The old saying "read ten thousand books, travel thousands of miles", and the same is true for drinking tea. Taste good tea, read monographs, and then go to the mountains and forests, measure the tea mountains with your steps, witness the antiquity of tea trees with your eyes, experience the grandeur and beauty of nature with your senses, perceive tea plants, from germination, growth, experience to the mystery of blooming in our cups.

When the spring season is good again, before the Qingming solar term, tea people have already walked through the tea forest in Yunnan.

Many old tea people say: "Yi Wu is the starting point of tea drinkers, but also the end of Tibetan tea people". On the basis of focusing on the Menghai Tea Area, Nanfeng Tea Factory in 2023, walk into the Yiwu Tea District, witness the style of the Yiwu Famous Mountain Village, and explore the taste and aroma of the popular ultra-micro production area, let's follow the footsteps of the Nanfeng Tea Factory Tea Mountain Pioneer Team to see how this leaf full of natural gifts is delivered to us.

The first stop - Yiwu Tianmen Mountain

The first stop of Yiwu we walked into Tianmen Mountain, which is also a popular tea area in recent years, Tianmen Mountain is located in Majiazhai, Manai Village, Yiwu Township, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, with an altitude of more than 1600 meters and a steep mountain. It is in the same mountain system as Mint Pond, Curved Bow, Dingjiazhai, and Yifan Mill.

 

 

A woolen merchant who has been cooperating with the tea factory for a long time has his own base in Tianmen Mountain, which is 1 km away from the Tea King Tree.

The base covers an area of 500 acres, and tea plants are scattered in the primeval forest, and the primeval forest of Tianmen Mountain grows symbiotically.

The manager of the base introduced to us that the base can produce about 1 ton of dry tea every spring tea season, and only picks spring and autumn seasons every year. Every year in the spring tea season, the base will invite the local Miao people to pick fresh leaves, and the road to Tianmen Mountain is more difficult, from Majizhai, it takes about an hour's drive, and the road conditions are complicated. Tea picking workers can't go to and from their homes every day, and they can only live in a simple shed at the base during the tea picking season, where there is no electricity in the mountains, and only simple solar panels to maintain the charging of mobile phones.

 

 

Although the conditions are difficult, talking to tea farmers can feel their pure and simple happiness. I can't help but sigh that every leaf of tea is hard to come by, and the hardships of tea farmers behind the sweetness.

 

 

More than ten minutes walk from the base, you can reach the Tianmen Mountain Gaojian ancient tree community, and the ancient tree tea of Tianmen Mountain grows in the primeval deep forest.

 

 

The high-stem tea tree itself is relatively old, has a developed root system, abundant absorption of nutrients, and is full of mountain and wild charm, which can be described as a good tea with original ecology and natural charm. The geographical location of Tianmen Mountain is very special, located near the border between China and Laos, Tianmen Mountain is as famous as its topography, the average altitude is about 1600 meters, the mountain is steep, standing on Tianmen Mountain looking down, into the mountains continuous, cloudy and misty, the scenery is different, like a fairyland on earth.

 

 

The second stop - Yao Dingjiazhai

 

Dingjiazhai is under the jurisdiction of Mahei Village in Yiwu Town, and the Yao ethnic group Dingjiazhai is divided into upper and lower villages. The ancient tea trees of Dingjiazhai are mainly distributed in "bent bow", "white tea garden" and "phoenix nest". Tea trees grow in tropical rainforests without pollution or human damage. They grow naturally with other tree species in the rainforest. Dingjiazhai ancient tree tea garden, steep slope and high mountain, picking is very difficult, to pay great attention to picking technology and physical strength, can not pick a few kilograms in a day.

The tea plantation has a humid climate, clouds and mist, surrounded by primeval forests, and the ecological environment is unique. Because the tea trees in the Dingjiazhai Tea Garden grow in the middle of the primeval forest and have not been dwarfed, they are all slender and straight.

The vegetation coverage is high, the tea plant is less exposed to sunlight, the growth rate of tea is relatively slow, the tenderness of tea leaves is also better, the tree growth is scattered, the quality is good, the taste is thick, the bitterness is light, and the sweetness is fast. At the same time, tea plants are affected by diffuse light, rich in substances, varied taste layers, and full of charm.

 

 

The third stop - the windy village

 

 

 

The wind village is named "wind village" because it is located in the wind outlet surrounded by mountains, the water flows from the front of the village, and the wind passes through the village. For a long time, due to inconvenient transportation, this place is isolated, and most of the ancient tree tea of the windswept village is distributed in about 50 square kilometers of primeval forest, 25 kilometers away from the place of residence, so the tea wild charm of the windswept village is innate. Also because of the complex geographical environment, tea here was once difficult to find.

From the windy village to the tea king tree, it took about three hours, take a motorcycle up the mountain, see exotic flowers and plants with rugged and narrow mountain paths, winding to the primeval forest, and walk into the forest when there is no way, birds singing around the wind, passing through the shadows and dappled shadows, stepping on the flowing water, and the complete ecological beauty of the primeval forest along the way is amazing.

 

 

The fourth stop - Yiwu Mahei

 

Because Mahei is not far from Yiwu Town, it is very close to the Lao border, about ten miles away. In the past, people who did tea trading business generally passed through Mahei from Yiwu to the border of Laos, and when passing through Mahei, they either rushed early, just dawned, or rushed back there when it was almost dark, in short, it would be black or not black, and it would be bright or not, and later everyone used to call that place "Mahei".

The area of the Mahei production area is relatively large in Yiwu tea. Secondly, its geographical location is a relatively important transportation point, and commerce and trade generally pass through there, making hemp black tea easier to circulate and easy to sell.

Mahei originally belonged to the ancient Mansa tea area, one of the six major tea areas in ancient times, and is now one of the famous tea mountains in Yiwu. Mahei Village is located in the northeast of Yiwu Township, where ancient tea trees grow on the hillsides around the village, and the tea king trees that have grown gratifyingly for more than 1,000 years. The Mahei Ancient Tea Garden is 1,331 meters above sea level, with natural sunlight and vibrant vegetation. The tea trees in the Mahei Tea Garden germinate earlier than the tea trees in the Sinkhole Tea Garden every year, the back of the fresh leaves is more hairy, the stem is longer, and the hair tea is more black and oily.

 

 

         如果你没有喝过麻黑，那可能你就没有真正地去感知到易武茶的特点和精髓。

 

 

This year is the second month of the lunar calendar, the temperature is low, coupled with the lack of rain so far last winter, the climate is relatively arid, and the ancient trees on the major mountains germinate slightly later than in previous years.

According to the current situation of tea plant germination, ancient tree tea is not expected to be mined on a large scale until mid-to-early April, and tea lovers who want to taste this year's spring tea need to be patient.

After the tea plant germinates and mines, we will go deeper into more tea areas and broadcast more about spring tea in Yiwu tea area and other tea areas for tea lovers.