Chama CellarThese three names appear on more pu'er wrappers than any others. Each has a reputation, and the reputations are useful as long as you know what they are based on and where they stop being reliable. For the wider map, including Pu'er city and Baoshan, see where in Yunnan pu'er comes from.
Where are Menghai, Yiwu and Lincang?
They are three different kinds of place, which is worth knowing before comparing them.
- Menghai is a county in the west of Xishuangbanna, on the western side of the Lancang River. It borders Myanmar.
- Yiwu is a township in Mengla county, in the east of Xishuangbanna, on the other side of the river and close to Laos. It is far smaller than the other two.
- Lincang is a whole prefecture-level city, several counties in size, well to the north of Xishuangbanna. Pu'er city lies between them.
How do the three compare at a glance?
| Menghai | Yiwu | Lincang | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where | County, western Xishuangbanna | Township in Mengla county, eastern Xishuangbanna | Prefecture north of Xishuangbanna and Pu'er city |
| Usual description of young raw tea | Strong and thick, clear bitterness that turns sweet quickly | Soft and smooth, sweet, fragrant, low in bitterness | High aroma, pronounced sweetness, brisk, sometimes with noticeable astringency |
| Known for | Large-factory blends and ripe pu'er | Old family tea firms and one of the six famous tea mountains | Village teas, and the Mengku large-leaf tea plant |
| Sub-areas often named | Bulang, Nannuo, Bada | Mahei, Guafengzhai | Bingdao, Xigui, Mengku |
The descriptions apply mainly to young raw pu'er. Ripe pu'er and well-aged tea show their origin much less clearly.
What is Menghai tea like?
The usual words are strong, thick and bitter-then-sweet. A young raw tea from Menghai often opens with a firm bitterness that fades within a few seconds and leaves sweetness behind, an effect Chinese drinkers call hui gan (回甘).
The county is not uniform. Bulang Mountain, in the south, has the reputation for the most forceful tea. Nannuo, in the east of the county, is usually described as gentler and sweeter, with more fragrance. Bada, in the west, is often described as lighter in body, with some bitterness.
Menghai is also the centre of ripe pu'er. The county town is home to the Menghai Tea Factory, one of the state factories where the piling method for ripe tea was worked out in the 1970s, and to many other producers. "Menghai flavour" is a phrase people use for the rich, smooth, sweet character of ripe tea fermented there.
What is Yiwu tea like?
Soft, sweet and fragrant. Yiwu tea is usually described as smooth in the mouth, with little bitterness or astringency and an aroma often compared to honey or flowers. Because it is gentle when young, drinkers used to stronger tea sometimes find it thin at first. Its admirers value the texture of the liquor more than its force.
Yiwu has the longest commercial history of the three. It is on the classic list of the six famous tea mountains, and during the Qing dynasty its old street held private tea firms whose cakes travelled out by caravan. It is commonly named as a starting point of the Tea Horse Road.
Within Yiwu, Mahei is one of the best-known villages, close to the old town, and its tea is often treated as the typical Yiwu style. Guafengzhai lies further out, near the border with Laos, and is usually described as having more strength and a wilder character than the tea near the town.
What is Lincang tea like?
High aroma, obvious sweetness and a brisk, lively feel. Lincang lies further north than Xishuangbanna, and many of its gardens sit at higher altitude. Its teas are often described as brighter and more fragrant, sometimes with a stronger grip of astringency.
Mengku, a town in Shuangjiang county, is the home of the Mengku large-leaf tea plant, a variety planted widely across Yunnan. Its tea is usually described as full and fragrant. Bingdao is a village inside the Mengku area, known for a clear sweetness often likened to rock sugar. Xigui lies beside the Lancang River in Linxiang district, at lower altitude than most Lincang gardens, and is known for fragrance with a firm body.
Why are these only generalisations?
Because the region is one influence among several, and often not the largest.
- Village and garden. Each area holds dozens of villages at different altitudes with different soil. Nannuo and Bulang are both in Menghai and taste quite different.
- Tree age and farming. Leaf from old, widely spaced trees and leaf from pruned plantation bushes differ even on the same slope. See gushu and taidi pu'er.
- Processing. How hot and how long the leaf was fried, how it was rolled and how it was dried can change aroma and bitterness more than a move of fifty kilometres.
- Storage. A few years in humid storage and a few years in dry storage take the same tea in different directions. See dry and wet storage.
- Blending and labelling. Many cakes are blends from several areas. A region name on a wrapper is also hard to verify from the outside, and the more famous the name, the more caution it deserves.
How can a beginner compare them?
Change one thing at a time.
- Pick the same type and a similar age. Three young raw teas of about the same year, one from each area. Comparing a ripe Menghai cake with a raw Yiwu cake tells you about ripe and raw, not about regions.
- Buy small. Samples or small cakes are enough. You need only a few sessions of each.
- Brew them identically. Same weight of leaf, same vessel, same water, same timings. Side by side on one table is best. A gongfu-style session with short infusions shows the differences clearly.
- Note three things. How bitter the first few cups are and how quickly that passes; what the aroma is like in the empty cup; and how the mouth feels a minute after swallowing.
- Repeat with other teas. One cake cannot stand for a county. After three or four teas from each area, the general pattern, and its exceptions, will be easier to see.
