Xishuangbanna · Menghai · Jingmai · Lincang · Ha Giang · Shan State
Xishuangbanna · Menghai · Jingmai · Lincang
Tea doesn't grow in rows here. It grows wild and free in forests older than time.
Da Ye Zhong (大叶种) — the big leaf variety. Broad, fleshy leaves with complex chemistry, high in polyphenols and caffeine. One of the most versatile cultivars on earth: the same plant becomes white tea, green tea, red tea, raw puer, or aged dark tea depending entirely on what happens after picking.
Yue Guang Bai
White
Dian Hong
Red
Yiwu Sheng Puer
Puer, raw
Menghai Shou Puer
Dark, fermented
Same cultivar, same forests. Craft alone separates them.
Terroir
Da Ye Zhong (大叶种) — the big leaf variety. Broad, fleshy leaves with complex chemistry, high in polyphenols and caffeine. One of the most versatile cultivars on earth: the same plant becomes white tea, green tea, red tea, raw puer, or aged dark tea depending entirely on what happens after picking.
Yunnan sits on ancient geology: red laterite soil rich in minerals, at elevations from 1,200 to 2,200 metres. The specific mountain matters: Yiwu's gentle slopes give soft, honey-sweet puer. Laobanzhang's steep terrain produces forceful bitterness that transforms to sweetness. Bingdao's high limestone gives a cooling, almost icy clarity. Same cultivar, different ground.
Subtropical monsoon with distinct wet and dry seasons. Spring picking (March to April) catches the first growth after winter dormancy. Leaves are concentrated, full of stored energy. The gushu ancient trees, with roots reaching deep water tables, produce differently from young plantation bushes even in the same weather.
The defining choice: what the maker does with the fresh leaf. Wither it gently under moonlight for Yue Guang Bai. Fully oxidise and sun-dry for Dian Hong. Kill-green then sun-dry for sheng puer. Pile-ferment for shou puer. Four completely different teas from leaves picked the same morning.
Yunnan's forests also harbour rare purple-leaf varieties: Zi Juan (紫鹃), a cultivar bred from wild purple-leaf stock, and Zi Ya (紫芽), a wild arbor with naturally purple buds. Different genetics, different chemistry, found nowhere else.
DA YE ZHONG · GUSHU ANCIENT TREE
The heartland. Yunnan's ancient tea forests stretch across red laterite hillsides at 1,200 to 2,200 metres. Here the old-growth trees, some over 500 years old, are the wild ancestors of every cultivated tea on earth. Their deep roots reach mineral water tables no plantation can access.
Menghai Shou Puer
Menghai, Yunnan, China
The wet-pile fermentation method that defines shou puer was developed across Yun...
Yue Guang Bai (Moonlight White)
Jinggu, Yunnan, China
Made from Yunnan's large-leaf assamica plants using white tea processing — a rel...
Yiwu Sheng Puer (2024)
Yiwu, Yunnan, China
Yiwu was the starting point of the ancient Tea Horse Road and historically the m...
Yunnan's forests also harbour rare purple-leaf varieties: Zi Juan (紫鹃) and Zi Ya (紫芽), wild arbor trees with naturally purple buds. Different genetics, different chemistry, found nowhere else on earth.
SHA ZHONG · WILD ARBOR
Vietnam's far north. Ha Giang shares the same ancient forest belt as Yunnan, separated by the modern border but united by the same wild tea genetics. The trees here are untended descendants of wild stock, growing at elevations up to 1,400 metres among other forest species.
SHAN ARBOR · ASSAMICA
Myanmar's highland plateau, bordering Yunnan, has tea traditions stretching back centuries. Shan State's tea forests are only beginning to receive international attention. The trees are old, the craft is changing, and the teas sit in a fascinating space between Yunnan and Assam traditions.
Teas for this region coming soon