Yibang Mansong 2026 – Sheng Pu'er (Raw)

Mansong is the most famous tea area in Yibang, one of the Six Ancient Tea Mountains, and historical records note that Mansong tea from Yibang was designated as tribute tea for the Qing court.

After sampling several well-aged Mansong vintages in early 2026, we decided to make Yibang our highest priority during our Spring 2026 Yunnan sourcing journey, and came back with two nano-terroir batches from two different mountains within the core area of Mansong: Wangzi Shan 王子山 ("Prince Mountain") and Beiyin Shan 背陰山 ("Shady Mountain").

Every spring, these decisions have to be made well in advance. Nature follows its own schedule, and we can't be in multiple tea regions at the same time. Instead, we choose a handful of areas to focus on, follow the changing weather, and stay flexible enough to arrive before picking begins. That's when we can spend time with the farmers, experience the environment firsthand, and better understand each terroir beyond the finished tea. We joined local farmers to better understand the nano-terroirs of Mansong and to search for what we call micro-batches: tiny harvests of just a few kilograms, sometimes from a single picking day or even a danzhu 單株 (single tree). After several days in the mountains, we had both.

Our farmer considers both teas as xiao gaogan 小高桿, meaning "small tall-trunk" trees, which refers to tea trees that show a high, upright trunk form like gaogan 高桿 trees, but are smaller or less extreme than the classic very tall, old forest "high-trunk" trees. Unlike many famous pu'er regions, Mansong is not particularly known for ancient gushu trees. Most of its character comes from zhong-xiao shu (medium and small trees), many of them less than 100 years old. We believe this is one of the reasons Mansong attracts more experienced drinkers, who no longer chase the numbers behind a tea, but focus on what ends up in the cup.

Mansong’s soil is weathered rock, most typically purple-red, which locals describe as 遇水成泥，遇風成石 (it turns to mud with water and to stone in the wind). The trees root deep into the rock, which is how Mansong’s 岩骨甜 (rock-bone sweetness), mineral sweetness and 松韻 (pine character) are usually explained. The forest adds to it: frequent cloud, diffused light and a wide day-night temperature swing favor sweetness over bitterness. Water from the forest springs keeps the cup clean, but the sweetness comes mainly from the trees, the soil and the light, not the water alone.