Early spring harvest of Ye Sheng Cha wild tea in Da Xue Shan 大雪山

30. 11. 2024

Da Xue Shan 大雪山 is a 3480m high mountain located in the Lincang region of southwestern Yunnan. Its peak is covered with snow all year round, hence the name Great Snow Mountain (Da Xue Shan 大雪山). Wild tea (Ye Sheng Cha 量茶茶, often called by Yunnan farmers as Shan Cha 山茶, ) grows here in the mountainous terrain at an altitude of 2000-2300 m. Despite growing at such a high altitude, it germinates earlier than most common teas in Yunnan and the rest of China. At the end of March, the tea is ready to be harvested. Daxueshan wild tea is famous for its delicate taste and fragrance of wild orchid. The local farmers are from the Li Su minority group, which is a very rare race in Yunnan that typically lives in high mountains in China. The nature of these people is that they would rather make less tea and live a simple life as they always have.

Ye Sheng Cha wild tea trees grow in the mountains among other trees. An uninitiated tourist may not even notice that he is moving among old tea trees. The age of the trees can reach well over 500 years, but the average age of the trees is 300-400 years. The youngest trees from which the leaves are harvested are approximately 150 years old, the resulting material is a mixture of leaves from trees of different ages. The altitude of the forest with tea trees is approximately 2000-2300 m. 

When we talk about wild tea, we mean tea that grows naturally in the mountains in the wild without human intervention. Ye Sheng Cha 重自茶, which is the correct name for wild tea, has two typical characteristics. The first is that it has almost no pubescence on the buds and the second is that even the long shoot keeps its leaf sheath.

The local foragers are from the Li Su minority group, which is a very rare race in Yunnan that typically lives in high mountains in China. The nature of these people is that they would rather make less tea and live a simple life as they always have. They poke at old trees for generations in such a way as not to damage the tree in the slightest. Most of them have never been involved in anything other than tea and have been climbing tea trees since childhood. Children thus begin their lives among the tea plants.

In the evening below the hill at a small tea factory, the purchase of tea leaves begins. The leaves are sorted according to the need and quality of the harvest. People from the Li Su minority group are only dedicated to collecting tea, they are not involved in processing and eventual sale.

The factory starts processing almost immediately. The tea leaves are left to wither slightly and then they are pan-baked, which is a traditional way to stop the oxidation (kill-green step). The tea is then dried in the sun in well-ventilated greenhouse-like halls.

The resulting Mao Cha is either consumed directly or left to age in a free form, or in a pressed form, typically as a cake.

You can find this Maocha, loose and pressed, in our catalog and not only from this year's harvest, but also from previous years. You can taste it at our tea tasting events, which we do at least once a month throughout the country and abroad. At these events, you will have the opportunity to learn a lot of interesting things not only about teas from Daxueshan, but also about many other locations. At the same time, you will see the listed photos in full resolution. For more information about our events, do not hesitate to contact us.

The photos above document the 2023 harvest. Check out some more photos from this year's (2024) harvest below.