Four villages, one mountain
In spring 2024, this flight was sourced on Bulang Mountain, the beating heart of sheng pu-erh. Three weeks went into moving between the four villages that have come to define the region’s reputation — Lao Banzhang, Hekai, Manxinlong, and Pasha — each separated by ridges and mist but united by the same metamorphic soil and ancient tea-garden heritage. Lao Banzhang was first: towering trees, fiercely independent farmers, and a tea so powerful that it lands as a punch that becomes a caress. Hekai, tucked into a cooler valley, offered a softer, fruit-forward character; Manxinlong perched on limestone showed an earthy structure close to old Russian brick teas; Pasha, where tea bushes share ground with forest ferns, delivered a honeyed sweetness and a finish that lingered like a lullaby. At farmhouse tables, each village’s maocha was cupped fresh off the drying mats, and lots were selected that together would read like a map of Bulang’s micro-terroirs. Back at the cellar, the maocha was shaped into 40g mini-cakes — one per village — and rested for six months before release. The flight is a palate trainer, a journey, and a quiet reminder that the mountain’s bitterness is never a single note.