Bannablog

Here is a map I've made this morning. It represents the Mengku area with the main tea villages. As you can see, there are two main mountains: Xi Ban Shan in the west and Dong Ban Shan in the east. The top of Xi Ban Shan is known as Da Xue Shan (big snow mountain) because of its high altitude (it peaks at 3233m), there is another Daxueshan in the North West of this area, they should not be confused.

The most famous village in Mengku area is Bingdao, in the North. It is famous for its high fragrance and power, actually, Mengku has much more to offer, each village has its own characteristics. Bingdao tea is very high priced while most of the other villages are cheaper than Xishuangbanna tea.

I have never made it to Mengku, but I intend to go there soon, I have heard only good from that place. It is said the environment is much better preserved than in Xishuangbanna, the plantations are less intensive and very old tea trees stand in the fields. Let's see!

Here is a map of Yongde area, in the West of Lincang County, Yunnan.

The main tea villages are indicated on the map, following is a list with more information.

village name altitude size of the tea gardens age of the tea gardens

Manlai (Daxueshan): 2100 m 400 000 wild tea trees thousands years old

Banka Xiang 班卡乡: 2000m 50 ha 100 years old

Mangfei 芒肥: 1500m 64 ha 80 years old

Tuanshu 团树 : 2000m 100 ha 60 years old

Yuhua 玉华: 1900m 150 ha 70 years old

Pingzhang 平掌: 2000m 50 ha 60 years old

Mingfeng Shan 鸣凤山: 1900m 50 ha 90 years old

Meiziqing 梅子清: 2000m 105 ha 100 years old

Mugua Zhai 木瓜寨: 1500m 50 ha 80 years old

Dika 底卡: 1700m 50 ha 100 years old

Wujia Zhai 武家寨: 2000m 50 ha 100 years old

As you can notice, the quantity and age of the tea gardens is not super impressive, maybe this is one of the reasons why Yongde is a bit neglected. Good for the amateur! Yongde Cha features lower prices than other areas and has its load of hidden gems.

This beautiful friend loves to hike on the tea trees. I met him on the hills of Xishuangbanna, at 1200m of altitude. He doesn't talk a lot, but he likes the Camellia Sinensis too. He is a tea friend in some way. Do you think this 'teamate' has a positive impact on the health of the trees, or is it considered as a pest?

I have spent a large part of summer in the tea mountains of Xishuangbanna. Part of a tea farmer's life is filled by tea picking, I tried it for a week, while a friend and I were trying different black tea processing. We had to harvest those nice natural tea gardens, formerly conventional plantations (Taidi Cha 台地茶).

On Jingmai mountain, it has been decided to prohibit the use of insecticide and chemical fertilizer, and restrict the use of herbicide. In order to avoid massive pest invasion, the number of tea trees per hectare must be severely reduced (four trees out of five have been cut), the tea trees are now at least two meters far from each other. Shade trees are to be planted in order to host natural predators and improve the tea quality.

The locals can pick tea at lighting speed, according to them, it takes one month of training to reach the right pace. My picking speed was slow and, at the end of the day, my bag was very light compared to theirs. I find pretty hard to see the buds on the tea tree, that's why i couldn't pick the tea faster, I had to look at the tree, pick a few buds and leaves, and look again.

one bud one leaf

The experienced picker can do both at the same time and use two hands to pick, it sounds easy but it's not, because if you press to hard on the branches, they will swing and it will be impossible to get all the buds very quickly. Picking tea is harder than expected, especially when there is no picking table at the top of the tree. I understand now, why it takes so much time to harvest the ancient tea gardens: the ground is steep, the trees are scattered and you have to climb on some of the trees.

In Jingmai mountain, there are two main species of trees: big leaf varietal and small-medium leaf. In reality, there is an important variation between the leaf shape of each tea tree. On some trees, they are round shaped, on others, they are longer and narrower, shaped like a boat. This explains the large diversity of leaves in the cakes, and it does not necessarily reveals a blended cake.

I was very happy to hike in the tea mountains again, and i learned a lot of new things about tea agriculture. I am a happy man forever!

a happy man!

There are two ways to deal with animals in tea plantations. Either we consider them as enemies and we try to avoid them as much as possible, either we accept them in the plantation, and try to cope with them. There are many different species present in a tea ecosystem, generally, we can separate them into three camps: pest, predators and neutral. If, like in Jingmai mountain, insecticides cannot be sprayed, the insect will have a large influence on yield. The tea farmers must then find strategies to attract predators and repulse pest. There is a lot to research about it, the 21st century will hopefully be the time when ecologists and agronomists meet together and start to talk.

On my first visit, Lao Man E impressed me very much, even though it is a very famous place now, it feels so remote. Maybe I got that feeling because Lao Man E is only surrounded by ancient tea gardens, pagodas and temples. You cannot see anything else when in Lao Man E, you don't feel like at the top of a mountain. From Nannuo Shan, you can see the two major cities of Xishuangbanna, from Jingmai, you can contemplate the large paddy fields in the plains, you get a grasp of civilization. But in Lao Man E, there is only tea and meditation.

Lao Man E in the morning

Old people pray all day, and sleep in an annex of the temple

They go back home on the second day

Tea is all around the village

Ancient tea forest

In these hills, there are wild tea trees... and big snakes!

Buddhism is omnipresent in Bulang Shan

Natural tea gardens

Bamboo is used extensively in Xishuangbanna

Ancient tea gardens are all around, the Han culture is so far away, Lao Man E is the center of Bulang culture, it doesn't feel like China at all. I have always been fascinated by Bulang Shan, this is a mystic place, there are always weird things happening there. Bulang Shan tea is like Burgundy wine, it has a strong character, it can be very good or very bad, sometimes, it gives a hard time to our stomach, sometimes, it brings our throat to nirvana. This area is so peculiar.

you can consult an article about Lao Man E on my website: click here

This article is only a guideline, it is important to remember that the best tea is the tea that you like. Pu-erh tea has a rich taste and offers a large variety of profiles because there has been no standard in how it should taste like. Yet, it can be useful to know what to notice in a cup of tea. While reading, please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list, it is only the most common comments one can hear here and there while drinking tea in China.

Nose

The flavor (Xiang Wei 香味) is an important part of tea quality, first, you can smell the dry leaves. In order to fully release their aroma, you can heat them up with steam, either by putting them at the tip of the kettle, either by smelling them in the pre-heated gaiwan/teapot. After the washing (the first brew), the damp and warm leaves will release different fragrances, it can be enjoyable to smell the leaves in the gaiwan at different steps of the tea session.

The empty cup of tea is another point of interest, the hot tea liquor on the cup walls slowly evaporates and great scents can be noticed, those smells evolve as the aromatic compounds evaporate, it can be worthwhile to smell your empty cup regularly.

Finally, the tea liquor itself is full of fragrances, you can notice them better if you only pour your cup halfway. Nonetheless, the best way to enjoy those scents is to drink up the tea and use retro-olfaction, which means you breath air out through your nose while keeping your mouth shut, the air coming from the lungs will be full of tea aroma and you will perceive more complex flavours than by simply smelling tea in the cup.

Aroma is very volatile, it can change very quickly and is somewhat hard to describe. Yet, you will notice that some Pu-erh teas are more aromatic than others: Mengku, Nannuo, Mengsong and Jingmai are examples of highly fragrant teas, bursting in your mouth. Yiwu and Bulang teas have typically more contained aromas, it does not mean they lack of complexity but they have a different way to spread, they don't give everything in the first cup.

The aroma of a tea depends a lot on its processing and aging, it is up to the tea farmer to build a complex tea fragrance by adjusting the heaviness of Sha Qing and rolling process to the right degree. Aged tea fragrance is mostly built up by the storage environment. A common chinese saying tell: ''the more aged, the more fragrant 越陈越香''. In reality, it mostly depends on the aging conditions of the tea.

Mouth

What makes Pu-erh so different from other teas is its complexity in the mouth feeling. Let's call it with the chinese word: Kou Gan 口感.

Pu-erh tea flavor has sweetness, bitterness and astringency.

a) Bitterness (Ku Wei 苦味)

There are three kinds of bitterness:

-Lingering bitterness: it feels a bit puckery and is very present in some Bulang tea, especially those from the varietal called ''Ku Cha 苦茶''.

-Bitterness that transforms into astringency, it is often associated with young tea trees.

-Bitterness which transforms into sweetness, it is characteristic of old trees in several areas (Lao Man E, Banzhang, Jingmai...), this last one is often the most praised of the bitterness.

In a tea cup, those three kinds of bitterness are mixed, it is rare to find bitterness that only transforms into astringency or sweetness. The duration of bitterness is also a quality criteria, most amateurs prefer bitterness that transforms quickly. For example, bitterness in Lao Banzhang tea should transform faster than in Lao Man E tea, this is considered as a major difference between those two villages' tea taste.

b) Astringency (Se Wei 涩味)

This is the feeling of having a rough tongue, as astringency deploys, the taste buds contract and it can feel a bit itchy. You can especially feel astringency when you touch your palate with your tongue. Astringency on the tongue is present to different extents on each tea. It is often heavier in young trees tea and in some aged teas.

Astringency can also be felt on the skin touching the upper teeth, it feels like the lips are hard to detach from the teeth. This kind of astringency is often found in plantation tea but is less common in old-growth tea.

The Chinese tea amateurs tend to regroup bitterness and astringency under the term Ku Se Wei 苦涩味, this term is used to describe the general aggresiveness of tea.

c) Sweetness (Tian Wei甜味)is somewhat hard to describe, it is often what remains in the mouth after you have swallowed the liquor, it deploys on the sides and on the upper part of the mouth, when sweetness deploys into the mouth, it can feel as if the skin slighlty expanded.

Throat

In many high quality Pu-erh teas, a pleasant sweetness can be felt in the throat, it is called Hui Gan 回甘. Deep and lingering Huigan are unique to old trees tea, this refreshing feeling can remain for a long time after drinking. Bulang Shan tea feature very nice Huigan, this is maybe what makes Lao Banzhang tea so famous.

Body

If you pay attention, you can notice a lot of things happening in your body while drinking Pu-erh tea. This feeling can be called Chaqi 茶气, it varies according to the people and it seems not everybody does perceive it. Good tea can make you feel good, just like being drunk but without the negative effects. When drinking tea from old trees, one can feel more concentrated, relaxed and energized. If you drink too much Pu-erh tea, you can feel tea drunk or Cha Zui 茶醉 in Chinese.

''I feel this article is largely incomplete, if you have things to add, you are welcome to post a comment!''

On my trips in Xishuangbanna, I came across a large variety of crops, from family gardens to industrial bananas, there is a lot to see in Southern Yunnan. In the surroundings of Jingmai mountain, an interesting field caught my eye:

One row of rubber trees (hevea brasiliensis) inter-cropped with four rows of tea trees (Camellia Sinensis var Assamica). This kind of setting contrasts with the usual vast mono-cultures.

According to several papers (here, here and here), inter-cropping rubber with tea would be advantageous on several aspects such as:

-increased carbon sequestration, leading to a richer soil on the long term.

-reduced run-off and soil erosion, rubber trees are infamously known in Yunnan for affecting the local climate, it is indirectly related to water retention capacity. Rubber tree tends to make the soil impermeable, during heavy rain, water will tend to flow down the slope instead of binding to the soil.

-increased revenues because of a more efficient usage of the field, if you wanted to have the same amount of rubber trees and tea trees in mono-culture, you would need more ground.

-increased stability because the price of rubber and tea leaves are not related.

Are we going to see rubber trees growing around Mahei, Lao Banzhang or Banpo Laozhai? Probably not, because the studies undertaken were aiming at lowland fields. As altitude increase, the price of tea increases and the yield of rubber trees decreases, hence, it would probably not be economical for the famous tea mountains to choose rubber trees as inter-crops.

However, many tea gardens require shade trees and natural tea gardens have room for other crops to be planted, maybe in the future, we could see a more advanced management of tea gardens, using nitrogen fixing plants to increase the soil nutrients and using specific predator hosts in order to keep pest away.

There is a lot of research being done on inter-cropping and tea, rubber, cocoa, coffee, banana, palm oil and other long term crops will be the first beneficiaries of these advancements. Because of the expected population increase (10 billion people in 2050), mankind must launch a ''doubly green revolution'' which implies a production increase as well as a reduction of the environmental impact. Let us hope there will be enough tea for everybody!

Google Earth is a great tool, I often find myself travelling through it. I love to see how the places I've been to look like from space. Jingmai mountain was very well shot, with a clear sky and good light.

Here is the picture I want to share with you:

On this picture, you can clearly see the difference of landscapes between conventional plantations (on the left side), ancient tea gardens (at the top) and secondary rain forest (at the bottom). The village you can see is Jingmai Da Zhai (''Jingmai big village''). The road goes on the left side to Mangjing: the Bulang area of Jingmai.

The white little dots in the plantation fields are actually small huts where the tea pickers can have a rest and gather the leaves.

These photos were shot in 2010, at this time, the tea trees density was high but since then, the field has been converted into natural tea gardens, with a density such as you can see in the foreground of the second picture, I will cover this subject in a future article.

Along the main road

Inside the ancient tea forest

The ancient tea trees are rarely located in a dense forest, the trees need light and room to grow and it must be easy to move around and harvest the trees. Ancient tea gardens are also managed to a certain extent, they form a different landscape from primary forest.

I have seen very few tea trees growing in a totally untouched environment, i can remember of a few places near the village of Mengsong, in Bulang Shan, and remote parts of Yiwu mountain.

When I started my tea journey, I thought the better the environment, the better the quality; now, I have found out reality is much more complex. Managing tea gardens can be very tricky.

This is all about learning, first, you have strong beliefs, and with better knowledge and experience, they are teared to pieces while new convictions seize your brain. I love that process.

Dear readers,

It's been a long time I haven't posted, maybe being far from China kills my inspiration, I wish I could have fresh news to tell, brought directly from the fields of Xishuangbanna, I wish I could feel the dampness of Jinghong on my skin, breath the fragrant air of a banana plantation, walk through a misty tea garden in the morning... Since I came back to France, I have learned a lot of biology stuff, and I think many of the fundamental aspects that we study at university can find their use in a tea garden.

Unlike many farm products, tea stays in the field all year round, it requires long term planning. Decisions made today might have an impact for decades. Managing coffee, fruit, vine, cacao and tea plantations requires even more care than growing cereals.

What makes tea farming even more unique is that what we harvest the leaves. In most cases, we rather take the fruits or the seeds. As far as agronomy is concerned, this implies different management policies, therefore, tea farming is a body of knowledge in its own right.

I think there is a large room for improvement in the management of the tea gardens in Yunnan, and I also feel a willingness from the farmers to learn and do better. It seems that the traditional knowledge is being forgotten by the younger generations, or at least put aside...
For several decades, the use of pesticides was the rule of thumb, just like anywhere in the World. But nowadays, the bad side of agro-chemicals is more and more exposed to both the consumers and the producers. The consumer is worried about health issues, while the farmer is concerned about yield, selling price and sustainability.

Menghai market

Nowadays, going organic is a reasonable choice and many producers are considering this option, some of them have already done it. But in many cases, it seems they lack of technical support. While it is profitable for a pesticide producer to dispatch agronomists who will teach the farmer how to use chemicals, there is not much money to be made on teaching how to keep predators in a tea garden to avoid spending money on insecticide. Where there is no money, there is no will.

Eutrophication due to fertilizer run-off, Erhai lake, Dali,Yunnan

Unfortunately, managing an organic tea garden requires even more knowledge than doing conventional farming. You need to know about ecology, population dynamics, natural cycles, nutrients management and many things related to your local environment.

I have a friend in the North of Menghai who is taking a course about hevea management, his village, allowed new land for rubber tree plantations, in other words, they burned several hills of rainforest to increase the villager's income (this is quite a poor area compared to the average of Xishuangbanna). Hevea is well known for consuming a lot of water, but when my friend asked the teacher if it could have any consequence on the groundwater reserves, the teacher just laughed at him, giving no explanation. It could be just another bad teacher, but the appalling fact is that water management is not even included in the training program; while at the same time, the tropical botanical garden of Xishuangbanna is writing several papers about the impact of rubber tree plantations on the local climate.

I believe change is possible, especially in Xishuangbanna, because people are not starving anymore, they have a choice to make. I don't consider the tea farmers as poor and exploited people, they are an actor of the society and as such, they have an influence on the economy and environment, they shape part of Yunnan's landscape. It affects tourism, biodiversity and tea economy; with such important responsibilities, they should be given the tools and keys to manage the land properly.

People love Nature, but its soft power is too often crushed by hard cash, only knowledge can reverse this trend.

Originally written by Pu Jin Jing 普金晶
Check her blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2411643562

仿原生态化的茶园管理模式（金晶）
Principles of organic tea farming (By Pu Jin Jing)

1.满天星式分布：按地形破度大小合理利用土地.
In all cases, distribute the trees all across your available land, don't leave any empty spot.

2.株距2-3米，这样不但保障了茶树的生长空间，地面小草也能正常生长（生物多样性），小草的生长能吸引不少的小虫子，以此减少因各种虫类过多集中对茶树造成的伤害！（保护好茶园的生物链）
Keep 2-3 meters between each tree, this will ensure the tea trees have room to develop their roots; low grass will also grow naturally, it will attract many insects, ensuring good biodiversity and avoiding that too many insects gather on the tea trees and damage them! Preserve a natural food chain in the tea garden.

3.坡地浙变成梯形，防止水土流失，也更容易保住土壤肥力！
Try to flatten the steep fields, it will avoid water flowing down and will help keep the nutrients in the soil!

4.保护好茶园周围的生态环境！
Preserve a natural environment all around the tea garden.

5.一年挖翻1-2次，施点农家肥，或者把茶树周边的杂草挖埋在茶树根周围。（当地茶农称这为施绿肥）充分利用茶园周边森林的落叶土，增加茶园土壤肥力！
Till the soil once or twice a year, add a bit of homemade fertilizer or cut weeds and bury them around the tea trees. Use local green manure: dead leaves taken from the nearby forest is perfect, it will be enough to give your tea garden a nutrient boost.

6.茶树的修剪：剪掉过秘的枝条集中茶树营养，或者过长过高的枝条，以此控制茶树过快的长高，增加树冠，让茶树成伞形，以此方便采摘！
Pruning the tea bushes: cutting off the top will concentrate the nutrients into the lateral branches. If it's already tall trees, pruning them will give them an umbrella shape, making the harvest easier.

7.控制茶花、茶果的生长，采摘规范化！
Control the flowering and fruit growth, pick them systematically!

8.采摘请参考：《古乔木茶树的采摘要求》.
Picking techniques: refer to this article (in Chinese)

Other translated articles written by Pu Jin Jing here and there.

original article: http://www.puercn.com/puerchanews/news/43477.html

云南干旱还会是2013年普洱茶涨价的一个因素吗？
Can Yunnan drought justify increased Pu-erh prices in 2013?

　2009年入秋以来，中国西南等部分地区降水较少，气温偏高，出现持续干旱。近期，旱情仍呈发展态势。
Since Autumn 2009, South Western China has seen a lack of precipitation and high temperatures, which created a drought. Nowadays, the situation is still worrying.

　　虽然旱情对云南省茶叶生产有较大影响，但茶叶消费弹性大，价格上涨对普通消费者影响不大。
Even though the drought has had a severe impact on tea production, despite irregular consumption, the price increase has not impacted the demand.

　　据统计，云南省茶叶产量约占国内总产量的13%，其中春茶占省内茶叶产量的25%至30%。云南省农业厅预计，2010年省内春茶将因旱灾减产50%左右，其中普洱春茶减产约60%。受此影响，去年普洱茶收购价格涨幅已超过20%，最高的超过70%。
According to statistics, Yunnan tea represents 13% of the Chinese tea production, 25 to 30% if we only consider Spring tea. The Yunnan Agricultural Department estimates that, in 2010, the drought reduced production by 50% overall and by about 60% for Spring tea. As a consequence of the drought, the price of tea last year increased by 20% on average, and up to 70% in some villages.

　　由于国内普洱茶产量占茶叶总产量的比重不足4%，且目前库存充裕（东莞普洱茶藏量占普洱茶总量的2/3），干旱减产不会影响市场供应。
As a result, Pu-erh tea does not even account for 4% of the total Chinese production nowadays, yet, the Pu-erh stock remains large (two thirds of the Pu-erh tea is stored in Dongguan, near Guangzhou), therefore, the drought should not have an influence on the supply.

　　在全国消费能力提高、物价都涨的情况下：2013年普洱茶春茶价格涨是一定的，不然茶农怎么脱贫，茶商怎么赚钱？但小编我认为云南干旱了这么几年，今年应该不会还用干旱做为普洱茶涨价的因素吧？*
In China, the consumption should continue to increase and the prices do the same: Pu-erh tea will surely be more expensive in 2013. Still, will the farmers get out of poverty? Will the tea shops make money? I think the Yunnan drought has been around for years, can it still be used as an argument to justify higher prices?

I haven't posted for a while, I was busy with school and other stuff. But now, I am about to take a new trip to China. In the next ten weeks, I will work hard towards fullfilling several objectives:

-exploring new tea mountains:
In the past, I have focused mostly on Xishuangbanna, but the Lincang teas that I have tried make me want to discover this area further. It seems a more remote place than Banna, and I am very excited at the idea of looking for tea treasures in Yongde, Mengku, Fengqing and other places. The Pu-erh quest is far from over, there are still dozens, if not hundreds of small ancient tea gardens to be explored. I hope in the future, I can provide more teas from lesser known areas.

-undertaking agricultural projects in the tea mountains, I want to learn and experiment in the fields. Growing organic tea implies to know a lot about the local ecosystem and how to cope with it while getting a decent yield. I would like to test the impact of mulching (spreading a layer of hay on the ground) on tea yield and on the tea garden ecosystem. I will try different settings and monitor several parameters to see which solution fits best. Another objective is to understand why spiders can live in some of the tea gardens and not in others. It would be interesting to study their life cycle and their impact on pest reduction.

-improving my understanding of China, which includes learning more advanced mandarin, meeting new people, paying attention... China is a fast moving country, some things are ephemeral, but deserve to be seen. Each country is unique, but all of what we see is a depiction of the human being's capabilities, in China, one can find so many different people, "different" in their lifestyle, hopes, social conditions, culture... but still, they are all humans, and I want to understand this species more, China is of great help in this journey.

Finally, the most beautiful and obvious objective of this trip is to meet my friends and beloved ones again. Meeting old friends brings a lot of happiness and is very enriching. I love to see how each of us take different paths, go through life, make choices and develop. If more Pu-erh tea gets in the game, then I will be delighted, it's always a pleasure to get to know a handful of leaves.

Today, I read a great piece of news: the Jingmai ancient tea gardens are on the candidate list to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site, you can read more details in this article.

I wish you all an excellent summer!

Finally back in Europe...

This stay in China was very instructive, i learned more about tea, chinese language, and the impermanence of life. Now is time to go back to university, i’m happy i had to keep the student mind during the summer holiday. Each day spent in yunnan was an opportunity to learn.

Tea hides many wonders, it’s up to you to find them. Some are right in your cup, others are at the source, up in the mountain, in the shade of a leaf.

Life is thriving in the tea gardens, and today, i will share a piece of Nature with you.


To be continued...

What is biodiversity?

Biodiversity means diversity at different scales of life. It encompasses the diversity of landscapes in an area, the diversity of species in an ecosystem or even the diversity of individuals within a species.

Applied to the scale of a tea garden, it could mean having different kinds of plant: grass, bushes and trees, different families of animal that make a large food web: herbivorous and carnivorous insects, worms, spiders, birds, and even mammals. Among each families, you would get diversity, insects could be colorful, or, on the contrary, use stealth to blend in, they could fly on the top of the trees or crawl on the ground... Their different morphology gives them different abilities, which makes them fullfill a specific function in the ecosystem. Genetic diversity of the tea bushes has also a large impact on the capacities of the tea garden.

The ancient tea forest of Jingmai mountain

Recently established natural tea gardens in Jingmai mountain


A diversified landcape in Lincang county

What are the advantages of maintaining biodiversity in the tea garden?

Biodiversity gives resilience to an ecosystems, it means the environment is better at handling change and going back to its original state. Hedgegrows are a perfect fence against floods, deep roots stabilize the soil and prevent landslides, different insects species are as many abilities available to adapt to an invasive species threat. In short, biodiversity makes the field better at fighting off pest invasions and extreme weather episodes. Resilisence is a crucial parameter in agriculture, many fields are devastated by heavy rainstorms, frost, floods, wind or disease. While losing a wheat harvest is a disaster for one year, having a tea garden ravaged by fungi or frost puts an end to dozens of years of care. Economic security for farmers starts from bringing resilience to their fields.

As a consequence of increased resilience, a well managed natural tea garden is not dependent on insecticides and fungicides. The natural protection offered by the fauna living in the gardens is sufficient to limit the damage caused by pest to acceptable levels. It is ecological and free.

“I do the job for free!”

In a healthy soil, some bacterias are able to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into nitrogen usable by plants. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient used by plants, it is one of the three elements brought by fertilizers (chemical or natural). A soil fit for life can host a lot of these bacterias and bring a consistant flow of nitrogen to the plants. Nitrogen fixing bacterias are also hosted on leguminous plants, this is why these plants need much less mineral nitrogen to grow, planting them in vacant parts of the field, cutting and burying them is a great way to enrich the soil in nitrogen; all for free!

Finally, tea gardens with high biodiversity seem to give better tea than conventional plantations. In Yunnan, tea from natural tea gardens costs more than conventional plantation tea, its aroma is more complex and the mouth feeling is richer, but there are exceptions of course.

However, conventional plantations allow a higher output. By giving all the room and sunlight available to the tea bushes, the production yield is maximised. Currently, the largest demand is for cheap tea, therefore, producing a high amount of low quality tea is a stable way to make a living. Yet, the demand for high quality leaves and organic tea is growing. This demand, coupled with the need for environmental sustainability, could open the way to a switch in tea garden management, going from chemically managed gardens to biologically controlled ones. The second Green Revolution is on its way!

A new generation of tea farmers is on the way. In the remote countryside of Yunnan, the youth are like everywhere else, they want to be connected, they want to share with the world. I took this picture on a festival day, the nice girls i stayed with took pictures all day and put them on the social networks, sharing them with people in Beijing and Shanghai,thousands of kilometres away. Technology is a way to promote minority culture, just like a good cup of Pu-erh tea!

Last week, a wealthy family of Jingmai’s main village honored the gods. Their tea business being successful, they need to keep the good fortune with them, and to do so, they organized a massive event. People from all the area showed up and gathered to eat, drink, dance and pray. Among other things, two cows and twelve pigs were necessary to satisfy the guests’ appetite. Dancing is also a big thing in the Dai culture, dozens of teams succeed each other, basically arranged by village and age. This is the day when nobody goes to work, it’s an opportunity to share the news and make new friends. This was one of the many festivities held in Jingmai this year.

Hidden among the leaves, she is watching. Patience is her virtue, stealth is her credo.

Still and stiff, she is waiting for the right moment to strike. She is a stem, and suddendly, she becomes a voracious predator.

Strong and agile, she will lead her prey in a final dance...

Pu Jin Jing is a tea person i greatly admire. She runs a tea workshop in Lincang. We have known each other for years on the chinese tea blogs but it was only this summer that i had the pleasure to meet her in Lincang city.

She is famous for writing very detailed articles about tea cultivation and processing. I have learned a lot from her and this tea session lived up to my expectations. We met in her newly opened tea shop in Lincang city.

Yubai was with me, as we were just coming from Jingmai mountain. With three hardcore drinkers reunited at the tea table, the kettle was going to work hard.

We started our session with three black teas, just released from Pu Jin Jing’s factory.

-2013 Da Bai Cha buds
- 2013 golden buds
-2013 gushu black tea

Each has its own character, but our preference went for the gushu black tea, despite its modest look, the old tree character could be felt in the throat and the cups were filled with richness.

After this pleasant starter, we went to the serious things: puerh tea.

here is the list of the teas we went through:

-2012 Spring Bangdong
-2012 Autumn Matai
-2013 Spring Matai
-2012 Spring Matai
-2012 Spring Manglu Shan
-2011 Spring Manglu Shan
-2013 Spring Jingmai Single Trees
-2007 Manglu Shan
-2013 Spring Xiao Hu Sai

The session lasted for about ten hours. After that, i was tea drunk like i rarely am, but for Pu Jin Jing, this is a normal day, she is used to try lots of samples. We tried each tea for few brews, and then started the next one while keeping on with the former one. Sometimes, we had a cup of shu cha to keep our stomach comfortable. As a rule of thumb, i brew one shu for each three sheng. Pu Jin Jing advises to go from the greener tea to the darker. This time, we didn’t follow that rule, maybe because passion was keeping us busy.

We exchanged a lot of information and Pu Jin Jing is a very knowledgeable and humble person. This session was free of fancy talks, we talked about tea manufacturing and agriculture. This session was one of the most inspiring on my life, great tea with passionnate people.

Dear tea community, it's been a long time I haven't posted new articles on this blog.

I started Bannablog in Summer 2010, shortly after I bought my first camera. At the time, I was 19 and had just moved in Xishuangbanna, in the South of Yunnan, China. After high school, I decided to spend a year in China to fulfill my passion : tea. I spent six months in Kunming to learn the basics of Chinese and make my first contacts in the tea world. The purpose of my stay in Xishuangbanna was to explore the famous tea mountains and learn about Pu-erh tea growing and processing. I also wanted to understand how the tea farmers live in rural China.

Man Nuo, in the North of Menghai. My first tea trip with a camera.

Back in 2010, Xishuangbanna was very different from now, it was quite a remote region. I made friends with farmers I have seen change over time. Some of them were poor at the time, and they have now become very wealthy thanks to the tea business. Some had big projects, but life hasn't granted them success yet. Many people I used to hang out with now have children. Besides tea, I feel I have learned a lot about life during my stay there.

The blog was very active at this time, I used to post once a week, between two tea trips. I had plenty of time and only tea on my mind. Each visit to a tea mountain felt like a whole adventure and I keep many good memories from that time.

Hunting birds in the jungle near Gua Feng Zhai in Yiwu mountain

After six months in Xishuangbanna, my next stop on the tea road was India. New culture, new approach to tea. As I moved to this country, I stopped blogging, I had other things in mind and I wanted my blog to stay focused on Chinese Pu-erh tea anyway. I visited Darjeeling, but I was out of luck : the factories were on strike because of separatists movements. I collected many pictures and information but didn't process them well enough to write about them. However, this visit broadened my vision of tea, I found another system in India. The tea industry in Darjeeling is managed by corporations, while most of the tea in Yunnan is made by smallholders. This difference has important social impacts

Darjeeling, on the foothills of Himalaya

Eventually, I went to university. I think taking a break after high school is very beneficial, even though it is very uncommon in France. Still, education is very important in order to get a better understanding of the world and have tools for the mind. Tea is closely linked to Nature, this is why I decided study biology and ecology for my bachelor's degree. I learned a lot of interesting facts about Nature, i love to talk about the diversity of life forms on earth and how they impact each other, I have a preference for insects because they look so cool and funky !

The tea shield bug, one of my favorites!

But tea isn't only about plants, it's actually a link between men and Nature, this is why I didn't graduate from university, instead, I joined an agricultural college in order to learn more about men in addition to Nature. The very outdated French system requires you to prepare for a highly competitive exam similar to the Chinese Gaokao after which your are able to select from the best colleges in France. The work environment is much better than in regular universities because of the smaller number of students in class and I feel this teaching is really helpful for my understanding of tea. We learn how to deal with the complex issues faced by the farmers in impoverished areas. Understanding agriculture requires knowledge in a large variety of subjects : hard and soft science, from physics and chemistry to business and sociology. I love that !

Bannablog hasn't been very active since I have entered agricultural college because the class and student life kept me very busy. Every day, I learn a lot about things related to tea, be it about how plants pump their nutrients or how smallholders adapt to food price fluctuations in Kenya. You can always relate some of that information to the world of tea. I am so grateful to life to be able to learn so many new things !

Currently, I am an exchange student at National Taiwan University in Taipei. It's a great opportunity to learn about agriculture from very interesting professors, open a new window on the world of tea and improve my chinese furthermore.

There is also another thing i haven't mentioned :I have found my love in the name of Yubai (玉摆), a pretty tea girl from Jingmai mountain. We met while I was living in Xishuangbanna, and I have gone back as often as possible to China since then to meet her. We like to travel in the best tea places of Asia. We like to walk in Jingmai ancient tea gardens together, looking for interesting things on the tea trees or in the soil, picking fruits and meeting friends. We like to investigate tea together, improve the farming and processing techniques in her tea farm, conduct and monitor experiments... After I graduate, Yubai and I want to live together, we have bigger projects with tea that I will detail later on.

You are more and more buying tea on www.bannacha.com, I am happy to see that many people like our tea selection. Bannacha is only the first step towards more ambitious goals. Our aim is to bring the consumers closer to the tea producers. I feel our society lives in a more and more virtual environment, made of electronic stimuli and concrete blocks. Our busy life lets us few time to remember how connected to the soil our existence is. I believe that this connection can be re-established through a cup of tea. Tea can have such a diversity of tastes thanks to the natural processes that occur during its growth, processing and storage. We want to give you the opportunity to make that connection, and for that, we sell tea leaves. We also want you to have access to information about these leaves, we hope you will then feel closer to the tea gardens, more connected to Nature.

This blog is not an advertising platform for my online tea shop. The main goal of bannablog is to share my ideas with you, dear readers. In the following weeks, I will write articles about tea with a focus on agriculture and nature. You are welcome to leave comments or to send me emails, I am always happy to discuss tea with fellow drinkers.

Thank you!

As we all know, the price of Pu-erh tea has been steadily increasing in the past decade. The crash of 2007 is seen as a detail in the Pu-erh's race to become China's most famous and pricey tea.

Since last Summer, there are a lot of discussions among the tea merchants. The investors are getting timorous. Who might reverse the trend in Pu-erh price evolution ? Xi Jinping of course !

The recently appointed Chinese president has taken serious measures to tackle corruption in the country. He wants to hunt down the corrupted « tigers and flies », and even though some analysts explain his motivation is to eliminate his political rival, the threat of being caught in an act of corruption has become very real in the government circles.

Pu-erh tea is an excellent gift in China, from a simple Dayi 7542 to a premium Lao Ban Zhang cake. A good cake can be the key to a signed contract, a construction permit or a business licence. But in those troubled times, it is unwise to accept gifts. Government officials are being watched and Big Brother Xi is waiting for them to commit a mistake. Hence, a decrease in demand should be expected.

This is good news for the average drinker, it seems in the past year, the high-end Pu-erh tea trade has been dominated by the rich, and I would love to be able to offer Yiwu or Lao Man E tea on Bannacha at a good price.

Yet, uncertainty remains, the Pu-erh tea market remains unfathomable, everybody was expecting a price drop in Autumn 2014, but it didn't happen. This year, prices in the mountain started lower than last year, but now that the customers have come to the mountain, they are back to their Spring 2014 level, at least they are not higher !

However, a more certain fact is that the euro is at its weakest while there is no change for the dollar against the yuan. Probably if something happens in the Pu-erh tea market, it will be in the next weeks, during the Spring harvest, but my guess is that if there is a price drop, it will be a small one, nothing like the 2007 crash.

For a long time, soil has been seen as a simple support. The philosophy of conventional agriculture is to give each problem its solution: if there isn't enough nutrient, you add fertilizer, if there isn't enough water, you add irrigation and if there's a pest attack, you spray pesticides. In conventional farming, the soil is adapted to the crop by using a variety of inputs.

Agroceology takes a different approach. The soil is the most important part of the field because many ecological processes occur in it. Changing your agricultural practices will affect those natural processes which will change your soil and create a positive or negative dynamics. Conventional agriculture focuses on the present and neglects those long-term evolutions, this is why soil degradation occurs in many place: because of a poor management of the ecological processes, the soil was kept in a vicious circle for years. The yield was not affected because the loss in soil quality was compensated by extra inputs added. Farming on a degraded soil is possible but it requires an intensive management because everything has to be brought.

Irrigated and heavily pruned tea trees

A good soil can store nutrients and water, the main things plants need to grow. One of our teacher says "soil is to water what the fridge in your house is to you, and you prefer it big and full of good stuff". Some soils are better than others naturally, because of their texture. Soil has particles of different size, from big chunks of sand to tiny pieces of clay. The smaller the particles, the better the soil can keep things in it, therefore, a clay soil is generally preferred to a sandy soil. The soil texture cannot be changed by agriculture, it would mean bringing tons of new material and it is very unpractical.

However, the structure of the soil is very dependent on what people do on the soil. The structure means how the particles are organised. You want the soil to be bulky enough so that it won't fly away with wind and but not too compacted in order to offer a maximum surface contact between the soil particles and the air. That way, you can store much more nutrients and water : the fridge gets bigger.

The soil is so loose in some parts of Jingmai mountain that heavy rains give that hilly shape to the surface.

In agriculture, the main problem is compaction : it occurs when you use tractors or when you and your cows walk on the field. It is possible to loosen the soil by digging it, but this is hard manual labor. Small dudes can do the job for free : worms. As worms crawl through the soil, they dig galleries that will loosen the soil and therefore improve its structure. This is one of the main reasons why soil life is important.

Ants contribute to the soil structure

With a good structure, plants will grow roots easily and a special kind of fungi called mycorrhiza will fix on the roots and grow a network of filaments that will help the plants catch nutrients. In exchange, the fungi can take carbon from the plant to feed itself. This is one of the great mutualistic relationships known in Nature. It is believed that without mycorrhizae, the nutrient catching capacity of many plants would be severely reduced.

We should think about the soil first, and the crop second. A fertile soil is the guarantee of good yields on the long run. By improving soil life, we can improve the soil structure and therefore increase its fertility.

Manual weeding as part of an experiment in Jingmai natural tea gardens

In my last post, I talked about the importance of a good soil structure for having a high fertility. Another very important factor is the percentage of organic matter present in your soil.

Organic matter is essentially made of carbon, the atom that defines life. Carbon is the basic unit of all living things, from bacteria to humans. As Antoine Lavoisier said: “in Nature, nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed”. I’m going to talk about the fate carbon and why it matters in agriculture.

A diverse landscape in Mengsong, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.

When the leaves fall off the trees, they accumulate on the ground and for litter. After a while, the action of small animals, fungi and bacteria will transform the litter in humus: a dark material made of unrecognizable remnants of leaves, dead microorganisms and animal feces (yes, you’re walking on poo every day!). The difference between humus and litter is the stage of decay at which they are, but the limit is not very clear.

Litter is organic matter which is being eaten by microorganisms, it is transforming, typically the colorful fallen leaves cover that you can see in the forests during Autumn. Litter is the main source of food for the soil animals and microorganisms. Worms feed on litter, their presence in the soil will guarantee a good soil structure because they spend their life digging tunnels. They eat litter and digest it into smaller particles. Nematodes are very tiny round worms, barely noticeable with the naked eye, they will continue the job and eat smaller pieces. Fungi and bacteria eventually degrade organic matter into humus.

Jingmai Ancient Tea Gardens have a thick litter thanks to the big trees.

Humus is organic matter that has reached its final stage of decay, it is almost as stable as stone, it is what’s left after microorganisms have eaten everything. Humus mixes with the soil particles (sand, silt and clay), this is what makes your soil more or less dark. It is important to have a lot of organic matter in the soil because it increases the water and nutrients capacity of the soil, the fridge is bigger!

Not only the fridge gets bigger as humus is produced, but it is also steadily filled. If organic matter is mostly made of carbon, it also contains nutrients very useful for the plants: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium… It works as if you were demolishing a house: you couldn’t reuse the concrete, but you could recycle the copper from your electric wires and use it in a new house. Nature works the same, as matter decays, nutrients are made available to the plants.

The soil in Jingmai has a dark color, it is rich in organic matter.

Chemical fertilizers are very handy for the farmers because they are much lighter than organic manure, you need to add up to a hundred times less of for the same amount of nutrients. This is one of the main reasons why they are widely used in the world, from large scale industrial farms to smallholders who don’t have a tractor. They have been the cornerstone of the Green Revolution.

However, their use on the long term creates a major problem: soil degradation. A soil is always degraded because of rain, wind and chemical processes. In order to compensate the losses, you have to continuously add things; this is especially true when it comes to organic matter. After several years without adding organic matter, the soil structure is impacted; it is more vulnerable to weathering and has poorer nutrient and water retention capacity. In other words, you have plenty of food, but your fridge is very small…

There are hundreds of different names for tea : Darjeeling muscatel, Bi Luo Chun, Tie Guan Yin, Hojicha, Pu-erh, Bai Mu Dan, Tai Ping Hou Kui, Dong Ding, Dong Fang Mei Ren, Gyokuro, etc…

Just like the classification of European wines, this system requires a lot of knowledge; you have to learn about the specifications of each tea one by one.

I would like to give a simpler approach to tea. By focusing on the aspects which have the most influence on the taste of tea, you will be able to have a rough idea of what the tea will taste like just by looking at the leaves.

Early Spring 2014 Jingmai tea

First, let’s start with things that are not obvious to see: the cultivar. Apart from Pu-erh tea, most of the teas come from selected tea trees. For example, Tie Guan Yin comes from a specific cultivar, its processing is the same as many Taiwanese high mountain teas. Tea trees are mostly selected for the taste of their leaves, and to a minor extent for their capacity to resist certain disease or cope with frost.

There are two main varietals: sinensis and assamica, also called China and Assam or big and small leaf varietal. Generally speaking, var sinensis has small leaves, a low yield, a better resistance to low temperatures and more fragrant leaves than var assamica, which is a more robust varietal. Their main botanical difference is that sinensis is a shrub: it grows many small branches from the ground, assamica is a tree, it grows a single trunk and grows taller. The difference in leaf size can be confusing because there is a middle ground where leaves could come either from sinensis or assamica. There are also wild varietals such as Camellia taliensis in South East Asia or Camellia formonensis in Taiwan.

China varietal in Pandam Tea Estate, Darjeeling

Assam varietal in Pandam Tea Estate, Darjeeling

The harvest time, altitude and agricultural techniques have influence on the strength of tea because the tea leaves will make different amounts and types of chemical compounds according to the environment conditions: temperature, sunlight, nutrient and water availability, presence of some insects…

Finally, the leaf grade has a big influence on the tea quality. More buds give lighter and more fragrant tea, while older leaves give a stronger brew with more bitterness and astringency. Tea with lots of buds is more expensive because it takes more time to pick, but it’s not necessarily the tea you’ll like most, some people, including me, prefer 1 bud/2 leaves tea over single buds or 1bud/1 leaf. A high amount of tea stalks makes tea sweeter.

A good tea starts in the field, but its quality is glorified in the factory, the large variety of taste is obtained thanks to many different processing techniques. However, those techniques have an impact on a couple of factors only, which I’m going to detail now.

The oxidation state might remind you of your worst cramming time at university, trying to understand organic chemistry. Tea has many polyphenols, which are (in)famous for having many possible oxidation states. Simply put, the more oxygen atoms attached to a molecule, the more oxidized it is (dear chemist readers, I’m sorry for taking such shortcuts!). The more oxidized a tea, the darker it is, note that most of the teas being black, green or wulong, they are solely differentiated by their oxidation state. I’m not going to go into further details on what happens in the leaves, but oxidation state of tea can be influenced by heat treatment (pan frying or steaming) and aging (especially in Pu-erh teas and white tea).

Experimenting with oxidation

Roasting is another way to make a tea darker and enrich its flavor profile. Just like coffee, some teas are roasted, a chemical reaction occurs and the leaves get darker, this is the same process that makes meat turn dark when you cook it, it is called the Maillard reaction. Roasted tea leaves have a hard time unfolding when they are brewed, this is because the leaf cells are damaged during the process and probably stick together. It also brings out more astringency because as some cells burst, more chemical compounds will be released during the steeping.

Most of the teas are rolled, some of them so heavily that the leaves are broken during the process, just like many Darjeeling teas. During the rolling process, the cell walls are broken; just like roasting, this allows more chemical compounds to be released during the brew. Heavily rolled teas pack a punch in the first brews but struggle after a couple of infusions. They tend to be more bitter and astringent; this is what gives “briskness” to the Indian teas.

Heavily rolled tea

Finally, tea can have added flavor, wanted or not. Smokiness or off-flavors are generally considered as flaws but can be desirable traits. Mixing fragrant flowers such as jasmine is a traditional way to bring more fragrance to the tea leaves. More modern techniques involve the spraying of artificial flavors or essential oils.

To summarize, if you want to know what kind of tea you’re dealing with, try to know which cultivar it comes from, in which conditions it was grown, when it was harvested, look at how dark the leaves are, check if the leaves seem roasted, oxidated, heavily rolled or broken. And more importantly, enjoy your tea session.

Tea makers don’t see each tea categories as independent. In the field and factory, you can virtually make an infinite number of different teas because you can always do something more or less: weathering, rolling, frying, roasting, drying… These are slides, not switches. Knowing this, debating about whether Darjeeling tea is black or wulong tea then becomes irrelevant. A name is only an approximation; the real thing is what you get in the cup.

Dear reader,

It's been a while I haven't posted here. Maybe I have stopped writing about tea because I am too busy learning. I have graduated and now live with my wife, Yubai, in Yunnan.

We spend a lot of time in Jingmai mountain, making tea, experimenting, enjoying a life of dedication to the leaf. I love this new life, full of excitement and filled with adventure.

We have just opened a new website, to promote our Pu-erh tea productions and other Yunnan teas we like. In the last weeks, I have tried to put all the knowledge I've acquired in the last years on paper. I have written new articles that are available in the product descriptions of our new website. From now on, I will try this new format, every time I will post a new product; I will write an article related to it.

We will keep Bannacha running because many European tea enthusiasts like it. We will update it with new products, even though the offer will not be as extensive as on the new website. We would like to improve its functionality and the general user experience. Do you think this old website needs a redesign? Any suggestion is welcome.

You can now visit Farmerleaf, enjoy!

Mengku tea map

Yongde tea map

name that insect!

Picking tea

Biodiversity

Lao Man E

How to describe Pu-erh tea?

Nose

Mouth

Throat

Body

Mixed plantations

Jingmai from space

Going organic

Principles of organic tea farming

仿原生态化的茶园管理模式（金晶）
Principles of organic tea farming (By Pu Jin Jing)

Can Yunnan drought justify the Pu-erh price increase?

云南干旱还会是2013年普洱茶涨价的一个因素吗？
Can Yunnan drought justify increased Pu-erh prices in 2013?

ready to go!

Back to school

The importance of biodiversity in tea farming

Modernity and traditions

Jingmai celebrates!

Natural predator

A tea session with Pu Jin Jing

The story of Bannablog and its future

Why Pu-erh tea could be cheaper in 2015

For a fertile soil...

Organic matter

What defines a tea?

New Website!

Nose

Mouth

Throat

Body

仿原生态化的茶园管理模式（金晶）Principles of organic tea farming (By Pu Jin Jing)

云南干旱还会是2013年普洱茶涨价的一个因素吗？Can Yunnan drought justify increased Pu-erh prices in 2013?

仿原生态化的茶园管理模式（金晶）
Principles of organic tea farming (By Pu Jin Jing)

云南干旱还会是2013年普洱茶涨价的一个因素吗？
Can Yunnan drought justify increased Pu-erh prices in 2013?