From the ancient mountains to the wild tea forests, here's everything you need to know about the incredible flavours of Yunnan. The mild spring-like climate of China's most South Westerly province means it's home to a wide variety of teas.
The 'New World' of Tea
In the spring of 2021, we began our search for the season's best white teas. Naturally, we first scoured China's most reputable white tea origin, Fujian province. We found very high prices, which reflected the limited supply and increasing domestic demand, but only sometimes the taste quality. As a result, we turned our sights away from the East of China, deep into the southwest province of Yunnan. This is not usually considered a place to find formidable white tea, but things have changed since we first set foot in Yunnan almost two decades ago.
Yunnan has some epic natural resources, including mountain ranges, ancient forests and deep gorges.
Discovering our Organic Yunnan White Peony last year was the revelation that put Yunnan at the forefront of our search for new, organic and masterfully crafted teas. While speaking to organic farmers in Yunnan, we found that they were now considering the province as the 'new world' of tea, to coin a term from the world of wine. But it makes perfect sense – with a history dating back thousands of years, the appreciation for tea in Yunnan is much like wine. Yet, at the same time, this mountainous province also sees itself as the way forward for Chinese tea. In this deep dive, we'll explore Yunnan to uncover what makes it such a unique place for tea, what it already does well and what it is trying to do.
What Is Yunnan Like?
Yunnan is the most south-westerly province of China, a mountainous border region. In the north, the mountains, some more than 6,000m high, form part of the Tibetan plateau. In the south, the area is home to tropical rainforests, which contain some of the largest biodiversity densities in the world.
Yunnan's mountain ranges join China to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, with northern India only a short distance away. This makes Yunnan one of China's most ethnically diverse provinces, with ethnic minorities accounting for about 34% of its total population and many living in small, rural villages among the mountains.
Groups like the Dai, Miao, Yi, Blang, Lahu and countless other indigenous people bring a wealth of culture to Yunnan, with more than 20 dialects and languages spoken. With this comes lots of colourful traditional dress and, of course, plenty of tea being produced.
These different groups also celebrate their own festivals, where you'll likely find entire villages hosting a banquet feast with regional-style dishes like whole steamed fish with chilli and lemongrass, wild mushroom hot pot, pumpkin and melon tip soup, fermented cabbages and even a colourful variety of different kinds of indigenous rice.
Yunnan is one of the most ethnically diverse provinces of China, with ethnic minorities accounting for about 34% of its total population.
16 Centuries of Tea Making
According to legend, tea cultivation began during the 4th century in this area of ancient China. However, it was only a few centuries later, during the Tang Dynasty, that the creation of a winding trade network, now known as the Ancient Tea Horse Road, would pass directly from Yunnan up into Tibet and beyond. In addition to proving tea's worth as an important export, this trade route encouraged the growth of a unique tea culture within the province. There are now hundreds of mountains where tea is produced in Yunnan, often by single households or villages, some of which have gained serious fame for their ancient tea gardens of more than 1000 years old or even wild tea trees.
Our Ai Lao Puerh tea is picked from hundreds of years old trees in an ancient, unspoilt forest.
What Makes Tea from Yunnan so Different?
What keeps us going back to Yunnan is its wealth of tastes and unique flavours, crafted by masters with centuries of tea know-how handed down from one generation to the next. Here, tea is often crafted using the indigenous Assamica varietal of the tea bush, known for producing teas with a thick texture and rich flavour. This varietal can grow in most tea gardens and among many wild forests high up in the mountains, surrounded by bamboo and pine trees. Here, the tea bushes can grow into full-sized tea trees of 15 ft over hundreds of years. These natural factors make Yunnan a unique proposition among the famous tea regions of China.
Tea here is often crafted using the indigenous Assamica varietal of the tea bush, which is known for producing teas with a thick texture and rich flavour.
Where other provinces in China have seen a rise in issues such as the over-saturation of certain teas, land clearing, and the use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers, Yunnan has maintained a much better reputation for organic farming practices. So, while holding on to its tradition of tea craft, we found that the tea makers of Yunnan are also seeing hold the ability to adapt, using new and experimental cultivars or taking famous styles of tea from other regions and producing them organically – inflected with a unique twist from their own, ancient terroir.
With a wealth of unique flavours and tastes, each tea grown in Yunnan tells a story of provenance.
But looking at the heart of the tea culture in Yunnan, the parallels with wine ring true. Tea from Yunnan is all about provenance. This means that batches of tea are often named after the specific village or mountain range where they were picked and produced, focusing on the year and seasonality. This helps tea drinkers better understand tea's 'taste of place'. This idea of provenance is mainly associated with Puerh tea, a tea type only produced in Yunnan, but can also be found in our recent batch of Organic Cherrywood Lapsang tea. The name alone tells the story of this tea; smoked black tea that has been arriving from China since the early days of tea clippers when it was known as Bohea tea - the spelling in the local dialect for Wuyi Mountains. Our Cherrywood Lapsang takes a black tea from Yunnan Province, China and pairs it with cherrywood smoke for an outstanding flavour – aspects that significantly affect the flavours in your cup.
Which Yunnan Teas Should I Try First?
Although primarily known for its puerh and black teas, diving into teas from Yunnan is a great way to discover a broad range of flavours from many different tea types. In the last year alone, we've selected a diverse range of teas from the region – some for their engaging and revered flavours, while others for their fresh, organic take on an old tradition. Here are three teas well worth exploring to get you started:
Red Dragon
Try this if you like a good cup of malty and rich black tea but you'd like even more layers of sweet spices and red fruit notes with an indulgent chocolatey finish.
Produced in Ximeng Garden by tea maker Chen Qiguang, this fruity black tea is one of our long-standing favourites from Yunnan. Almost a decade ago, high up in the mountains, Chen decided to risk growing an imported Taiwanese varietal of tea bush, which is uncommon in the area. It was traditionally cultivated to make a creamy and fruity oolong tea. Still, with Yunnan's terroir and the local expertise in black tea processing, the experimental combination produced something unique.
Our Red Dragon is a unique black tea. You'll find multi-layered flavours of lychee, raspberry and malt, with hints of milk chocolate.
Organic Yunnan White Peony
Try this if you're after a tea that will leave you incredibly refreshed. It has delicate, floral aromas and mellow, sweet nectarine and rose notes.
Produced in Dahei Garden by tea maker Yang Jian, this tea set us on the journey of sourcing even more organic teas from Yunnan. Although we're not used to seeing this white tea style from producers in Yunnan, we were excited to see more innovation and experimentation in the region. If you're a fan of white teas like Jasmine Silver Needle or our Aged White Peony, this is easy to love.
Dahei Garden in Yunnan, China where tea bushes grow at an elevation of 1800m.
Ai Lao Mountains Raw Puerh
If you're looking for something refreshingly complex with a unique bitter-sweet flavour that you can infuse repeatedly, definitely try this tea.
It's hard to talk about Yunnan and not mention puerh tea. This province's most famous tea type is as traditional as it gets. Composed of spring-picked leaves from the indigenous Assamica tea varietal, the leaves are pan-fried and rolled before being compressed to form a cake known as a 'being' in China using stone moulds. What I love about this tea is that it sets the trend for teas from Yunnan, being all about provenance and origin. But tasting this tea is also quite an experience – break off a chunk of cake and infuse it to reveal large, whole leaves with a fruity, minerally and almost bitter-sweet taste.
Our Ai Lao Mountains Raw Puerh is traditionally infused 'gong fu' style in a gaiwan for a complex, concentrated taste.
What's the Best Way to Enjoy Yunnan Teas?
Our glass Tea-ieresTM works for all these teas, making it super easy to get a great taste, and our simple recipes will ensure the perfect cup every time. In Yunnan, the locals often enjoy their tea in the 'gong fu' style, a standard method for infusing tea throughout China. This technique calls for a higher proportion of leaves and less water to prepare multiple, short infusions. Because of the lower volume of water, you'll often see a small teapot or a gaiwan (lidded bowl) being used, though we like to use our Tea Master to make it even easier. Making tea this way delivers a concentrated view of the flavours and aromas, which you can follow as they evolve throughout the infusions. If you want to try this at home, then here's an essential guide you can try, which is a great place to start for any of our teas:
Start by preheating your teapot with some boiling water for 30 seconds. Discard this water and immediately add 4g of tea leaves. Allow these to sit for a few seconds in the hot teapot to release the aroma – this is my favourite bit, as the fragrance of tea can be so enjoyable! Then add 125ml of hot water (check the temperature of your tea) and allow it to infuse for 30-40 seconds. Pour out the whole infusion and enjoy. You can re-infuse your tea multiple times, adding a few more seconds each time. You can think about how the intensity of the taste evolves and what notes you're finding, or sit and be mindful about the process by enjoying a relaxing tea session.
What's next for Yunnan?
As the Chinese tea markets continue to boom along with a growing interest around the world for Yunnan's speciality teas, we're seeing a fantastic amount of growth in the more remote tea regions of the province. Dealing directly with tea farmers has meant that their villages, once only accessible by foot or motorbike, now have fresh new roads. Small communities are expanding their tea production facilities with better equipment, and new homes are being built. All of this is improving the quality of life for the people who are growing and crafting some of our favourite teas.
To help set the importance of origin in stone, we're also seeing more of the famous tea mountains from the region apply for PGI (protected geographical indication). This means that tea from the area will be protected with a new status level, bringing awareness to the quality and authenticity of Yunnan's most famous regions, ensuring direct trade with communities who craft our tea and protecting the environment in and around the tea gardens. We're also hopeful that we will continue to discover more experimental teas, such as Taiwanese-style oolongs grown in the high mountains of Yunnan, and more complex, aged puerh teas.
Teas from Yunnan To Try:
- Organic Cherrywood Lapsang
- Organic Yunnan White Peony
- Red Dragon
- Ai Lao Puerh
