Easter time, the last hint of chill in the spring breeze quietly disappears. Changning, located upstream in the high-quality Tea region of the Lancang River basin, is painted with the most beautiful scenery by the verdant spring tea leaves. The old tea trees, known as the “origin tea” of Changning, attract the attention of tea lovers with their fresh greenery.
The spring tea, rich in nutrients and thick in leaf flesh, has a high content of aromatic substances and vitamins, making it favored for its fresh and refreshing taste, intense aroma, and smooth mouthfeel. The “origin tea” of Changning, different from both wild-grown tea and modern artificially selected cultivated tea, is particularly favored by many.
Mangshui Laochang, one of the villages along the Lancang River, is not very well-known either in Changning or on the “map” of Yunnan's tea regions, yet it hides many ancient tea trees within its depths. Regardless of whether others know about them, these ancient tea trees always sprout new green leaves every spring, bestowing the essence of nature upon humanity.
On the large tea tree known as the “Laochang Tea King” in Zhujia Village, over a dozen tea pickers are climbing the tree, picking tea leaves while chatting and laughing. Looking at the tree full of tender buds and the workers, Chen Jun, the leaseholder of the large tea tree, happily says, “This kind of tea is different from both the large-leaf and small-leaf varieties. It's a local old variety, characterized by early sprouting, yellow-green buds and leaves, and relatively thin leaves. The sun-dried Green Tea produced from this variety doesn't have as strong a flavor as the large-leaf variety but is much stronger than the small-leaf variety. Its sweetness and aroma are excellent, and it's very popular.”
In Chen Jun's words, “large tea” and “small tea” refer to the local terms for cultivated large-leaf tea and wild Dali tea. According to available information, before the widespread promotion and planting of cultivated large-leaf tea, many tea areas in Changning were mostly planted with wild Dali tea, and some natural hybrids or mutations, which locals often referred to as “flowering tea,” “old variety tea,” or “fine-leaved tea,” without a unified name. These teas have been repeatedly identified by experts and named as Changning large-leaf varieties or given names based on their location plus “original source tea” or “origin tea,” all belonging to local sexually propagated good varieties.
“I've had the contract to pick this tea for more than 20 years, with a normal annual yield of around 100 kilograms.” Speaking of this ancient tea tree that stands alone, Chen Jun has endless words to say, “At the beginning, when I contracted it, there was no concept of ancient tree tea. It was because the sprouts it produced were relatively long that I negotiated with the owner to lease it and sell the ‘long tea' to tea bosses to make more money. After the rise of ancient tree tea, a merchant from the neighboring village Fengqing came to take a look and said it was an ancient tree tea, so I supplied him with raw materials. Later, after Mr. Yu from Chongqing came to see it and liked this tea, I specifically managed it and supplied fresh leaves according to his requirements. This year marks our eighth year of cooperation.”
The “Mr. Yu” mentioned by Chen Jun is Yu Ren, a retired professor from a university in Chongqing, who, due to his love for tea, has traveled extensively across major tea regions in China, especially in Yunnan, in search of teas he likes and to make the teas he loves. Yu Ren says, “Although this tea isn't the most typical Yunnan large-leaf tea, it has its own characteristics, with a light bitterness, high sweetness, and ample aroma. Among the teas I've made, it ranks as a top-grade product, much loved by friends.”
“I've visited many places in the tea region of Changning and made many kinds of ancient tree tea, and I'm still doing so. There are actually many good teas here, what's lacking is fame, especially the wild teas and naturally formed tea tree varieties. They are all very distinctive whether made into sun-dried green tea, Black Tea, or White Tea.” When talking about tea, Yu Ren always has plenty to say, “When I make tea, I don't deliberately pursue famous mountains or famous trees. Instead, I experience and feel it myself, searching for the teas I like. In Changning, in Laochang, I found the teas I like.”
“The ancient tea trees in our place have a wide variety; even in a single row of tea, there are many types, each tree being different from the next. Over the years, many of our ancient tree tea fresh leaves have been sold to tea merchants from neighboring counties, which is not much of a loss for the tea farmers, but it has caused our products to lack renown,” Chen Jun says. For more than twenty years, he has been engaged in the acquisition of ancient tree tea fresh leaves and sometimes processes some finished products according to customer requirements. He believes that there are many good teas in the area where he lives, including Laochang, Minghua, and Mingde, they just need someone with a connection to discover them.
“Our Laochang community has excellent tea resources and a solid tea industry foundation. Throughout the community, there are 11,067 ancient tea trees with a basal circumference of 15 centimeters or more, and we have 3,373 mu of tea gardens. Now, almost all the ancient tea trees have been claimed or are subject to targeted procurement. The annual income from the tea industry exceeds 8 million yuan, serving as a significant source of income for villagers,” says Yu Jiazhi, Secretary of the Community Party Branch of Laochang. “We will protect our unique resource advantages like our eyes, strive to improve comprehensive benefits, and truly make the tea trees a ‘money tree' for the villagers and the tea leaves a ‘golden leaf' for them.”
In the gentle spring breeze, feeling the faint fragrance of tea, one can't help but recall the poem by Zheng Tianxi of the Song Dynasty: “The waters of the West River bring life to the spring tea, cold valley and green lamp, picking flowers at night.” If the poet were to come to the banks of the Lancang River, to Changning, to Laochang, he would surely be intoxicated by the rich aroma of the ancient tree spring tea, composing even better verses and leaving behind more stories.
Contributors: Wu Zaizhong, Mu Shangyong