Spring 2018 Ba Nuo

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Old tea garden leaves from Ba Nuo Village, Mengku, Lincang.
2018 early Spring harvest
Pressed by Hui Rui Lan Xin tea factory
400g pu-erh tea cake

Ba Nuo is located on the eastern mountain range, its tea gardens grow between 1800 and 2100m, which is very high by Yunnan standards. The colder temperatures at these altitudes allow for a slower leaf development and gives particularly aromatic tea.

Hui Rui Lan Xin is a medium-sized tea factory based in Mengku. It has tea processing units in several villages of Mengku area where the fresh leaves are collected. The teas are then blended and pressed in their main factory in Mengku.

This is ‘Teng Tiao’ tea, a picking strategy for which Ba Nuo village is famous. It consists in harvesting all of the leaves growing on the sides of the branches, while leaving all of the apical flushes on the tree. As a result, the branches connected to the trunk will grow very long and won’t have any tertiary separations. This picking strategy is employed in several villages of Mengku and Jinggu. The branches lengthen over the years and become curled, they can be kept at a low height, which allows the pickers to harvest the big trees without having to climb on them. Compared to the conventional management technique, Teng Tiao picking produces a lower yield, which is likely to improve the quality of tea. This technique was probably adopted because such trees don’t need to be properly pruned. The occasional auxiliary branches are taken out during the picking.

This tea packs a good punch, it is straightforward and delivers a complex high-pitched fragrance and medium bitterness early in the session. The mouthfeel is medium-light and the Huigan is quite strong. The tea gets sweeter and the bitterness is toned down in the later infusions, astringency is present towards the end of the session. A very interesting tea if you want to explore Mengku’s eastern edge.