— [Yue Wang Pai] Drink tea with warmth, be a person with warmth
[Yue Wang Pai] A niche tea culture brand of famous mountains, 94 years away from becoming a century-old tea enterprise brand
Tea, through repeated rolling, reveals its essence; people, through various encounters, reveal their hearts.
The plan for a year lies in spring. In the blink of an eye, it is once again the annual spring tea season. Currently, in the four major Pu-erh tea production areas of Yunnan—namely the Yiwu tea area (encompassing the entire Six Ancient Tea Mountains), Menghai tea area, Pu’er tea area, and Lincang tea area, etc.—tea trees in some areas have already begun harvesting.
Of course, the teas currently being harvested are primarily green teas. Even before the Spring Festival, during the New Year, official information from the Pu’er tea area announced the arrival of early spring teas on the market.
Looking at the spring tea production in the same period in previous years, among the four major tea areas, the spring teas in Yiwu and Pu’er arrive earlier, followed by the Menghai, Lincang, Baoshan, and Dehong tea areas.
Based on spring tea harvesting in previous years, the earliest early spring tea to hit the market in the Yiwu area belongs to the small-tree tea from the primary forest region. In recent years, many well-known and highly reputable tea brands, when launching new spring tea products, have shared this niche tea earlier, namely the Tongqinghe small-tree tea.
In terms of quality, these small-tree teas from the Tongqinghe area are far superior to many famous mountain ancient tree teas. From a consumer perspective, many tea lovers mistakenly believe that because this small-tree tea contains the word “small,” its quality is not great. If one judges tea in such a way, their vision is narrow and their understanding is low (as the saying goes, “a wild boar cannot appreciate fine bran”).
Furthermore, from my personal understanding of niche teas in the Yiwu area, to taste Yiwu’s niche teas, one must taste the “Three Flavors of Yiwu”: namely Yiwu Botang (known as the peak of Yiwu), Yiwu Tongqinghe (known as the water demon of Yiwu), and Yiwu Tianmenshan (known as the long-legged Yiwu). The introductory niche tea of Yiwu is Wan’gong; the top-tier niche tea of Yiwu is Yiwu Wild Elephant Forest.
Of course, when discussing Yiwu niche teas, products from areas such as Yiwu Shanhuaqing, Yiwu Fenghuangwo, Yiwu Duoyishu, Yiwu Yezhujing, Yiwu Mangshejing, and Yiwu Bayijing are also quite good.
Personally, I believe that when tasting fresh spring teas, one should pursue high-quality, premium teas such as the aforementioned Yiwu Three Flavors, Yiwu Wild Elephant Forest, and Yiwu Bayijing.
Additionally, another early spring tea worth noting in the Yiwu area is the Mansong small-tree tea from the Yibang ancient tea mountain area. Speaking of Mansong tea, from what can be seen with the naked eye, almost all the tea trees are small-tree teas; however, despite appearing “small,” these small tea trees actually have an age of up to several hundred years.
Of course, the Mansong teas harvested earlier are all small-tree teas; ancient tree teas bud later. In recent years, many tea merchants have introduced fresh Mansong teas in advance, and these are almost all such early-budding Mansong tea varieties.
Additionally, although the early spring teas from the Pu’er area hit the market earlier, most products are led by green teas. The raw materials used for Pu-erh tea, namely the sun-dried Maocha, arrive on the market later.
Based on spring tea pricing information from previous years, in terms of the price ranking of tea materials across the four major tea areas, many niche teas within the Pu’er area are in the top ten, making them worthy of collection and appreciation by veteran tea drinkers. Examples include the Miji ancient tree tea (Midigong tribute tea) from the Mojiang area, Fenghuangwo, the fine-leaf tea and Baiveiqing ancient tree tea within the Kunlu Mountain Royal Tribute Tea Garden in the Ning’er area, and the Kanpenqing ancient tree tea in the Zhenyuan area.
In short, from a tea-drinking perspective, the essence of drinking tea lies in quality rather than quantity. In other words, when purchasing tea, we should consider spending more to buy good tea, rather than spending less and buying a pile of inferior teas. Regarding tea as a beverage, if one drinks one cup (7 grams) every day, the total amount consumed in a year is indeed not much (2555 grams, less than 3 kg); what should be pursued is the quality of the tea.
As a side note, although spring tea is fresh, it should not be consumed excessively. For daily tea tasting, one also needs to regularly drink older, aged teas.
Related articles and images for review
Perspectives on Spring Tea: When will “wild buds” and “wild red” ever end?
2023 Spring Tea Market Outlook: Stay steady, do not be greedy
2023 Spring Tea Market Outlook: From “The Prince of Tea Mountains” to “Unable to even eat a local chicken”
2023 Spring Tea Market Outlook: “Do not judge me with worldly eyes, for my home has ancient tea trees”
2023 Spring Tea Market Outlook: Pu-erh tea counterfeiting, new tea & old tea
2023 Spring Tea Market Outlook: A letter to all Pu-erh tea lovers
Perspectives on Spring Tea: Where is the 2023 ancient tree tea? Where has the small-tree tea gone?
Perspectives on Pu’er Tea: “Endless debates over Pu-erh tea” and salary cuts for tea enterprise employees
This article is an original production of Yue Wang Tea, first release.
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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