Měnghǎi Dà'ān chá

Měnghǎi Dà’ān chá (勐海大安茶) is a geographical mark for tea from the Da’an (大安) village committee of Mengsong Township (勐宋乡), Menghai County (勐海县), Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Mengsong is one of the oldest tea areas of Menghai: eleven old gardens around Huazhu Liangzi Mountain, the highest point of Xishuangbanna. In trade descriptions the names heard most often are Da’an itself and Manxiliang, a Lahu village of the committee. Which class of tea the mark covers is not stated in the documents consulted.

1. Classification and Origin

• Type: Not specified in the mark’s document. The old gardens of Menghai are a source of large-leaf raw material above all for pu-erh, but red and white tea are also made from the same leaf; the register does not say which product the mark covers. The taste descriptions found concern raw pu-erh (生茶, shēngchá).
• Category: Geographical mark of a village committee of Menghai County — a collective or certification trademark.
• Origin: China, Yunnan Province (云南, Yúnnán), Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Menghai County (勐海县, Měnghǎi Xiàn), Mengsong Township (勐宋乡, Měngsòng Xiāng), Da’an village committee (大安村委会). The committee comprises nine villages (村民小组) under five names: Shang Da’an (上大安, “upper Da’an”, two groups), Xia Da’an (下大安, “lower Da’an”, four groups), Manxilongdai (曼西龙傣), Manxilongla (曼西龙拉) and Manxiliang (曼西良).
• Neighbors: The village committees of Sanmai (三迈) to the east, Manmai (曼迈) to the south, Banglong (蚌龙) to the west and north.
• Mark zone: The provincial list names only the prefecture and the county — this is the administrative affiliation of the mark holder; I have not checked the legal boundary of the zone, and the boundary of the committee as the zone of the mark is not confirmed in the sources consulted.
• Geographic coordinates: Exact coordinates are not found in the sources consulted.

2. History and Cultural Significance

• History:
  • The Lahu and the settlers. The native inhabitants of Mengsong, according to descriptions, are the Lahu; the old gardens of the area were mostly planted by them, and their old villages stand next to the gardens. Han settlers, according to one description, began coming to Mengsong at the end of the Qing; in 1931 people from Yiwu opened a tea shop here. One trade publication calls Da’an itself a Bulang village — this diverges from the general picture of a Lahu area, and I could not verify it.
  • 2012–2014. The county tea industry technical service center (勐海县茶叶技术服务中心) filed an application for the umbrella certification mark “勐海茶” in 2012; it was registered in 2014.
  • Before 2019. The mark “勐海大安茶” was registered: the provincial list of geographical trademarks of Yunnan as of December 28, 2019 lists it in row 225, next to the umbrella “勐海茶” and fourteen other marks of mountains and villages of the county (the press in 2022 wrote of sixteen). The registration number, holder, year and product class are not named in the sources consulted; whether the mark is still in force is not confirmed.
• Name: “Menghai” (勐海) is the name of the county; “Da’an” (大安) is the name of the village committee, by its characters “great peace”, although the origin of the place name is not explained in the sources consulted; “cha” (茶, chá) means tea.
• Cultural significance: The Mengsong of Menghai County is called “big Mengsong” (大勐宋) — as distinct from the village of the same name in Jinghong, “little Mengsong”. The trade lists Da’an among the “seven villages of Mengsong” (勐宋七寨) — next to Baotang, Naka and Damanlü.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Variety / Cultivar: Not named in the sources consulted. General descriptions of Mengsong call the leaf large and downy; of Manxiliang it is said that the buds there are relatively large, and the largest leaf, unfolded, reaches 15 cm.
• Tree age: For the old gardens of Mengsong descriptions give from 100 to 700 or from 200 to 600 years; the oldest is said to be the Baotang Laozhai garden — 500–700 years. There are no estimates for Da’an specifically.
• Garden types: According to the description, the village of Manxiliang has more than 400 mu (about 27 ha) of old-tree gardens and more than 1000 mu (about 67 ha) of terrace tea (台地茶, táidìchá).
• Harvest: Timing is not given in the sources consulted.
• Harvest standard: Not given in the sources consulted.
• Raw material requirements: Rules of the mark are not found in the sources consulted.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: According to one description, the Da’an garden lies in the central part of Mengsong, and Manxiliang in the southeastern part. To the east Mengsong borders Jinghong, to the south — Gelanghe Township, and across the Liushahe River it faces Nannuoshan. The old gardens of the area lie around Huazhu Liangzi Mountain (滑竹梁子) — the highest point of Xishuangbanna, 2429 m; the mountain takes in the lands of five village committees, Da’an among them.
• Growing altitude: For Mengsong — 1500–1800 m; the reference altitude of the Da’an committee is 1698 m. The village of Manxiliang, on the western side of Huazhu Liangzi closer to the southern edge, lies at about 1880 m according to reference data (one trade publication gives 1756 m).
• Climate: For Mengsong an average annual temperature of about 18 °C is given. Reference data for the Da’an committee are 17 °C and about 1480 mm of precipitation a year, for the village of Manxiliang — 17 °C and 1500 mm.
• Soils: Descriptions of Mengsong call the soils predominantly red (红壤); at Manxiliang, according to the description, they are the same as at Naka.
• Area: According to the description, the Da’an committee has about 7000 mu (about 470 ha) of tea gardens, old and young together. Descriptions count about 3800 mu of old gardens in all of Mengsong; one trade publication gives Da’an itself 1300 mu — about a third of this number.

5. Production Technology

The technology fixed by the mark is not described in the sources consulted. Of Manxiliang it is said only that the tea there is processed by hand by the Lahu. The general scheme of the class for raw pu-erh under the standard GB/T 22111-2008, not a description of Da’an tea specifically: the fresh leaf is spread out (摊放, tānfàng), fixed by heat (杀青, shāqīng), rolled (揉捻, róuniǎn), the clumps are broken up and the leaf is dried in the sun (日光干燥, rìguāng gānzào). The result is “sun-dried raw tea” (晒青毛茶, shàiqīng máochá); for raw pu-erh it is sorted, steamed, pressed and dried, without pile fermentation (渥堆, wòduī).

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

Under the name Da’an one trade description was found; the rest concern the village of Manxiliang, which belongs to the committee, and Mengsong as a whole. There is no laboratory tasting behind them.

• Dry leaf appearance: General description of Mengsong: the strands are large, with noticeable down. Of Manxiliang it is said that the strands can be both tight and loose, and the buds relatively large.
• Dry leaf aroma: The general description of Mengsong calls it fresh, greenish (青香).
• Liquor aroma: At Manxiliang — high and distinctive, sweet, floral, with a note of young bamboo (青竹香).
• Taste: At Manxiliang — light bitterness, weak astringency, strong salivation, a distinct and long sweet return (回甘, huígān). The description under the name Da’an paints a different character: a rich, “domineering” taste with noticeable bitterness and astringency, a strong sweet return and coolness in the throat.
• Liquor color: There are no descriptions for Manxiliang. The general description of Mengsong calls the liquor golden and bright; the description of neighboring Baotang — deep yellow and clear.
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): General description of Mengsong: soft, tender and even.

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical data on Da’an tea are not found in the sources consulted. For reference — the class norm, not a measurement: the standard GB/T 22111-2008 requires of raw pu-erh no less than 28.0 % polyphenols and 35.0 % water-soluble substances at a moisture content of no more than 13.0 %.

8. Brewing

Class practice — for raw pu-erh, to which the descriptions found refer; red or white tea from the same leaf is brewed differently.

• Water temperature: 95–100 °C.
• Tea amount: 5–7 g per 100 ml.
• Teaware: Gaiwan (盖碗, gàiwǎn) or a clay teapot.
• Process:
  1. Warm the teaware and add the tea.
  2. Rinse the leaf with hot water for 5–10 seconds and pour it off.
  3. First infusion — 10–15 seconds; pour out through a pitcher.
  4. Further infusions, adding time to each.

9. Storage

Class practice. A dry, clean, ventilated place without odors or direct light, a paper wrapper or a box. Raw pu-erh allows long aging; over the years its appearance and taste change.

10. Price and Counterfeits

Prices are not found in the sources consulted.

• How to avoid counterfeits:
  • Check for the mark “勐海大安茶” and that the producer works in Menghai County. The mark says nothing about either the class of tea or the age of the trees.
  • The words “古树” (old trees) are the seller’s claim: Manxiliang alone has more than a thousand mu of terrace gardens.
  • Do not confuse the “big Mengsong” of Menghai with the “little Mengsong” of Jinghong.

11. Interesting Facts

• At least three places in the county bear the name Manmai: the village committee neighboring Da’an in Mengsong, a village of Hekai Mountain and a village of the Bada area.
• Manxiliang lies 4 km from the village committee and 12 km from the township center.

12. Comparison with Neighboring Teas

• Naka (那卡): A Lahu village of the same Mengsong, its best-known name; Da’an and Manxiliang are other villages of the same area.
• Huazhuliangzi Shengcha (滑竹梁子生茶): Raw pu-erh from the mountain around which the gardens of Mengsong lie, including those of Da’an.
• Nannuoshan (南糯山): A tea massif on the other side of the Liushahe River.

In Conclusion:

Měnghǎi Dà’ān chá is a mark for tea from the central part of “big Mengsong”, the Lahu area around the highest mountain of Xishuangbanna. There are few descriptions of Da’an itself, and they diverge: the only description found under this name speaks of a strong, slightly bitter tea, while the descriptions of its village of Manxiliang, at an altitude of about 1880 m, speak of a bamboo aroma, mild bitterness and long sweetness. The mark confirms the name of the place, but not the class of tea and not the age of the trees.

Sources

Standards

• GB/T 22111-2008

Full list — on the Sources page