keep time.

This Eastern Leaves Pu’er sheng comes from wild trees at 1800 meters above sea level, in a tremendously difficult year characterized by a long drought. Here we find not only the floral notes that distinguish Nannuo pu’er, but an olfactory complexity that develops right from the wet leaves an evanescent smoky suggestion as a background for hints of wet rock, citrus of green oranges and vegetal like cut grass, to evolve towards hints of exotic fruit and apple compote. The sip is full, round and at the same time agile, with medium bitterness and minerality, as an excellent Nannuo tea should be.
Aromas of persimmon and chinchona, bitter orange and medicinal herbs appear and continue in the aftertaste, counteracting sweeter memories of strawberry custard, creating a tasting stratification, in which infusion after infusion a typical and satisfying huigan emerges.

18 August 2023