From around the Grain Rain period, the romantic mountain flowers on Heavenly Mountain in Changning gradually retreat, while the greenery begins to breathe freely and grow luxuriantly, spreading out under the blue sky and white clouds into a sea of green. Among all the green leaves, the most captivating are the Tea leaves that grow in or near the forest line, their light fragrance telling people that Heavenly Mountain is also a paradise for tea.
Walking through the fruit pine forest, watching the sunlight filter through the treetops onto the tender Green Tea leaves, Dong Yunwen, the new generation tea person from Mengxin Tea Co., Ltd., touches this patch of tea leaves, looks at those bud tips, as if she has entered her own fairy tale kingdom.
Dong Yunwen says: “The first time I followed my father to this tea mountain, I was still in high school, watching him excitedly walking into the large pine forest, I asked him what a tea maker was doing in this pine forest, he told me it was because there were very special teas here. Hearing his words, I realized that there were indeed many tea trees in the pine forest. Later, every year during this season when I couldn't find my father at home, I could guess that he must have come here again. Now I have started making tea too, and like my father, every season I come to this pine forest, the scent of pine flowers and tea leaves mixed together gives a particularly calming and comfortable feeling.”
In 2012, Dong Yunwen's father, Dong Yanhe, accidentally came across this fruit pine forest on Heavenly Mountain and fell in love with the tea here. Because after years of making tea, he knew that this tea was not only purely ecological and zero-pollution but also met the requirement of tea trees liking diffused and scattered light. So, he signed contracts with the villagers involved in this pine forest, managing 1,380 acres of tea land by the company and setting up an ecological Tea processing factory. The sun-dried tea produced had a light pine Flower fragrance in its aroma, hence earning a poetic name – Pine Flower tea.
Compared to Dong Yunwen and her father, Hui Mingdong, a villager from Waigang Village Waisongpo Villager Group who manages the tea mountain and makes tea in the factory all year round, has even deeper feelings for this tea. After roasting a small pot of tea made from fresh leaves picked that morning, Hui Mingdong drank it while chatting about his connection with this tea.
Hui Mingdong says: “This tea was planted by my father and us in 1986, later because tea took longer to generate income and wasn't worth much back then, we planted fruit pine trees in the tea fields. Now, my father has been gone for many years, he always instructed us to guard this forest well, and guard the tea in the forest well. Although I am just helping the company work now, thinking about being able to accompany this forest and this tea, I feel very happy.”
“Good tea isn't afraid to be late. In the past, many people liked to drink spring tail tea because it tasted more like tea. Our tea grows later than other places' tea, generally only harvested in large quantities at the end of spring, and just at this time coincides with the scattering of pine pollen, so the pine flower aroma in the tea is stronger.” Says Hui Mingdong.
Weng Mingde, who also runs a tea forest and factory, has been busy picking and processing Pine Flower Tea during this period. Weng Mingde introduces that his family's “Pine Flower Tea” covers 150 acres, which was planted by his father after finding tea seeds everywhere. In recent years, like Mengxin Company, his family has managed the forest in a completely wild manner except for pruning where the forest is too dense, ensuring the tea is purely ecological and pollution-free.
“This Pine Flower Tea, due to its ecological nature and unique taste, has become increasingly popular among tea lovers in recent years.” Says Weng Mingde, “Judging from our Pine Flower Tea, ecology is the most important competitiveness of the product, the green mountains and clear waters left by our ancestors are our greatest wealth.”
“Not only do we have ecological tea in the fruit pine forests in Waigang, but we also have many ancient tea trees, just that fewer people knew about them in the past. In recent years, with several tea factories operating, gradually some people have come to look for tea here, and our ancient tree tea has also become a hot commodity.” Introduces Li Zhigang, Secretary of the Party Branch of Waigang Village, Datianba Town.
Following Li Zhigang into the Wututang and Waisongpo Villager Groups, ancient tea trees can be seen along the way, the most eye-catching being the wild tea outside the courtyard of Hui Yonggui's house in Wututang Villager Group and the wild tea just harvested by Li Zhixue in Waisongpo Villager Group.
“These two trees are the two tea kings of our Waigang Village, each year producing about 120 kilograms of fresh leaves, both in terms of age and yield, they are no worse than those in other places.” Says Li Zhigang, “Because of the high altitude here, the tea grows relatively late, whether it is wild tea or cultivated ancient tea trees, they are harvested ten days later than in many other places. It may also be due to climate and soil conditions that the tea here tastes slower, with a very mellow flavor.”
“Actually, there are many ancient tea trees in our Waigang Village, apart from the two tea kings, they are distributed in various Villager Groups, mainly in Chashanpo, Dapingdi, Malijin, Wututang, Lisongpo, Waisongpo, Damiaba, Zhuma Lin Villager Groups.” Li Zhigang introduces that Waigang Village will further strengthen the protection of ancient tea trees, safeguarding the good ecological environment, allowing the tea fragrance sheltered by Heavenly Mountain to spread further, slowly brewing and savoring with more tea lovers.
