Visiting the magical lands of Xishuangbanna
A long anticipated trip it was. For months I have been looking forward to this. It's even so, many moths ago I did not even think about physically being in Yunnan. As a tea enthousiast and a pu'er aficionado, you talk about this mountains and you drink this trees. I've done this for years. But there is something pu'er has that no other tea has. There is mist in the rabbit hole. You get caught in the realm of myths and stories. You try stay on the surface of an ocean of fog and blurriness. In this case there is only one thing left to do. Go there yourself and see the stage where the opera of Sheng and Shu plays, with your own eyes. And more imortantly, with your own tastebuds.
First day after arriving we just hit the road towards Nannuo Shan, One of twelve world famous mountains. We are here to see unfinished maocha for the first time and to drink the tea on site. A local farmer is serving us his tea. From this day on "farmer style brewing" gets a lot more dimensions. No scale, just a hand full of leaves in a huge Gaiwan. Don't get me wrong, a farmer's hands are really big. A potent sheng hits us in the face. Awake we are. We continue our path by foot to the King tree of Nannuo mountain. A tree as many meters tall as hundreds of years old.
Lorenzo and Vivian stuff this trip with a lot of once in a lifetime's. They provide a almost holy trinity of learning about- and drinking rare and one of a kind teas, meet unique people and being in the most exquisite places. We meet for example Li Hei Bo. A man that has teached tea at university. He shares with us a bunch of knowledge about Gong Fu Cha practice and Yixing clay wares. O boy, did I feel myself a want-to-know-it-all schoolboy. Those who know me know that I have a weak spot for Yixing wares. Grateful was I that Li let me buy his copy of "é˜³ç¾¡èŒ—ç ‚åœŸ". A book all about Yixing Clay, that no longer is printed and is just so hard to find in the west. Nice suprise, it was signed by the author!
The plane losses altitude and eventually it touches ground on the tarmac of a small local airport. We have been travelling for about twenty-ish hours and are eager for fresh air and to stretch our legs. Here we are, literally in the middle point of Xishuangbanna.
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We get picked up at the airport. A fifteen minute drive brings us to the city center where we meet Vivian again. It has been moths since the last time we saw each other at the Brussels tea festival. One by one we meet the other people that wil join this trip. Ten tea lovers from all over the world. The atmosphere is nice. The setting relaxed. A local green tea gets us started for what will be an awesome journey.
This trip will bring us in the most peculiar places.​ Picking this season is relatively late and that gives us the opportunity to visit Lao Banzhang. One does not just walk in and out of this village. It has one of the highest price per weight tea of the entire province. It's status is above mythical. Although I hade a fairytale kind of perception of the place it show pu'er industry as it is today. Buildings grow towards heaven with a breathtaking speed. One family just approaches us on the street and offers to taste some LBZ at home. This is an offer that few will have seconds thoughts about. His tea is good and the future wil show that this isn't the last time we meet this guy.
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We did see a fair share of pu'er tea production. After 2024 will be remembered as a dry season. 2025 came in a bit on the chilly side. Picking was probably seven to ten days late. Nevertheless we stumbled upon leaves beIng fresh from the trees and withering indoor. The smell of fresh tealeaves is something very specific. Hard to tell in words it is. Later we witnessed by pure luck pan firing of tealeaves. Another sense got me by surprise. Sound! The leaves that come in to contact with the hot surface of the wok make a crackling sound. A bit like when you would clap you hands with cupped hands. Never before had I heard or read about this.
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In Menghai we had the opportunity to visit a cake pressing factory. Despite what romantic stories will tell you, farmers do not press their own teacakes. Mao cha is relocated to Menghai city to be pressed in dedicated factories. Traditionally done by stone or as much traditionally done by hydraulic machine. At this moment the room was filled with the warm smell of drying teacakes, neatly stacked in bamboo racks and the rustle of men wrapping cakes in paper packaging.
So much more can be told or written about this fortnight. But words are in a way shortcoming for the experience ​this adventure gave us. We take home a lot of tea in the first place. But no smaller amount of knowledge, experience, gut-feeling, impressions, olfactory reference and so much more. I will enjoy the afterglow of this time for many years to come. It will be my pleasure to tell people about my time in Yunnan and share my experience with whoever wants to listen.
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If you want to talk about once in a lifetime opportunities, well, here is a once in a multiple lifetimes opportunity. One night ​it is announced that Hu Ming Fang will attend our tea sipping evening in the studio. Apparently he is travelling from A to B and can make a brief stop in Jinghong. If the man needs a little introduction, no problem. Few hundreds of years ago, pu'er tea was transported along narrow and dusty roads on the backs of horses. The tea departed from Yunnan towards al directions. With modern ways of shipping this tradition got out of use. In 2005 pu'er tea needed a bit of publicity since it was endangered of getting forgotten. Here comes Hu Ming Fang in the story. He organises a reenactment and gets 14 tons (!) of bing cha loaded on 126 horses. During 200 days the horses, accompanied by horse drivers, walk from Ninger to Beijing. A lot of cakes get auctioned along the way for charity. Now, twenty years later only very few cakes survived time. We got the chance to taste this tea! Tea that went through rough rains and firm sunshine. This tea truelybelongs in a museum. ( And that is where it is found nowadays.)
Fun fact, the tea on the left is as old as I am! I plan to drink it only on my birthdays and I calculated that I can enjoy this tea until my 93.
Although normally I reserve the word 'love' for people an 'like' for objects, I did fell in love in Yunnan. On the last day of our voyage I requested a Zini Zisha tea pot to brew some marvellous Sheng Pu. In a hurry, Vivian opens a cupboard looking for something that fits my request. As I get sight on the inner cupboard a pot catches my eye. A pot without symmetry and full of bumps. When I ask Vivian what the significance is of this peculiar put, she explains that it is a pot made by a Yixing student, practicing to become an Yixing artist one day. For me it showed so beautifully the skill, practicing and dedication that is required to be an Yixing master. It was indeed love on first sight. And I am extremely thankfull Vivian let me take this pot home.
As a last note I want to say that what I will remember most is the friends I made. Although these friendships are forced to be the long distance kinds of friendship, miles will not matter. Whenever I meet these guys again, it will be like the day of yesterday we were in Yunnan's mountains. An everlasting bond invisible to others but so much the more tangible to us.
