Mengku Pu-erh: Bingdao, Xigui and the High Altitude Style

Mengku is a town in Shuangjiang county, Lincang, and it produces the sweetest and currently the most expensive pu-erh in Yunnan. Its two famous villages are Bingdao and Xigui, both above 1,800 metres, and the altitude is the mechanism: a short cool season concentrates amino acids and reduces the bitter polyphenols, which is why the cup is sweet rather than bitter at 7 g per 100 ml. and both known for a clean, floral, honeyed cup with almost no bitterness. The style is the opposite of Menghai’s, and the price of the top villages has overtaken Bulangshan.

The sweetness is an altitude effect. It is also a price effect: a cake labelled from either village can cost fifty times one from an unnamed garden, and the standard cake is 357 g, so the claim rather than the tea is doing much of the work. Above 1,800 metres the growing season is short and cool, the leaf grows slowly, and it accumulates more amino acids and fewer bitter polyphenols. That is the same mechanism that makes high-elevation tea prized everywhere, and it is unusually pronounced in Mengku.

Bingdao and Xigui

Bingdao means ice island, and the name comes from a village whose old trees are among the most expensive in China. The tea is intensely aromatic, sweet and cooling, with a finish that lingers for a minute or more. Brew it at 7 g per 100 ml with boiling water and a rinse first, and judge from the third infusion where the leaf is fully open.

Xigui is in a neighbouring valley and its tea is fuller and slightly more bitter than Bingdao’s, with a stronger body. It is less expensive and many drinkers prefer it for exactly that reason.

Both are sold at prices that put them out of reach for most drinkers, and both are heavily imitated. A cake labelled Bingdao at a moderate price is almost certainly from elsewhere in Mengku or from another county entirely.

The honest advice is to buy the region rather than the village. A Mengku sheng from an unnamed garden at a reasonable price gives most of the character at a fraction of the cost.

What the style tastes like

Sweetness is the first impression and it arrives before the bitterness. A Bingdao is sweet on the first sip, which is unusual for a young sheng and is the reason for its reputation.

The aroma is floral and sometimes honeyed, closer to a high-mountain oolong than to the smoky floral of Menghai. The finish is long and cooling, with a sensation in the throat that Chinese tasters call hou yun.

The body is lighter than Menghai’s and the bitterness is low to absent. That makes it more approachable young and it also means it has less to convert with age, which is why some drinkers argue that Mengku ages less dramatically.

That argument is plausible and unproven. The tea does change with age and the change is subtler than a Menghai cake’s, which is a difference of degree rather than of kind.

• Mengku is in Shuangjiang county, Lincang.
• Bingdao and Xigui are the two famous villages.
• Altitude above 1,800 metres produces the sweetness.
• The style is floral, honeyed and low in bitterness.
• Mengku is the opposite of Menghai in character.
• Buy the region rather than the village to get value.

Buying and aging

A Mengku sheng is drinkable young, which is unusual and is part of its appeal. A drinker does not have to wait ten years to enjoy it, and that changes the economics of buying.

For aging, a five-year Mengku is noticeably softer and honeyed, and a ten-year one has developed dried fruit. The trajectory is real and gentler than a Menghai cake’s.

Storage should be the same as for any sheng: moderate humidity, no odours, no light, and air movement. The delicate aromatics of a Mengku tea are more easily lost than a Menghai’s, so a clean storage environment matters more.

A drinker with limited money who wants the style should buy a young Mengku from a named garden rather than an aged one from an unnamed source. The young tea shows the character and the price is manageable.

The county also produces a large volume of ordinary leaf, which is sold as Lincang pu-erh without a village name. That is a legitimate product and it is the most affordable way into the regional style.

The price of the top villages

Bingdao old-tree tea has sold at figures that put it among the most expensive agricultural products in China by weight, and the price has risen faster than any other village in Yunnan.

The supply is tiny. The old-tree gardens at Bingdao are a few hectares, and the annual output is measured in hundreds of kilograms rather than tonnes.

That combination of a small supply and a famous name produces a price that has little to do with the cup. A drinker paying it is buying scarcity and status as much as tea.

The honest advice is to buy the region. A Mengku sheng from an unnamed garden at a tenth of the price gives most of the character, and a drinker who wants the style is served by it.

• Bingdao old-tree tea is among the most expensive in China.
• The old-tree gardens are a few hectares.
• Annual output is measured in hundreds of kilograms.
• The price reflects scarcity and status as much as taste.
• An unnamed Mengku garden gives most of the character.
• Buy the region for value, the village for the experience.

Brewing a high-altitude sheng

Use 90 to 95 Celsius rather than a full boil, four grams per 120 millilitres, and steeps of fifteen to twenty seconds. The leaf is more delicate than a Menghai and a full boil flattens the aroma.

The first infusion is worth keeping rather than discarding, because the sweetness arrives immediately and a rinse throws it away.

Expect six to eight infusions. The aroma fades before the sweetness does, so the later steeps are sweet water rather than aromatic tea.

A drinker comparing a Mengku and a Menghai should brew both at the same dose and temperature, and should taste them blind. The difference is large enough to identify without knowing which is which.

A final note about the imitation problem. Because Bingdao is so expensive and so small, the market contains a great deal of tea labelled Bingdao that is not, and the substitution is hard to detect without a reference point.

The practical defense is to buy from a producer who names the garden and the picking date, and to accept that a genuine Bingdao at a moderate price does not exist.

For most drinkers the region is enough. A Mengku sheng from a named garden gives the sweetness and the altitude character at a price that permits a daily habit.

What high altitude actually changes

Above 1,800 metres the growing season runs late and the temperature swings between day and night. The bush grows slowly, the leaf is smaller and thicker, and the amino acid content is higher.

Amino acids taste sweet and savoury, and they are the reason a Bingdao is sweet before the bitterness arrives. The polyphenols are still present; they are simply outnumbered.

The same mechanism applies in every high-altitude tea region, from Darjeeling to the Taiwanese mountains. What makes Mengku distinctive is how pronounced the effect is and how clean the cup stays.

The cost is yield. A high-altitude bush produces less leaf, which is part of why the price is high and part of why the style cannot be mass-produced.

• Above 1,800 metres the season is late and cool.
• The bush grows slowly and the leaf is thicker.
• Amino acid content is higher and reads as sweetness.
• Polyphenols are present but outnumbered.
• The effect appears in every high-altitude region.
• Yield is lower, which supports the price.

A note on the difference between the two famous villages as a buying decision. Bingdao is sweeter and more aromatic; Xigui is fuller and slightly more bitter, with a stronger body and a longer finish.

A drinker who wants the delicate high-altitude style should prefer Bingdao, and one who wants more weight should prefer Xigui. The second is also considerably cheaper for reasons of fame rather than quality.

Both are so expensive that most drinkers will meet them as samples rather than as cakes. That is the sensible way to approach the top of this market, and it is how the villages are usually tasted in China.

That is the whole of Mengku as a buying proposition: a small high-altitude area with two famous villages, a large volume of unnamed garden tea, and a style that is easier to recognise than to afford.

None of that is a criticism of the tea either. Mengku produces a style that no other area reproduces, and the unnamed garden teas are the most sensible way for most drinkers to reach it.

Frequently asked questions