Měnghǎi Hèkāi chá

Měnghǎi Hèkāi chá (勐海贺开茶) is a geographical mark for tea from Hekai Mountain (贺开), Menghai County (勐海县), Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Hekai is a village committee of Menghun Town with a large continuous tract of old gardens; the main villages of the mountain are Lahu. 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 descriptions of Hekai’s taste that were found describe raw pu-erh (生茶, shēngchá).
• Category: Geographical mark of an individual mountain 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), Menghun Town (勐混镇, Měnghùn Zhèn), Hekai village committee (贺开村委会). The committee lies east of Menghun; according to reference data, its center is 8.2 km from the town.
• 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 mountain 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:
  • Old trees. Descriptions count the age of the oldest trees in centuries. On the boundary between the villages of Mannong Laozhai and Mannong Xinzhai grow more than ten “tea kings”; the largest has a girth at the base of 2.12 m and a height of 3.8 m. The age is estimated differently: one trade publication — about 800 years, a 2016 description — more than 1400 years, a 2022 newspaper writes of a dozen trees “about a thousand years old”. These are estimates, not a dating.
  • 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 “勐海贺开茶” was registered: the provincial list of geographical trademarks of Yunnan as of December 28, 2019 lists it in row 219, 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.
  • 2022. For International Tea Day a provincial newspaper included Hekai in a selection on the ten most beautiful tea mountains of Yunnan.
• Name: “Menghai” (勐海) is the name of the county; “Hekai” (贺开) is the name of the village committee and of the mountain, and the meaning of the place name is not explained in the sources consulted; “cha” (茶, chá) means tea.
• Cultural significance: The main people of Hekai are the Lahu; their villages stand among the old gardens, and the houses are wooden, on stilts (干栏式木楼). One trade publication places Hekai among the neighboring mountains right after Lao Banzhang.

3. Botanical Description and Raw Material

• Variety / Cultivar: No distinct variety is named in the sources consulted. According to the description, the trees of the old gardens are pu-erh tea, the large-leaf variety Camellia sinensis var. assamica.
• 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; it is unknown whether the mark covers only the leaf of old trees.

4. Terroir and Cultivation Features

• Region: According to a 2022 newspaper description, to the east the mountain borders Pasha tea mountain, to the south — Bulangshan, to the north — Nannuoshan.
• Growing altitude: 1400–1700 m according to two descriptions; the village of Mannong Laozhai — about 1750 m.
• Climate: For the mountain as a whole one description gives an average annual temperature of 18.1 °C, 129 foggy days a year and humidity of 82 %; reference data for the village committee are 17.6 °C and 1329.6 mm of precipitation a year.
• Soils: According to the description — red lateritic (in the text 红砖壤), with a deep fertile layer, weakly acidic, pH 4–5.5.
• Area: The data diverge. The 2022 newspaper writes of a mountain with an area of about 50 km², more than 9000 mu (about 600 ha) of continuous old gardens and about 7000 mu of old-tree gardens. Trade publications give the three core villages — Manmai, Mannong Laozhai and Mannong Xinzhai — 7240 mu (about 483 ha) of continuous old gardens; the 2016 description gives about 13,000 mu of old trees for the whole village committee.
• Villages: The village committee has nine villages (村民小组). Old gardens, according to the 2016 description, belong to six of them: Manmai, Mannong Laozhai, Mannong Xinzhai, Mannan, Banpen Xinzhai and Banpen Laozhai. Descriptions count six or seven Lahu villages on the mountain. Mannong Laozhai, according to one publication, has more than 3500 mu of old gardens.

5. Production Technology

The technology fixed by the mark is not described in the sources consulted. The general scheme of the class for raw pu-erh under the standard GB/T 22111-2008, not a description of Hekai 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); it is sorted, steamed, pressed and dried. Raw pu-erh has no pile fermentation (渥堆, wòduī).

6. Organoleptic Characteristics

These are descriptions of Hekai raw pu-erh from the newspaper and trade publications; there is no laboratory tasting behind them.

• Dry leaf appearance: The strands are dark, glossy, tight, slightly elongated (the 2022 newspaper).
• Dry leaf aroma: A separate description is not found in the sources consulted.
• Liquor aroma: Dense and calm, high and clean, with a light orchid note.
• Taste: Dense, full and smooth, “thick but not heavy”. Bitterness and astringency are light, the astringency more noticeable than the bitterness; the bitterness quickly turns into sweetness, the sweet return (回甘, huígān) is long, salivation comes quickly. The newspaper description adds a strong “mountain-forest” character.
• Liquor color: Golden yellow, bright.
• Spent leaves (wet leaves): No descriptions in the sources consulted.

7. Chemical Composition

Physicochemical data on Hekai 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 all 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; the leaf of old trees withstands many infusions.

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 “勐海贺开茶” and that the producer works in Menghai County; the mark does not confirm the class of tea or the age of the trees, and the words “古树” (old trees) are the seller’s claim.
  • “Hekai” on the wrapper is the name of a mountain of nine villages; the name of a specific village (Mannong, Manmai) is more precise, but it too is confirmed only by the seller.
  • Do not confuse the Manmai of Hekai with Bada Manmai — the latter has its own mark, “勐海巴达曼迈茶”.
  • Pointers from the descriptions: a dark glossy leaf, a golden liquor, an orchid note.

11. Interesting Facts

• In Mannong Laozhai tea trees grow between the houses of the village.
• The largest of Hekai’s “tea kings” is only 3.8 m tall, although descriptions give it from 800 to more than 1400 years.
• The 2022 newspaper called Hekai one of the best-preserved and largest continuous tracts of old gardens in Xishuangbanna.

12. Comparison with Neighboring Teas

• Lao Banzhang (老班章): A village of neighboring Bulangshan, the benchmark of powerful raw pu-erh; Hekai is described as softer and smoother.
• Bulangshan (布朗山): Hekai’s southern neighbor; descriptions often assign Hekai to the same “Bulang” group of mountains.
• Nannuoshan (南糯山): The northern neighbor, a historic tea massif of Menghai with a soft floral-honey profile.

In Conclusion:

Měnghǎi Hèkāi chá is a mark for tea from a Lahu mountain where the old gardens stretch in a continuous tract, and in one of the oldest villages tea trees stand between the houses. Descriptions depict a dense, smooth raw pu-erh with an orchid note and quick sweetness. The figures for the area of the old gardens diverge almost twofold, and the mark fixes neither the class of tea nor the age of the trees; what the descriptions agree on is the altitude of 1400–1700 m, the fogs and the acidic red soils.

Sources

Standards

• GB/T 22111-2008

Full list — on the Sources page