Menghai Pu-erh: Bulang, Nannuo and the Strong Style

Menghai is the best-known pu-erh county and the source of the style most drinkers recognise: strong, bitter, deep and slow to soften. The county contains Bulangshan, Nannuo, Mengsong and Bada, each a mountain with its own gardens, and the differences between them are as large as the differences between many prefectures.

The style is a consequence of the climate and the cultivar. Menghai is hot and wet, at 1,200 to 1,800 metres, and the Assamica bushes grow large leaves with a high polyphenol content. That is what reads as bitterness in a young sheng and as depth after twenty years.

The four mountains

Bulangshan is the most famous and the most expensive. It is the home of Laobanzhang and Xinbanzhang, two villages whose tea is the most sought after in the county, and the character is intense bitterness that turns to sweetness with age.

Nannuo is softer and more approachable. It sits lower and nearer to Menghai town, and its tea is floral and less bitter, which makes it a common entry point for drinkers new to the county.

Mengsong is northeast of the town and its tea is known for a thick body and a honeyed sweetness. It is less famous than Bulang and often better value.

Bada is the northern edge of the county, with older plantations and a plainer style. It is the source of much of the county’s commodity leaf.

The old trees and the price

Laobanzhang is the extreme case. Its old-tree tea sells for more than any other village in Yunnan and the price is set by a very small supply meeting a very large demand. Whether the tea is worth the figure is a separate question and the market has answered it.

Most of what is sold under the name is not from the village. The gap between the price of real Laobanzhang and the price of a cake labelled Laobanzhang is one of the widest in tea, and a buyer should treat a low price as evidence rather than as a bargain.

A drinker who wants the Bulang character without the price should look at other villages on the same mountain. The mountain is large and the tea from villages a few kilometres away is often similar at a fraction of the cost.

That is the practical advice for the whole county. The famous name is a small part of the area and the rest is available.

• Menghai gives the strong, bitter style most drinkers recognise.
• Bulangshan contains Laobanzhang and is the most expensive area.
• Nannuo is softer and a good entry point.
• Mengsong is thick and honeyed, often better value.
• Bada is the northern edge and the commodity source.
• Other villages on Bulang give a similar cup for far less.

How the young tea tastes

A young Menghai sheng is bitter, sometimes sharply so, with a strong aroma and a long finish. The bitterness is in the middle of the tongue and it fades into sweetness after swallowing.

That bitterness is the point. It is the marker of the polyphenol content that will become depth with age, and a Menghai tea without it is either not from the county or has been processed to soften it.

The aroma is usually floral and sometimes smoky, from the wok kill-green. A heavy smoke note suggests a careless firing rather than a regional characteristic.

The liquor is pale gold when young and turns amber and then red over twenty years. The colour is a rough indicator of age and it is easy to fake with a hot steep, so the taste is the better check.

A drinker who finds young Menghai too harsh should try it at five years, when the bitterness has begun to soften, or should choose Nannuo rather than Bulang.

The old-tree question

Menghai has a large population of old tea trees, some of them several centuries old, growing in forest gardens rather than in rows. Those trees yield less leaf and the leaf is thicker and more concentrated.

The market pays a large premium for old-tree leaf and the premium is only partly justified by taste. A well-made plantation tea from the same mountain can be excellent, and a careless old-tree tea can be poor.

The distinction is also hard to verify. A buyer cannot count rings on a tree from a cake, and the price is the only signal most sellers offer.

The practical position is to treat old-tree as a quality claim rather than a category, and to judge the cup. A tea that is thick, aromatic and long-finishing is what the premium is supposed to buy.

• Old trees grow in forest gardens, not rows.
• They yield less leaf with more concentration.
• The premium is only partly justified by taste.
• A good plantation tea can beat a poor old-tree tea.
• Tree age cannot be verified from a cake.
• Treat old-tree as a claim and judge the cup.

How to brew a young Menghai

Use 95 to 100 Celsius, five grams per 120 millilitres, and steeps of ten to fifteen seconds. A young Menghai is bitter and a long steep makes it undrinkable rather than merely strong.

The first infusion is often discarded as a rinse, which also removes dust from the press. The second and third are the fullest and the bitterness peaks around the third.

Expect eight to ten infusions. The bitterness fades across the session and the sweetness grows, which is the trajectory that makes the tea worth aging.

A drinker who finds it too harsh can shorten the steeps further or drop the dose to three grams. Young sheng is more sensitive to dose than most teas.

A final point about the name Menghai. It is used on cakes that contain leaf from anywhere in the county and sometimes from outside it, and the county covers a wide range of quality.

A buyer who wants a specific mountain should look for the mountain name and not the county, and should accept that the price will reflect the specificity.

A buyer who wants value should buy the county and not the village, and should judge the tea on its own terms rather than against a famous name it was never going to match.

What the weather does to the style

Menghai has a pronounced dry season from November to April and a wet season from May to October. The spring pick happens at the end of the dry season, when the leaf has grown slowly and accumulated its compounds.

The autumn pick, after the rains, is larger and weaker. It is used in blends and in cheaper cakes, and the market prices spring leaf well above autumn leaf.

A cake that names the season is making a specific claim. A spring Menghai is bitter and aromatic; an autumn one is softer and plainer, and the difference is larger than many drinkers expect.

A buyer who wants the Menghai character should look for a spring pick, and should treat a cake with no season stated as an autumn or a blend.

• Dry season November to April, wet May to October.
• The spring pick ends the dry season.
• Slow growth concentrates the compounds.
• The autumn pick is larger and weaker.
• Spring leaf is priced well above autumn.
• Ask for the season, not only the county.

A note on how the mountain name is used commercially. Bulangshan, Nannuo and Mengsong are all sold as sub-regions, and each has acquired a price level independent of the county’s.

That is useful for a buyer who wants to compare like with like. Two Bulangshan cakes from different producers are more comparable than two Menghai cakes, because the mountain narrows the range of leaf and climate.

It is also a trap, because the mountain name is not protected and a cake labelled Bulangshan may contain leaf from anywhere in the county. The same advice applies as at every level: the producer is the check.

That is the whole of the county as a buying proposition: a large area with one very famous village, several good ones and a great deal of ordinary leaf, all sold under a name that describes none of them precisely.

None of that is a criticism of the tea. Menghai produces some of the best sheng in Yunnan and the county name is a reasonable starting point for a drinker who is learning the region.

Frequently asked questions