2020 Yunnan Chi Tse Bing Puerh Tea-Nannuo Mountain Ripe Tea Cake

Nannuo Mountain is famous in China and abroad as the home of the “King of Tea Tree,” a human cultivated 800+ year old tree. Fine tea tree varieties and superior natural conditions produce outstanding Nannuo Mountain tea products. Puer Tea is mainly made of tea of Nannuo Mountain. Nannuo Tea Mountain become famous with the selling of Puer Tea at home and abroad.

Menghai tea factory has released this Peacock series of single-estate tea mountains since 2001. They represent some of Menghai Tea Factory’s most sought after teas and are produced in very limited quantities.

Ethnic Villages in Nannuo Mountain
Villages in Nannuo Mountain consist of Banpo Laozhai Village(半坡老寨), Duoyizhai Village(南糯山多依寨村), Guniang Village(姑娘寨), Yakou Xinzhai Village(丫口新寨), Laozhai Village(老寨), Shitouzhai Village(石头寨),Zhulincun Village(竹林村寨) ,Xiangyang Village(向阳寨) and Shuihe Village(水河寨).

What is Chi Tse Bing Puerh Tea Cake ?
The origin of the first flip flops puerh tea
The condition usually patties puerh stack of seven cakes is old. It remontrerait the Qing Dynasty (清朝 1644-1912), during which the government decided that the production of puerh should be packed and not only for portability but also to establish a unit easier to handle and as such to applying taxes levied by the empire.
We find a precise and detailed description of the container in puerh written in 1735 during the 13th year of the reign of Yong Zheng (雍正 帝):The puerh cakes were then called Cha Yuan (round tea). Each weighing 7 Liang (357 grams) patties were grouped by 7 in a bamboo tong, whose total weight was 49 Liang. Some argue symbolic reasons when the choice of these numbers, even if it is more likely that their origin is related to that practice and taxation system of the time.

During the communist era, Cha Yuan becomes Beeng Tse Chi Cha
In the 70s, while the puerh was a production status and to promote the tea, the name of Cha Yuan (round tea) was changed to Bing Cha (tea cakes). The wafers were then puerh then called 云南 七 子 饼 茶, Yunnan Qi Zi Bing Cha, name still widely used today and can be found on many cakes, often transcribed not in proper Pinying but in the form of ” Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha. ” Find an appropriate translation of “Yunnan Qi Zi Bing Cha,” is not so easy and simply “seven cakes Yunnan tea” loses the richness of expression. If Yunnan does not pose too many problems and Bing-cha simply means tea cake, Qi-zi is more ambiguous. Qi is the number 7 while that Zi can also mean “child” and refers to the symbolism of abundant offspring. A “Yunnan Qi Zi Bing Cha” would be somehow the cake child among seven other constituting the tong.

Today, and although a large number of traditional cakes always weigh 7 Liang (357g), one sees more new formats. The cake 400g is increasingly common, but also mini-cakes 250g and 100g, cheaper (per wafer), easier to sell and convenient to store or handle. Sometimes point to these contemporary formats adapting the number of wafers by tong, especially for cakes 250g which are sometimes packaged in 5 or 8 or patties 100g that are sometimes found in thong 10 pcs.

The tong tea are then traditionally packed by 12 in a flat woven bamboo basket called Jian (件). During the great era of the road during which the puerh tea was brought back to man or horse, especially to Tibet in Beijing or in Thailand, horses were loaded with 2 jian, a total of 60kg about (168 wafers) and it seems that this was the reason for the Jian. Although today teas are rarely worn on horseback, many teas are always packed and transported jian bamboo, while the industry for his part prefers more the cardboard box. Similarly we often see today jian tong 6 or 8, easier to handle than 12 jian tong.

The traditional packaging and craft of bamboo tong differs between regions or producer to another. Various techniques, often exist in the traditional clothing of the tong. Usually made from bamboo, the number of leaves against their cut, the nature of the rope used to tie the thong or nodes differ employees and give it a unique character. The analysis of these details also helps to ensure the authenticity of some teas, especially for older teas.