Lunch bags lovingly packed with 25 grams of loose, ancient tree raw pu'er from various choice terrains await.

(Each set offers a discounted way to experience these teas VS buying them individually.)

Cake tea is totally great and all, but sometimes you just want the immediacy and brewability of some loose, spindly mao cha to toss in a gaiwan to play around with.  Meaning 'unfinished' tea (because 'finishing' its processing means pressing it), 毛茶 mao cha is the most commonly encountered tea in the tea mountains when visiting with farmers.  For those nostalgic for those high mountain tea jungle villages, drinking the year-of fresh stuff loose is the quickest way to feel right back on that field trip bus.

What's on the lunch menu

To start: all five teas from the Five Banzhang Villages.  This is the central theme of this year's field trip. Patiently and carefully establishing trusting connections from all five villages has rightfully taken a good number of years; this is no impetuous debut.

The 班章五寨 Banzhang Wu Zhai "Five Banzhang Villages" in southern Menghai county are:

LAO BANZHANG  |  The legendary King of Pu'er.  Select large trees estimated to be between 3 and 500 years in the backyard of the Yang family's mansion comprise this batch.  Lao Banzhang is said to contain a potent cocktail of the following: huge Banzhang flavor framed in an electric texture/mouthfeel, immediate and long-lasting huigan, bitterness transforming into sweetness, penetrating energy that will get you sweating.  Does the tea back up the hype or is it all marketing?  I highly recommend everyone trying it out to decide for themselves.

XIN BANZHANG  |  This Xin Banzhang comes from Da Cheng, one of MuMu's friends (MuMu is our long time friend Da E of Nannuoshan's son).  Da Cheng's family has a 30 year contract with the government for a Guoyoulin tract northeast of town, between Xin Banzhang and LBZ.  The trees are old there, and more importantly are in a pristine, healthy, and diverse ecology.  Classic Banzhang flavor is bold with a looser mouthfeel structure than the other villages.  The processing is greener, but not quite as green as Banpen.  A surprisingly different take on the Banzhang experience.

BAKANAN  |  Friends familiar with Bakanan from years' past will appreciate this mao cha iteration.  Locals like to claim Bakanan as the most similar to the balanced EQ of Lao Banzhang tea, just not as loud and domineering; "LBZ Jr".  I find the aroma and taste to be a bit sweeter.  Ancient trees from Da Hei Shan, a Guoyoulin state-owned forest area just north of town produced this tea.  Wok treatment is standard, producing tea that's bright and lively but not completely greened.

BAKALONG  |  Lahu friends in Bakanan have relatives westward, just down the road in Bakalong.  While the Dayi (TAETEA in the West) Tea Factory has operates hundreds of acres of plantation tea all around Bakalong, there are just a handful of ancient tree garden tracts left.  This family's Bakalong ancient tree tea gives us the most affordable take on the highly sought after Banzhang taste.  Bright, vegetal, meaty, and thick.

LAO MAN'E  |  The so-called Laphroaig of Pu'er, the powerful, bitter perfumous funk profile produced by the most southerly of the banzhang villages must be experienced.  While there are iterations that are total bitter palate-slayers, this one is from a high elevation wilderness area managed by Wen Kan and family, producing a classy and exceptionally well-balanced Lao Man'e.  This tea was offered in cake form last year.

Bonus: "Poor man's LBZ" BAN PEN, technically the closest village to Lao Banzhang out of the lot but for some reason classified administratively as a Hekai village.  After carrying a Ban Pen in 2021 and 2022, this tea is back with some slight changes.  This one's processing is quite "green" — the greenest of the lot, carrying a bright + fragrant profile, produced by trendy high heat wok treatment that thoroughly denatures enzymes that would typically remain active to then later oxidize and mellow.  Just like you get to decide if the hype is worth it by trying out LBZ, you might also want to see if all the bad press on greener pu is warranted.

so can we pretty much call them the Banzhang six villages?

Around the time these six teas above were getting queued up, I thought why not throw in some other leaves from choice areas to this set...

LUO SHUI DONG  |  It must have been 3 or 4 years since tea from Luo Shui Dong, a revered core village of Yiwu Mountain, has been in the shop.  The He family of Yiwu were founding members of their cooperative that manages tea resources from select gardens of ancient trees in Luo Shui Dong.  Elegant and classy.

ZHANGJIAWAN |  The He family "Fire Garden" tea from Laos border wilderness region Zhangjiawan is a classic.  Thick trunked trees razed to the ground sometime in the last 100 years have sprouted back in long spindly boughs producing gorgeous tea.  Read more about the Fire Garden on its tea page.

BAMA WILDERNESS  |  A coveted micro terroir of Nannuo Mountain, between the Nannuo villages and Pasha, Bama Zhengshan came back into the possession of Da E and her two sons after her deceased ex husband's most recent wife remarried.  Learn more about this story in this youtube video.  At this time there are just 28 families that have rights to these handful of tracts of this rugged remote area.  Bama tea can easily fetch 3-4 times the price of standard Nannuo Gushu.