Nannuo mountain is a famous tea mountain in southern Yunnan. And we heard that there are some really old tea tree groves around here. One of them is famous because it was planted over a 1000 years ago. This is not the oldest tea tree in the region. This tree is special because this is the oldest planted tea tree.
We left the city Jing Hong after lunch, drove west towards MengHai. Nannuo mountain is on the way. But somehow we made a wrong turn and took the old road. We heard the road to MengHai is okay. But the road is pretty bad. We drove under 20km/h until we saw a big high way under a bridge we were on in the middle of nowhere. Strange to see a highway in the jungle. So we started to ask people directions and figured out that we went on the old road. But we had already arrived at Nannuo mountain, and it was a nice day for a drive. A good thing in Yunnan is that the day gets dark late just like my hometown Qinghai. So we are not too worried about the time.
Soon there is no highway anyway. There is only one road climbing up Nannuo mountain. Sometimes dirt, sometimes rock, sometimes a one lane concrete road that drops off abruptly. The road is so narrow we honk on the corners so other cars hear us; a truck even backs up once for us. We don’t know what we’ll find, and because the road is paved toward the end, I think it might be a big tea company who fixed the road so they can bring tea out easier. But then the paving stops at a gate to a village with primitive carvings of a man and a woman. We drive on, getting higher and the road getting worse. We ask people we pass on the road they all wave us on. We pass some small villages, a sign for a big tea factory. Along the road we see some signs saying protect old tea trees, don’t use herbicide on the grass. We have heard Yunnan old teas are more healthy because they often grows at dangous places. People can’t get there very easily. To pick these trees people need to climb up or use a ladder or even scafolding to get the tea leaves. It’s hard for famers to put chemicals on these trees. Also younger people all want to find a job in the city so not many people are left in these mountain areas taking care of the tea trees. So often just a little way past the highway, there are village farms full of older people who don’t really take care of the tea trees but just let them grow wild. This is what we look for. Across the valley we can see some tea terraces planted by humans, very neat rows covering a swath of the hill. But most of the foot-hills here are covered with different type of trees and vines and plants. A snake crosses the road and I wonder if it is poisonous.
We were almost on top of the mountain when we saw a small family. An old man was working on the muddy road by his door, and a young woman was picking dry leaves from a big flat basket. We said hi to them ask for the direction to the old tea tree. The woman is more shy than the man. The man told us we missed the turn. It’s actually a two kilometer walk off the road. We need to turn around and drive back to the last branch road, where we saw the totems of a man and a woman. We looked at the sun and he asked us to come in and drink a little tea. We said thank you to them and turned round. My husband said if they ask us again, he will stop and have a cup of their tea. As we pass a young man peeks out and waves, calls simply, tea. I laugh. The old man smiles and waves us onto the grass. After we stop the young man comes out and asked us again to have a cup of tea, then hike to see the tree. Well, we didn’t see the tree. We stopped and went in and ended up picking and frying and rolling tea with them. This was a wise decision.
We drank some tea picked three days before, and it was bright and light and pretty good, if not great. The first of this year, they said. Perhaps noticing our glances at each other, they said if the tea didn’t taste so good yet, if it was kept for few days it will get better. Perhaps the tea is too new. After all this is one of the higher mountains around known for some of the great old teas. Just a little way farther south is the dragon lake and the infamous Lao Ban Zhang old tea groves. There is a lot of forest taste in this tea. They made us another tea from 2007, a better year for tea, the old man says. It has some rice or popcorn smell. We have had those rice teas before, and some teas naturally have a rice smell. But in this one the rice taste is too strong. They tell me that they actually put a little spice they grow in it to make the tea smell a little like cooked rice. Points for honesty. The young man said these teas were made by their hands, and he wanted to show us where they made the tea and how they made the tea. We decided their tea was okay, and they were honest and friendly - these are good qualifications for teaching. So it began.
We followed him inside. They had big frames like bunk beds full of fresh tea leaves. These leaves they picked this morning and would soon start cooking. Back in the yard they had a small room with three giant iron woks in it. Those woks are where they cook the tea to remove water and soften the leaves. They said if we can stay here longer they can show us how to make Shai Qing Mao Cha tea from beginning to end. This is also called fixing the tea, and it is the first step to making any puer. Usually farmers are a bit secretive about how they do this, so... Off course we’d like to see that!
We went outside to the back of the building with woks in it. The young man got some grass and bamboo and lit a fire in a small oven under the woks. We got some tea leaves from the frames inside and carried them with a basket, dumping about about 4 kg into the wok. The temperature was about 75 degree centigrade. And the leaves popped and hissed. The young man put a towel around his neck to stop his sweat from falling down into the wok. He put on gloves so he could toss the leaves, touching the hot metal. There is a wonderful smell. He spins and tosses and works the leaves into a ball. After about ten minutes the leaves are dark and soft as dough. He puts them on a flat basket passed to his wife who sits behind him. She rubs and rolls the leaves with her hands as he goes to get another basket of leaves. After maybe 10 minutes her leaves look like small ropes and she stops and put them in a basket, tosses them loosely onto the inside frames again so that no leaves stick to each other. The tea leaves lie lightly piled overnight. Next morning they are put outside under the sun. If it rains, the leaves are still places outside under a plastic sheet until the sun comes or the leaves must be thrown out. After a whole day under the sun, the tea leaves will be dry. These they will sort, and pick the yellow big leaves out and use them to make a type of puer called lao huang pian. (Later I will write about the lao huang pian.) What is left that called shai qing mao cha. They can sell them to the market as sheng puer now. Or they can bring them to a factory that makes a brick or beeng with them. They will likely sell the tea at the kind of market we saw in Simao.
The young man told us only big factory can make shou puer. Small factory doesn’t have enough sha qing mao cha to make them ferment. Big factories put thousands kilograms shai qing mao cha together set them in a certain temperature and certain moisture for more than a month let them ferment to make shou puer. This is not a simple process and often it goes wrong.
This is the most busy season in a year and now is the most busy time in the day. As afternoon wanes and night falls the fresh tea leaves all need to be cooked. They can’t sit on the frame too long. And the tea dried by the sun needs get back inside before the dew falls. Farmers arrive on motorcycles or bikes with sacks of fresh tea leaves and negotiate a price for cooking it. A number of those who bring fresh leaves claim they are from old tea trees, and the young man and his father must carefully evaluate what they buy, and what they pick to cook with the limited time they have. We feel like we need to leave let them working, and we tell them we will come back and walk to that ancient planted tea tree. They were so welcoming we buy a little of this year’s new tea to bring home and see if it in fact gets better. They gave me some of the leaves I cooked and rolled myself. I need to let the sun burn them tomorrow to make my own tea. The old man tell us some story about the old tea trees and chat with us a little. We will come back and spend a more time with them.
On our way back we check the altitude: 1740 meters. We pass by the little towns and the tea factory where farmers are hurrying to in with huge bags of tea leaves to deliver them before the end of the day. Teas are being cooked and laid out in the last of the sun. The smell in the air is wonderful. We would like to hike in the mountains for an hour now, but soon it will be dark, and these roads make us feel we don’t have time to do that today. The blue sky and white clouds are closer to us and the sun is golden through the tall trees. We will see that old thousand year old tea tree and get something of the spirit from it one day.
Here's a video on making shai qing mao cha - the first step in curing puer tea.
