Wild Harvested

Tag: pu’er

  • Another soliloquy about Laobanzhang with a 2018 sheng pu from Tianhong tea factory

    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.

  • Reflections about the pu’er market and Laobanzhang

    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?

  • Cai Mao Xing Jie tea factory Mang Fei sheng pu’er 2017

    Cai Mao Xing Jie tea factory Mang Fei sheng pu’er 2017

    Yongde county is a mountainous area, rich in forests, where nature seems to have had free will for most of the centuries, slopes and ancient trees surround Mangfeicun protecting it in a landscape and cultural amnioticism. In Yongde county alone there are at least 22 ethnic minorities, many of which are involved in harvesting, curing and processing tea. From the slopes it is possible to see the syncopated, wildly forested scenery that continues to Zhenkang county where history is intertwined with it.
    Mangfei’s post-modern puer shows sweeter and more graceful traits, even if the aromatic profile is green and oxidation kept under control, the sip, except in some vintages, is characterized by a greater pleasantness already in the early years, by ease of drinking , elegance and vegetal notes that hardly show that austerity of some young raw Mengku, but rather similar to the thick sip and creamy hints of Xigui puer, albeit with due exceptions.


    This 2017 sheng pu is produced by Cai Mao Xing Jie tea factory, probably dry stored; the straw-gold color of the liqueur is typical of the puer of Mangfei area, in which hints of camphor are revealed in the wet leaves, initially balsamic scents, then a subtle smokiness, alcohol macerated fruit, juniper and wild botanicals. The complexity is then revealed under tones of musk and manuka honey and continues consistently to the sip, sweet, fresh, of medium-light astringency, with musky and woody aromas and notes of bitter herbs that appear towards the fourth infusion. Floral, fruity and spicy sensations are contrasted, in an up and down of a sensorial score, where the gloomy taste unfolds on tones of cooked apple, white pepper and juniper before the appearance of creamy notes, of a lemon sablè tarte, of the sweetness that brings a compote of wild strawberries and mint and alpine herb candies. It is a tea with an exuberant qi, a sweet huigan and the continuous placing before and after the threshold of maturity makes it an extremely satisfying tea already in its youth.

  • Trip to Yiwu mountain through a 2006 classic blend

    Trip to Yiwu mountain through a 2006 classic blend

    In the recent past of Pu’er we have often witnessed a forced association of tea with its most narcissistic and aesthetic-economic dimension, to then observe the deflagration of this concept by those who sought more the practicality of taste and pleasantness in its more utilitarian sense. Without recalling how much before and after the events of 2008 contributed to forging these factions, in front of certain teas we can remember how much Pu’er can escape mere sensoriality, from being a simple pleasure of the palate to rejoin its real aesthetic dimension, that sensitive incarnation that translates an idea, a territory, a community.

    Teas like those of Yiwu manage to reconnect us with that part of ourself which, while searching for information, tends at the same time to suspend from practical sense, making us experience the sensible, the experience in its essence. This cake immediately brings to mind the selections of Mr. Ye Binghuai, the “Big green Tree”, whose story will probably be the subject of future posts, but it suffices to know that it made a good part of history among enthusiasts at the end of the 20th century, as well as having led many Hong Kong auctions with his ’99 selection.

    The harvest dates back to 2006 from wild trees throughout the Yiwushan area, a sensory complexity achieved thanks to the assemblage of several mountain villages. Because from Mahei to Guafengzhai to Yiwu village we are witnessing a radical change in the composition of the soils, a pH that goes from 4.5 for the most acidic to 6.5, an altitude range that goes from the summit, above 2000 meters above sea level, to the 730 m of Nametian with its taidicha and xiangjiaocha, which in antithesis almost seem to offer a gateway to the compulsive modernism that previously struggled to take root among those camellias that looked like imposing bodies, lignified in their dynamism.

    This wild tree puer comes from some of the shengtai areas that flank the mountain villages, leaves that when wet release scents typical of these places and quite similar to those of other vintages chosen by Ye Binghuai, notes of cedar wood, camphor and dehydrated longan, with an almost smoky, balsamic personality while advancing a memory of peat very similar to that of a good Mezcal rather than a Scotch.
    Drinking proceeds in a calm and relaxed tone, one can perceive the scents of a pine forest after the rain, vegetal, musk, peach and floral as a background. Suggestions of banana leaves, Lemet in particular, the yucca cooked in water wrapped in banana leaves, together with spicy, woody and slightly smoky tones similar to those that Mizunara gives to Japanese whiskeys.
    The liqueur is coherent, initially introverted, of a golden-amber colour, slightly lighter than expected but able to develop over time animal, musky and fruity aromas, almost of raisin muscatel, with a qi that gradually becomes evident and pleasant. The sip is juicy, thick, balanced in its medium bitterness and medium sweetness, of good persistance and ending on notes of charcoal-cooked tropical fruit.

  • Eastern Leaves Nannuo wild forest sheng pu’er 2020

    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.