Walong’s tea

Walong is one of the six ancient tea mountains: Manzhuan Tea Mountain. It is a natural village affiliated to Manzhuang Village Committee, Xiangming Township, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Because it is remote, it is less well known. Moreover, the village is surrounded by rubber forests, giving people the illusion that the altitude is low and it is mixed with rubber forests. The quality of the tea should not be much better.

Because of this, I have not made Walong tea for many years. Because I have explored the surroundings from Manzhuang Dazhai several times, passing through Nanlongba, Walong and other villages. The surroundings are surrounded by rubber forests, and in the rubber forests, there are many tea trees sparsely; among them, there are also many Most of them are big old trees. Obviously, it was originally a tea field, but when the rubber market was booming a few years ago, it was converted into a rubber field; cars passed by at high speed, and all that was left in the impression were rubber forests all over the mountains and plains.

Therefore, before 2017, I passed by Walong several times, all because of the rubber forests that filled Walong. I stubbornly believe that maybe there is good tea in Walong. However, if I can't tell which tea is from the rubber forest and can't explain it clearly to customers, then I would rather not do it. Anyway, there is plenty of good tea in the world.

Then, on April 20, 2017, I drank a sample. The strong mountain aroma made me instantly attracted. It is said to be a state-owned forest in Walong. Note that it is Walong State-owned Forest, not Walong. The popularity of state-owned forests made me immediately have the urge to visit the tea fields. Finally, I entered the hinterland of Walong for the first time and went straight to the tea fields. Then, Walong became the place where I went to the mountains the most in 2017, and I was finally able to roughly figure out the situation of Walong tea.

Section 1 The basic form of small tree and arbor tea

Walong has not seen the platform tea, which is an upright growing tree. Let’s talk about ecology first. The ecological situation in Walong is relatively complex and extreme. The low altitude places are less than 1,000 meters, and the higher altitudes are more than 1,500 meters. Tea trees are also planted. Tea trees are planted on the hillsides next to the rubber fields and fields. Moreover, they are basically unpruned. Even small trees, there are many At 2-7 meters high, you need to hook the tree down before picking tea.

So, please note that the worst ecology is rubber land with tea trees. It is said that some bosses invested 3,000 acres of rubber land near Walong. Due to the altitude, they could not cut rubber and ran away. As a result, the workers currently rely on selling tea trees in the rubber land to survive.

Secondly, there are many tea trees planted on the hills next to the rice fields, more than 90% of which are small trees. After the introduction of local tea farmers, we also found tea trees among them that can be called ancient trees. Tea farmers select them and sell them individually. It is said that in 2017, one kilogram of fresh leaves sold for 300 yuan. These planted tea trees have less forest coverage and I think they are ecologically poor tea trees.

The third is the tea field in the virgin forest, which is also dominated by small trees. More than ten years ago, local tea farmers reclaimed the land, retained the original large trees, and interplanted small trees. Due to the strict management of the forest police, there are huge golden nanke and other precious tree species that dare not be cut down. This results in lower yields, however, the tea leaves are of excellent quality. Judging from my experience in exploring the tea mountain, its ecological environment is better than that of the Minttang small tree, and is completely similar to the Minttang big tree and the Tea King tree. Better than Bai Chayuan and Wan Gong. Judging from the actual taste, this conclusion is also verified.

Section 2 The Forms of Big Tree Tea

Leaving aside the big tree tea in the rubber fields, after preliminary research and sample production, we roughly divide the big tree tea in Walong into We have established four tea areas with different styles, and strive to present them to tea lovers in 2018. Among them, there are many people at the Mintang level! The four tea areas, if further subdivided, can be divided into state-owned forests and plantation tea gardens. The total classification can reach seven types, namely three state-owned forests and four artificial forests!

However, Walong has a more magical classification method. Among the fruit trees around the village, there is a famous tea tree in Walong. It is not the largest or the tallest, just because it is a large-leaf species among the large-leaf species. , with huge leaves, is said to be worth 50,000 yuan a year by Shanghainese. By visual inspection, the maximum spring tea looks like less than 3 kilograms of dry tea. It is currently the highest tea price in Walong. The tea tree varieties in Walong are mainly large tree teas, but there are still small-leaf varieties, and even cat-ear-like ones. So, maybe one day we can subdivide new categories according to tea tree varieties.

Section 3 Overview of Walong Tea Production

From my visit, the current spring tea production of large tree tea in Walong is about 4 tons, and the number of small tree tea It should be much lower than this amount. In a village with less than 30 households in total, we found through surveys that in 2017, the average household income was more than 300,000 yuan, so the total tea income in the village was about 10 million yuan. According to the average spring tea leaves of 300 yuan The price (considering that the state-owned forest is higher and the family border is lower), the price of autumn tea is 100 yuan. Based on the actual situation of Walong, the spring and autumn output is calculated according to 3:1. There is basically no one picking summer tea, so we can infer that the spring tea The income from tea is about 7.5 million yuan, and the income from autumn tea is about 2.5 million yuan. Since the income from small tree tea is almost negligible, the average household income from large tree tea is about 250,000. That is about 800 kilograms of fresh leaves.

The dry tea ratio of Walong tea is about 4.6-4.9. After deducting the yellow flakes, the net tea ratio is about 5:1, that is, 160 kilograms of dry tea per household, which is close to the actual data of the households we surveyed. , the tea output of big trees with large land is about 150 kilograms, and the tea output of small trees is only dozens of kilograms. If further broken down, the output of several state-owned forest plots with better ecology is about 300 kilograms. Only a few people have management rights. The tea output around Walong Village is slightly higher.

Current management status of the tea fields in Part 4

Walong is the most extensively managed tea production area that I have ever experienced. It is not pruned, not fertilized, and only weeded once a year. In both times, there was no habit of plowing the land. Due to the sparse population and the lack of labor force as many young people from families went out, many tea fields were rented out to people from other villages.

From the current ecological environment of the entire tea area, Yiwu and the Six Ancient Tea Mountains are the best areas, while Walong, in the entire Ancient Six Tea Mountains, has an ecological environment that is ahead of Wan Gong, White tea garden, tea king tree, mint pond, etc. The same is true of the poor road conditions. The whole journey to the village is a dirt road, and the journey to the tea fields is also a method involving motorcycles and less walking. It takes up to four hours to walk to the tea fields further away. The tea field has a steep slope, and four-wheel drive is also required in many places: crawling on hands and feet!

Walong tea: The tea is thick and plump, with even lines, dark green color and clear hair. After brewing, the aroma is high, the mellowness is very good, the throat rhyme is deep, the mouth is full of tea, and the tea soup is thick and full. , the fragrance on the teeth and cheeks is very long-lasting, and the retention is also good. The fragrance at the bottom of the cup is rich and long-lasting, the soup is clear and translucent, the bottom of the leaves is plump and complete, showing dark green, complete and rich are its biggest features.

——The Tea Culture Public Welfare Lecture Hall pays tribute to the original work.