Wild Harvested

Tag: mahei

  • When Mahei was called Lù biān. Journey through the history of the village in the company of a 2020 Mahei dashu sheng pu

    When Mahei was called Lù biān. Journey through the history of the village in the company of a 2020 Mahei dashu sheng pu

    Travel 25 kilometers west of Guafengzhai, you will arrive in Mahei. This was the first stage of the ancient tea road on the journey from Laos to China. It is said that one of the original names of Mahei 麻 黑 was “路 边” Lù biān, “Roadside”, because Maheizhai is near the road leading to Laos. In the past, one could start from Laos towards Yiwu and settle the night at the “roadside”, the old Mahei.

    Although it is one of the areas that dictates the highest price in Yiwu, only in recent years has there been an incessant attention to the restoration of natural conditions with low interventionism in the tea forests, remedying the tough pruning approach of the 80s-90s in order to increase the yield of ancient trees. Many trees still exceed 300 years but today the mixed and indistinct collection of gushu, young trees and ancient pruned trees is very common and have a clear organoleptic distinction is very complicated. Old trees Mahei pu is much sought after and expensive and its taste embodies part of the soul of Yiwu.

    Roughly speaking, it can be said that Mahei tea from ancient wild trees has a softer sip, with a greater opening sweetness and a bitterness that acts as a splendid counterweight. The astringency orchestrates a balanced, lingering and memorable melody, the huigan is intense, powerful and comes quickly, the body is silky and refreshing in which the typical honeyed character is enriched by a complexity unrecoverable in some non-wild or shengtai material.

    This sheng pu by Thés terre de ciel comes from dashu trees, from material collected in the spring of 2020. In the wet leaves vegetal and wild hints of leather are combined with notes of honey, flowers and caramel, woody fragrances like those of raw mushrooms are the prelude to a sweet opera adorned with a bouquet of aromatic herbs, in which the background smells of petricore and wet vegetation.

    The sip has an excellent structure, the pleasant and indulgent bitterness typical of Mahei does not overshadow or obscure the other sensations but instead enhances the tea by contrasting with sweetness and a graceful astringency. The huigan is immediate, minerality makes the mouth water refreshing the palate in which progressively appear aromas of myrtle leaf, dried and candied apple, mango and mulberry. A good roundness accompanied by notes of acacia honey and manuka continue in a very lingering finish at the end of an antithetical taste experience, elegant and wild at the same time, still enlivened by a freshness and a vegetal nuance that herald its evolutionary intent.

  • Mahei, one of the best pu’er in Yiwu. But has it always been like this?

    Mahei, one of the best pu’er in Yiwu. But has it always been like this?

    The rains of mid-April break the drought of Mahei, but the race to the true maocha every year does not stop, as well as the rise in prices has not seen truce since 2007 to date. Maheizhai is a village of Yiwu, in Mengla county, almost 3 square kilometers of woods and trees between 1200 and 1500 meters above sea level.
    All 90 families are practically involved in the tea industry, gathered into those 330 hectares of ancient trees trying to seize what they can in a battle of wits and courage.

    Before 2008, Mahei and villages like Yibi, Sanheshe, Manxiu and Daxiu in the Yiwu area were all almost indistinct, except for the tea experts and buyers who came here in April to obsessively and meticulously look for the best material.
    Between 2005 and 2007 there is the appearance of some sporadic trace of the pu’er of Mahei, which also often merged the material of neighboring villages, including Guafengzhai, Mansa and Manxiu when they did not flow into the more common Yiwu Zheng Shan tea or blended with the leaves of the other six mountains. Around 2008-2009 a more methodical subdivision of villages and mountains began with a strong emphasis on searching for the old trees of these villages.

    Here are several gushu, but few are wild, in fact between the 80s and 90s heavy interventional practices have been seen, both with regard to the reduction of the size of the forest and the pruning techniques carried out in a more or less burdensome way.

    The introduction of extensive terraces in the late 70’s in the Yiwu area has also raised a veil of anxiety and concern for those who set out to find and market the tea of these villages, emphasizing their uniqueness.
    As always it is in the experience and in the trust to find the way of the truth, but once found and cleaned from the blanket of dust and individualism it is difficult to forget how it is.