Tea Map.

[drumhum]

Even though I've been drinking Puerh for a couple of years now and avidly reading and taking notes as time allows, I'm still getting terribly confused about the chinese regions and places that Puerh tea comes from.

A map would be so useful to help with the geography of Puerh land.

I mean, be honest, how many folk have thought of commonly referred to places like Yi Wu, as being a town (or something), only to discover its a mountain range? Or thinking that Banzhang is a mountain range when in fact its located in the Bulang mountains? On top of this one might point to one cake and say its "Bulang tea" and that another other one is "Banzhang tea". (I appreciate that would be right if the former was a blend... but anyway)

Just a big list of places would be useful. A map Yunnan showing all the main tea POI's (points of interest) would even better!

Any pointers?

This is best one I can find after a quick google...
http://www.puerhshop.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=4

[MarshalN]

First, google maps

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Xishuangb ... 5&t=h&z=10

Compare with this



The mountains are, in no particular order other than a randomly assigned number

1 Bada
2 Mengsong
3 Nannuo
4 Pasha
5 Hekai (Nanqiao)
6 Bulang
7 Youle
8 Wangzhi
9 Gedeng
10 Yibang
11 Manzhuan
12 Yiwu

[MarshalN]

I will also say that the "Six famous tea mountains" are 7-12. The first six are under constant debate/change and really don't amount to much. I'm just writing what's on the map here, but there are a billion versions of the other six out there. Places like Banzhang are part of a larger mountain such as Bulang. I wish there were some sort of AOC in Yunnan, but that's never going to happen.

[Maitre_Tea]

not to make it even more confusing ( ), but some villages within these mountain/mountain ranges have better tea than others even within the same mountain. For example, Lao Banzhang, New Banzhang, and Lao Man'E (am I missing anything?) are all different villages that are part of Ban Zhang. Lao Banzhang is the one that most people obsess about, and it's the one that carries the most cachet.

[TomVerlain]

Menghai is a place as well as a factory name. Just cause a tea is listed as "Menghai 7542" does not mean it is made by the Dayi tea factory.

And being advertised as "Yi Wu" tea does not mean it is ALL Yi Wu ...

[drumhum]

Menghai is a place as well as a factory name. Just cause a tea is listed as "Menghai 7542" does not mean it is made by the Dayi tea factory.

And being advertised as "Yi Wu" tea does not mean it is ALL Yi Wu ...

erm...

I must admit I thought Dayi factory was the Menghai tea factory.

can you explain/expand on this info?

From wikipedia...

Menghai Tea Factory was founded in 1940 and is located in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China (中国云南西双版纳勐海县）. The factory was originally called Fo Hai Tea Factory (佛海茶厂), but changed its name to Menghai Tea Factory in 1953 with the establishment of the Xishuangbanna autonomous prefecture. [1]
Menghai Tea Factory is credited as being one of the first two factories to make "cooked" (熟茶, shúchá) pu'er tea in 1973 (the other factory was Kunming Tea Factory). As the tea factory industry in China privatized in the late 1980s through the 1990s, Menghai Tea Factory adopted its "Dayi" (大益) logo and went fully private in 1996. Currently, Menghai Tea Factory is owned by The Bowin Company, who purchased Menghai Tea Industry Co. Ltd and Menghai Tea Factory in October 2004.[1]

[drumhum]

Thanks for having a stab at this folks.

MarshalN
Your list of mountains is most useful.

I think your maps demonstrate my problem rather well - It took a fair bit of head scratching to work out where the chinese map fitted into the Google version.

My chinese georgraphy is so bad.

If I can find the time, I'm going to try and make my own Puerh tea map. In the mean time if anyone else finds anything to save me the trouble - or indeed any good info to help make the map - post away!

I suspect the hard part in making a map will be deciding what should be shown and what to exclude. In fact I have a feeling it will be much more difficult than I think!

[wyardley]

Menghai is a place as well as a factory name. Just cause a tea is listed as "Menghai 7542" does not mean it is made by the Dayi tea factory.

And being advertised as "Yi Wu" tea does not mean it is ALL Yi Wu ...

I must admit I thought Dayi factory was the Menghai tea factory.

can you explain/expand on this info?

I think you are reading what he said wrong.

Menghai Tea Factory is the same as Dayi; what he was saying is that not all tea that says "Menghai" on the label comes from this factory. Menghai is also the name of an area, and so not all tea that's sold with "Menghai" in the name is actually made by that factory. And in many cases, other tea companies try to make their own version of a famous recipe.

[TomVerlain]

do a ebay search for menghai and then look at how many of the listed teas are from the Dayi factory.

Since the company that is now the modern Dayi has produced so many classics, the Menghai name is associated with these. Thus it is sellable.

To borrow from the world of wine, champagne is both a place and type of wine. You can go to your local grocery store and buy a bottle of champange for as little as $2.50, but it is not neccessarily (to the agnst of the French), grown in the champagne region or made according to the method.

So like "Menghai" tea, there might be a factory there, but that does not make it "Menghai" of the dayi persuation.

[Maitre_Tea]

I recall reading a rule somewhere

"I won't buy anything from a factory with 'Menghai' in its name, unless it's Menghai Tea Factory," which more or less is good advice, since there are many companies who try to capitalize on the true Menghai Tea Factory's success. There are even companies who have a Dayi look-a-like logo that would fool people who didn't stop two seconds to take a closer look.

[LauraW]

You can go to your local grocery store and buy a bottle of champange for as little as $2.50

Technically no. If it's not a)from the Champagne region, or b)made in the method of Champagne, then it's considered Sparkling Wine. People may refer to it as Champagne, but all bottles I've seen either have stated that they use the traditional method - or are called Sparkling Wine. (This is not to say that some winemaker, somewhere, hasn't done it wrong, just in my experience, that's been the case.) But I digress.... back to tea.

[drumhum]

@tomverlain

Ah I see what you're getting at. I misunderstood you.
The Dayi factory and Manghai Tea Factory are one and the same, but "Menghai tea" doesn't necessarily mean tea made by the Menghai tea factory.

To be fair though, as Menghai is a city (and a county I think), its not too wrong to call tea that has some sort of connection to the place, "menghai tea".

I certainly take your point and I agree, it can be all quite confusing!

[drumhum]

Anyhoo, to get back to mapping...

I was reading about some tea on yunnan sourcing...
http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/pro ... oduct=1044

From the description I could conclude...

The village Zhong Cang, is in the mountains of Wu Liang. These mountains are in the county of Jingdong in the Simao prefecture, bordering the Lincang and Dali prefectures.

All useful stuff for my Chinese geography lesson. I try and find it on google maps and find it surprisingly difficult to locate...

Zhong cang doesn't exist as such. Look for Jongdong county and Zhong Cang is nowhere to be seen (easily). I do a search for Simao to check I'm in the right area and I find a town (actually listed as Simaoqu) located in the same "corner" of China but it doesn't help much. The prefectures are not shown on Google maps AFAICT. Success comes when I search for 中仓村, which means Zhon Cang according to Yunnan Sourcing. Google maps shows this village has no roads to it whatsover. Google labels the village Zhoncangcun and says its in Yunnan (province) Pu'er (prefecture) Jingdong (county)

Ok further research on wiki finds that there is a Simao district which is under the juristiction of Pu'er Prefecture. I also find this website about Simao to confuse matters...
http://www.leafgovso.co.uk/yunnan.htm
...which refers to Simao prefecture too.

So is Simao a prefecture or a district in Puerh Prefecture?

I think Yunnan Sourcing has things mixed up a bit - but sheesh!


I read how China has changed the administrative borders and re-classified areas through the 20th Century. I just wonder if everyone is just totally confused about how all the different sorts of borders work. I know I am!

(All I wanted to do was see on a map where this freaking tea comes from!)

wikipedia seems to have some good stuff - but one wonders if that's confused too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ ... ince_level
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu%27er_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simao_District
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefecture_(China)

I think I need a cup of tea after all this.
Please feel free to ignore these ramblings of a tea-drunk.

[zhi zheng]

Yes, Menghai is a county and a city. But I don't see that anyone is necessarily jumping on anyone else's bandwagon by saying their tea is 'Menghai' tea or, if their factory is in Menghai County, having Menghai in their name.

"Lao Banzhang, New Banzhang, and Lao Man'E ...are all different villages that are part of Ban Zhang."

True, there are about 10km between each village, but tea from these 3 villages is all locally considered as "Lao Ban Zhang" tea. Also, each farmer's trees, being on different parts of the mountain will produce different teas.

[MarshalN]

Menghai encompasses a big area as it is an administrative county. Anything produced within its confines can be called "Menghai" tea, logically speaking. It's like for wine you have "Cotes du Rhone" and then you have smaller appellations within the Cotes du Rhone. Think of Bulang and other such things as these smaller appellations, and Menghai being the larger, region-wide one. Of course, there are no authorities determining what is and isn't ok to call Menghai, but generally speaking, that's how the logic would work.

If you call it "Dayi" tea then it's a different problem.