The Evening in Xishuang Banna

The Chinese name of the area “Xishuang Banna” (西雙版納), the South-Western part of Yunnan closest to Thai and Burmese border is originally pronounced “Sip Song Pan Na” in the Dai language. “Sip Song” means “twelve”, “Pan” means “thousand”, and “Na” means “good land”. All these meaning “twelve pieces of good land” (each one containing up to 1,000 hectares), of which Menghai region is one. The Dai themselves customarily refer to Xishuang Banna as “Mumbara Nasi”, which means “ideal and magical paradise”!

The Plantation

The Menghai area or Xi Shuang Ban Na is the birthplace of this Red tea.

It is a tropical highland with abundant moisture, sufficient sunshine, and a large temperature difference between day and night. Our tea garden is located close to Manzhen Village, near Menghai Town, at an altitude of 1,200 meters. With about 150 foggy days a year the climate is the best for nourishing the tea leaves, and many plantations are in this area (including the People’s Research Institute of Tea as our neighbour).

The soil is deep and rich in organic matter and micro elements, which is most suitable for the growth of tea trees. The tea was planted here in the early years of the Republic of China. The tea trees are widely spaced. Since 2010, we have managed this old tea garden in the most ecological way. We do not fertilize or use medicine to boost the growth in any way.

We did not pick tea at all for the first five years, allowing the trees to grow taller and stronger naturally, so we named this part a “Rejuvenating Tea Garden” (復壯茶園)! At present, the tea trees are 2 to 4 meters high, with an average tree age of more than seventy years. The ecosystem is complete, lush and green, and a “hundred birds” are singing here. The plantation has obtained organic certifications - from China and the European Union, in 2019 and 2022 respectively.

The preparation

We made this Red tea using the best green tea leaves: according to the standard of the world’s top black tea, “red, rich and fresh”, only one bud and two leaves at the top are picked by hand on sunny days. The fresh leaves are carefully selected and left to wither the next day.

Then we start kneading at seven o’clock in the morning. It takes about two hours from light kneading to heavy kneading. The technique is delicate and complicated, so that the taste of the tea potion can be three-dimensional and rich. After that, it goes through the “double fermentation” process, and the tea leaves are spread out and dried under the scorching sun at noon.

We put away the dried tea in the evening, and the gorgeous sunset is a sweet surprise after work. With their heads straightened, teal ducks and herons, swallows and storks fly across the sky one by one, just as the pastoral poet Tao Yuanming wrote:

雲無心以出岫 Clouds leave the mountain without a thought

鳥倦飛而知還 Birds return when they are tired of flying

This scene makes people forget about their tired bodies for a moment, and their hearts are fascinated by the beauty of Heaven and Earth…

What’s the brew like?

The brew of this tea is red, strong, fresh and refreshing. The color of the tea is as if the evening sunset light is recessed into the cup, and the richly layered clouds dissolve in the mouth with elegance and delicacy;

The deep and long flavor is just like seeing the birds fly away slowly, and the sound of egrets and winds in the ears seems to come from a place of silence. Therefore, we named this Red tea “The Evening in Xishuangbanna”.