Wonders of Yunnan: Tea picking in Nannuo Mountain

Last month, we had the pleasure of visiting Yunnan Province in China to see first-hand the tea-making process. In this blog series, we are pleased to share with you some of our observations and experiences during our brief adventure in Yunnan.

Some of the best Pu'er tea comes from the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan Province, so we spent most of our time there. On the first day of the trip, we visited the beautiful Nannuo Mountain. Our exquisite 2012 Nan ​​Nuo Spring tea comes from this mountain, so we were excited to visit the source of this tea.

As we hiked up the mountain, we were struck by the stunning natural beauty that surrounded us. Before we reached the tea trees, the mountains were already lush with leaves, like a paradise.

When we arrived at the ancient tea tree, we had the opportunity to watch an aboriginal tribe of women picking Pu'er tea leaves, something their tribe had done for generations. They displayed extraordinary grace and dexterity as they inspected every branch of every tree, picking only the finest tea leaves to bring down the mountain with us.

After watching these skilled women fill wicker baskets with tea, we hiked back down the mountain to their village. Here we see the first steps of Pu'er tea production. After letting the fresh tea leaves dry indoors, they would pour a basket of tea leaves into a large stone pot for "fried tea."

The dead leaves are then further shaken and stirred before being placed on giant wicker plates, ready for the drying process.

We would see more of that later, but in the meantime our hosts took us to their home for an incredibly unique experience; to taste the tea we had watched them pick earlier in the day. They admitted to us that Pu'er tea is generally not meant to be consumed so soon after being picked, and the resulting tea is quite bitter, especially compared to the delicate flavor of fully processed, aged Pu'er tea. But it was nice to have the chance to drink the Maocha that we had just watched them pick hours before.

To hear more about our adventures in Yunnan, and to learn more about the making of Pu'er tea, be sure to keep an eye out for the next post in this blog series.