2023 Bai Hua Tan (Loose Leaf) "The King of Wild Charm" — A Taste Poem from the Primal Forest

2023 Bai Hua Tan Ancient Tree Spring Tea · Secret Realm Collection
Yiwu Micro-region "King of Wild Charm," a Taste Poem from the Primal Forest

The name "Bai Hua Tan" originates from the local Dai and Yao languages, transliterated from “Bai Hua Qing” (“Qing” meaning stream or creek), named after the wild flowers blooming across the hills during the spring tea season. According to the Mengla County Gazetteer, this area is where three rivers (Jinguang River, Bulong River, and Tongqing River) converge. In spring, the mountain streams are filled with blooming wildflowers, their fragrance permeating the mist and soil. The tea trees absorb this essence, producing a “wild floral aroma,” hence the name “Bai Hua Tan.”

Located in the Yao Autonomous Township of Mengla County, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, Bai Hua Tan belongs to the Yiwu tea region’s ultra-micro sub-area, alongside the Tongqing River, at an altitude of 1500-1900 meters.

• Primal Forest: State-owned forest coverage reaches 95%, densely covered with moss and ferns; tea trees coexist with rare vegetation. The soil humus layer exceeds 1 meter in thickness, with organic matter content topping southern Yunnan.

• Rugged Access: The journey requires traversing the winding “Mountain Road Eighteen Bends” and trekking upstream for 3 hours to reach the ancient tea gardens—total hiking time exceeding 6 hours. Annual dry tea production is under 500 kg, marking it as extremely rare.

• Human-cultivated tall ancient tea trees (over 10 meters tall), aged 100-800 years, with roots deeply embedded in red-brown soil mineral layers. Leaves are thick and tough, with a pectin content as high as 32%, giving the tea soup a “honey-like oily texture.”

| Front Taste | Golden oily tea liquor, sweet and smooth like honey; slight bitterness quickly fades, with saliva secretion on the tongue sides like spring water; wild floral aroma bursts and fills the mouth.
| Middle Taste | Tea soup thick and smooth like honey syrup, wild tea character surges; throat resonance is clear and deep, reaching the chest; bitterness transforms into a silky coolness on the tongue, like sunlight filtering through the forest.
| Aftertaste | Floral and honey fragrances merge with woody aroma, with a rapid and tidal sweet aftertaste; saliva production continues on both cheeks, rock sugar sweetness rises in the throat, body warms, and palms sweat.
| Final Taste | Bitterness fully fades, sweetness dominates; leaf base releases fresh herbaceous aroma; lingering taste like bamboo dew dripping on moss, with a lasting cool sensation in the throat.

The flavor of Bai Hua Tan is the wild gene nurtured by three rivers and the primal breath covered by moss.
Drinking a cup of this spring tea is like entering a secret realm of a hundred flowers: gentle and honey-like at first sip, with a forceful Qi passing through the throat upon savoring—this is the terroir epic written by century-old roots of tall ancient tea trees, and a devout pilgrimage of tea lovers crossing the streams.