Yibin Old Tree Teas

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


Sep 12th, '13, 12:35
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Yibin Old Tree Teas

by puyuan » Sep 12th, '13, 12:35

Hi. I hope this is the right place for this topic. I've read for years that the area encompassing the old dashu fauna, which we use for pu'er, spread from Yunnan to Sichuan, and also that the old attested tea processing area was in Sichuan (Leshan? Yibin? Emei?). I lived in Chongqing for years but could never find the right area to investigate. Based on its fame and historical provenance I thought Emei would be the right spot but found nothing on old trees there. Then I remembered that Chongqing and Yibin were producing tuocha up to the 90s, even oddities like oolong tuos.

My search yielded this information in Chinese: http://www.ybcha.com/Article/ShowArticl ... icleID=711

I'm wondering two things, perhaps someone here has the right information.

Was any maocha picked from these trees used in the Yibin tuos and/or the tuos from surrounding areas? Those were supposedly made of maocha from several areas in Sichuan (I read that regarding one of the Chongqing tuos, I think.) Are any of these trees being used to produce tea? I tried looking up for tea companies in Huangshan and found nothing about old tea tree but my chinese only goes so far.

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Sep 12th, '13, 21:51
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by MarshalN » Sep 12th, '13, 21:51

Try Mengding

Sep 13th, '13, 20:17
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by puyuan » Sep 13th, '13, 20:17

MarshalN wrote:Try Mengding
Which, incidentally, seems to have some millenium trees. Next on my holiday list.


Edit: http://www.sc.xinhuanet.com/content/201 ... 660540.htm

Answering my own question, it seems some people are on the job. I wish they mentioned by name whomever is the researcher on the job, Southwest University was right next to where I used to live. Hopefully some less expensive gushu cakes (without the pu'er moniker, I know) will come out of this.

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Sep 14th, '13, 12:55
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by honza » Sep 14th, '13, 12:55

The link http://www.ybcha.com/Article/ShowArticl ... icleID=711 is about some ye sheng tea tree which is kind of camellia but not must be really for drink. See the red flowers there on the photo.
Yibin and Chongqing area have many tea gardens from Yunnan da ye zhong and they are not really old. They use the same way like Xiaguan and pressed these teas to tuo shape, but after 2000' s they make only small quantity tuo shape in Yibing or Chongqing and not every year. Yibing and Chongqing tea factories now make more red and green tea than pressed tea.

Sep 24th, '13, 23:35
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by puyuan » Sep 24th, '13, 23:35

Thank you, honza! But I don't think the plant with the red flower in that picture is the plant talked about in the article?

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Sep 26th, '13, 05:15
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by honza » Sep 26th, '13, 05:15

puyuan wrote:Thank you, honza! But I don't think the plant with the red flower in that picture is the plant talked about in the article?
Not sure, there is just talk about kind of "山茶科" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theaceae . We read about gushu tea trees in Guangxi prov. not far from Liubao, in another village Wupao. In the book look like real trees, big. This year we go to there and try find some this tree and in fact it was kind of 山茶科. Look very similar to tea tree but leaf bigger and with big tea nuts. Trees was big, maybe 10m or more. Local people use them to make "tea oil", but never use the leaves to make tea. In the Liubao/Wupao area have old trees which is tea trees, but never so big, is small variatal of tea tree there.

Oct 14th, '13, 21:00
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by puyuan » Oct 14th, '13, 21:00

Thanks for the info, honza! I had missed your post. Maybe those smaller arbor trees in Guangxi provided the maocha that was supposed
y used in 50-60s tribute cakes? Cool to know they are there. Do you know if they are being used for liubao or other teas?

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Oct 14th, '13, 22:19
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Re: Yibin Old Tree Teas

by BioHorn » Oct 14th, '13, 22:19

Thank you, Honza. I found this bit to be most interesting:
. In parts of Asia, other species are used as a beverage, including C. taliensis, C. grandibractiata, C. kwangsiensis, C. gymnogyna, C. crassicolumna, C. tachangensis, C. ptilophylla, and C. irrawadiensis.[7] Several species are grown widely as ornamentals for their flowers and handsome foliage.
You can find taliensis for sale, but I have never seen the others.
(Maybe a bit off tooic from OP. Sorry.)

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