Original Title: Vine Tea understood what the “head effect” was long ago
Mannuo—a place where wild elephants might appear, a place rarely visited by many, but such places often bring unexpected surprises; because it is unknown, there is more waiting for people to explore and discover.
Many say Mannuo belongs to Pu’er, because finding it on a map of Banna is even harder than finding it on a map of Pu’er. Indeed, Mannuo is located at the northernmost part of Banna, bordering Lancang County in Pu’er; this was once a transit station on the Ancient Tea Horse Road, with travelers passing through daily. At that time, Mannuo was a vital thoroughfare, connecting Menghai and Pu’er.
From prosperity to decline
My first impression of Mannuo was that it is independent—independent of Banna, independent of Pu’er. Its tea mountain landscape and tea trees are different from the surrounding areas; it feels more like a village with its own unique system. Mannuo is quite remote, one of the ancient tea mountains furthest from Menghai County; driving there from Menghai takes nearly three hours. Upon entering Mannuo, one cannot help but marvel at its difference; its trees do not seem as lush, which does not match the typical landscape features of Banna. It almost feels like the landscape of Dali; even the climate is not clearly humid and hot, being drier than Menghai. There are tea mountains here, but they are not the kind where you see nothing but greenery at a glance; instead, you can see the branches and trunks. Deep in the mountains, yet without the typical “deep mountain” feeling—this was my and my first impression of Mannuo.
The main residents of Mannuo Village are the Blang people, said to have migrated from Myanmar or Ruili hundreds of years ago. Some Han residents migrated from Pu’er and Lancang during the Republican period. Historically, this was an ancient route leading from Menghai to Lancang. During the prosperous era of the tea industry, it enjoyed glory thanks to its transportation advantages. The village has Buddhist temples, and during Buddhist celebrations, people would come from all directions to participate. After the founding of New China, the implementation of a planned economy meant that much of the tea from ancient gardens, including Mannuo, could not be exported and was only for local consumption. Coupled with the rerouting of roads from Menghai toward Lancang, two major favorable factors for Mannuo’s development vanished, leading to its decline; even the temples were demolished due to an inability to maintain them.
Geographically, Mannuo is in a mountainous area, yet it gives the impression of a basin. Where does this feeling come from? It is primarily reflected in the tea gardens. In Menghai, the tea mountains are almost like primary forests; as far as the eye can see, there is only greenery, with houses hidden within the lushness, creating an atmosphere of “only in these mountains, where the clouds are deep, one knows not where.” In contrast, the impression Mannuo gives is: “After walking dozens of steps, the view suddenly opens up. The land is vast and level, and the houses are neatly arranged”—a sense of sudden openness in the heart of the deep mountains. Speaking of this transparent and open feeling, one must mention the Vine Tea of Mannuo.
What is Vine Tea?
In Mannuo, one can see a type of tea tree different from other tea mountains. The main trunks and branches of these trees are exposed and visible; on the branches grow dozens or even hundreds of thin, soft, and long fine vines. The lower parts of these thin vines are also bare of leaves, with only a few tender buds and young leaves at the tips. The entire tree possesses an elegant, willow-like posture. Because the branches look like vines, it is called Vine Tea.
Vine Tea is the result of long-term picking and management; it is the crystallization of diligence and wisdom. In Chen Zongmao’s Dictionary of Chinese Tea Industry, this cultivation method is introduced as “leaving the top to nurture the label,” which means: except for the new shoots at the tips of the branches, all buds and young leaves on all lateral branches are picked clean. This manual harvesting method can promote the height of the tea tree, but it results in very few branches. Most new shoots are harvested when they are nearly mature, meaning there are fewer picking cycles, and the harvested new shoots are relatively plump.
Previously, I had heard that the production areas for Vine Tea were primarily: Jinggu County in the Pu’er tea region, Taihe Township in Zhenyuan County, Dongban Shan in Mengku, Lincang; Bangdong Township in Xigui; and Yongde County. However, in the Banna tea region, Mannuo, Dingjiazhai, and Zhangjiawan are actually representative production areas for Vine Tea.
Vine Tea—
A witness to ethnic migration and integration
Looking at the distribution of Vine Tea, Yiwu’s Dingjiazhai is inhabited by Han people, and in Mengku’s Dongban Shan, Han people are also the majority; it is not difficult to infer that the maintenance pattern of Vine Tea was brought in by Han people. Its emergence is a well-documented witness to ethnic migration and integration, as well as a product of the high degree of commercialization of Yunnan tea.
Its prototype may have appeared as early as the Ming Dynasty or earlier, matured during the Qing Dynasty, and was widely promoted during the late Qing and Republican periods. During the Xianfeng and Guangxu reigns of the Qing Dynasty, a large-scale Sinicization wave swept through Shuangjiang, an old tea region in Yunnan. A large number of Han people from places like Linxiang, Fengqing, and Yunxian settled in Shuangjiang, bringing advanced farming techniques that upgraded and transformed the local primitive and extensive tea industry. This included learning the advanced Vine Tea cultivation method, which caused Vine Tea gardens to spread across both sides of the middle reaches of the Lancang River, including Shuangjiang, Yongde, Linxiang, Jinggu, Zhenyuan, Jingdong, and Lancang. There is also a theory that the prototype of Vine Tea originated in Jingdong, then through centuries of continuous summary and improvement, its cultivation method finally matured in Shuangjiang before spreading to both sides of the middle reaches of the Lancang River.
In the Mengku East and West mountains where Han people are the majority, the tea trees in the old gardens are almost all cultivated in a vine-like manner, with large-scale Vine Tea gardens. Before the Han people migrated to Bano (Mannuo), the Lahu people had already been living here and had been growing tea in Bologna for a long time. Bano preserves a very large and old area of man-made ancient tea trees; the circumference of the largest tree exceeds 140 cm. The Han villagers of Bano all recognize that the large tea forest was planted by the Lahu people before the Han arrived. However, the arrival of the Han also brought new tea garden maintenance models and continued this pattern to the present day.
It is the same in Yiwu’s Dingjiazhai. Old Dingjiazhai is near the border between China and Laos; the Han people, who had mastered mature farming skills, fled to this desolate place, simultaneously bringing intensive agricultural skills, of which Vine Tea is one.
Mannuo is divided into Dazhai, Shangzhai, and Zhongzhai. Among them, Xiazhai is primarily inhabited by Blang people, while Dazhai and Zhongzhai are primarily Han, who migrated from Pu’er and Lancang during the Republican period. From this, one can surmise that the Vine Tea maintenance technology of Mannuo was brought to Mannuo by the Han from Pu’er at this time.
High labor costs for maintenance
Previously, Vine Tea was planted on a large scale in Yunnan; however, today, the area planted with Vine Tea is not much, and it is even unfamiliar to many people. The primary reason for this phenomenon is that the manual maintenance cost of Vine and Tea is too high. Li Zhirong, a tea farmer from Mannuo, says: hiring workers for tea picking normally costs 150 yuan/day, but in Mannuo, you have to pay 200 yuan/day or even more.
One worker can pick about ten kilograms of fresh leaves per day, and generally, about three to five kilograms of fresh leaves can be made into one kilogram of raw tea. Calculating it this way, the labor cost for one kilogram of raw tea is 15 to 25 yuan higher. Looking at the cost of a single kilogram might not intuitively show how high this cost is, but if expanded to one hundred kilograms, it would be 1,500 to 2,500 yuan higher; if expanded to one ton, it would be 15,000 to 25,000 yuan higher. This data more intuitively demonstrates the labor cost of Vine Tea maintenance.
Such high maintenance costs have caused many places to abandon this planting model for Vine Tea, leaving fewer and fewer Vine Tea production areas.
Viewing Vine Tea through the lens of the “head effect” in commerce
Singles’ Day has just passed; this year’s Singles’ Day transaction volume was 268.4 billion RMB, an increase of 25.7% over last year. However, some Taobao shop owners say that sales are declining year after year. Why is this happening? This must be explained by the “head effect.” Currently, the Taobao market is mature, with major domestic and international brands in place; official traffic resources are tilted toward top merchants, with these top merchants driving the entire market.
So, what are the advantages of being at the “top”? First, the returns for those at the preeminent position are higher. Within a system, the attention attracted by the leading brand accounts for about 40%, the second place accounts for 20%, the third place accounts for 7% to 10%, and everyone else shares the remaining 30%. Being at the top brings more attention and personal brand influence, all of which increase your premium and bring higher returns. Second, the acceleration for those at the top is faster. Once you become the leader of a certain system, the system begins to generate positive feedback; small advantages bring more fame and more opportunities, leading to even higher returns. This allows you to invest more resources to continue expanding your advantage, resulting in the leaders achieving the highest growth rates.
In biology, “apical dominance” can correspond to the “head effect.” Like humans, plants are composed of eukaryotic cells and their genetic genes are determined by DNA; therefore, genes are complex and variable, and plant development also moves toward increasingly advanced directions, so many aspects are similar to humans. So, what is apical dominance? During the growth and development process of a plant, there is a close relationship between the terminal bud and the lateral buds. When the terminal bud grows vigorously, it inhibits the growth of lateral buds. If, for some reason, the lateral buds stop growing, the terminal bud will grow rapidly. This phenomenon where the terminal bud takes precedence in growth and inhibits lateral bud development is called “apical dominance.”
Returning to Vine Tea, the principle is the same: by picking all the buds and leaves of the lateral branches clean, the remaining fresh leaves will develop and grow rapidly; during the next harvest, two buds will be produced, thus doubling the yield. Decaying branches must be pruned to reduce their consumption of nutrients, which also aids in ventilation and increases sunlight exposure, making the tree healthier. Every petiole has a hidden bud; the nutrients produced by large leaves (old leaves) are supplied to this bud, most of which are flower and fruit buds. Clearing these hidden buds means clearing the opportunity for flower and fruit buds to sprout. This ensures that nutrients can be fully supplied to the remaining leaves and new buds, allowing the yield to increase and returns to be higher.
Vine Tea has a more uplifted aroma
During the picking process of Vine Tea, all the buds and leaves of the lateral branches are picked clean, and these picked buds and highly nutritious leaves remain at the base of the tea tree in the form of fallen leaves, becoming nutrients to nourish the tea tree, just as Gong Zizhen’s poem says: “Turning into spring mud to further protect the flowers.” With sufficient nourishment, the fresh leaves of Vine Tea grow more rapidly and robustly, and the resulting tea has a fuller and richer aroma and taste.
Why is the aroma more rich and full? The aroma of tea mainly comes from compounds such as alcohols, aldehydes, and lipids in the tea, and these compounds are formed through the deacidification and oxidative deamination of amino acids. The structure of an amino acid consists of one amino group (NH2), one carboxyl group (COOH), one hydrogen (H), and one R-group all connected to the same central C atom. From the structure of amino acids, it is not difficult to see that nitrogen is an essential element for their composition; during the decomposition process around the base of the tree, large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus are released, which allows amino acids to accumulate, thereby making aldehyde substances more abundant and the aroma more uplifted.
In addition to Vine Tea, Mannuo’s ecological environment is also worth mentioning; its ecology once suffered severe damage. After the implementation of the unified purchase and marketing system in 1949, the status of Mannuo tea declined, and many ancient trees were cut down to be replanted with food crops, causing significant losses to ancient tree tea.
Why does the cutting of ancient trees lead to environmental destruction? Even if there are insects in an ancient tea garden, they often do not affect the tea trees because an ecosystem is an extremely scientific cycle; where there are ancient trees, there will naturally be weeds, and weeds will bring insects, but birds live in these trees and can eliminate large amounts of insects, forming an entire cycle. Thus, even if there are insects, it does not cause much impact on the ancient tea garden. However, the massive cutting of ancient trees leads to the destruction of the original habitats of birds; as birds migrate away in large numbers, insects lose their natural enemies, and since insect reproduction is extremely rapid, the entire system suffers damage. Today, Mannuo is left with only about 2,500 mu of ancient tea gardens, but due to subsequent management and maintenance, the quality of the tea remains very good.
Mannuo is a special existence; it has gone from prosperity to decline, and then revived again after its decline. Many historical factors cannot be deeply investigated, but humans must ultimately keep moving forward. On the path of progress, many traditions will slowly be forgotten or abandoned; although Mannuo remains unknown to many, they still steadfastly uphold traditional skills on their journey forward.
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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