What is your favorite region/subregion for puerh and why?

[klepto]

I'm just starting to get my baby sea legs in the puerh world so this would be very educational for me. Where are the spots that hold the magical liquor for you? What nuances and flavors can you expect coming from there and also what differences have you noticed when buying product from just outside the area?

Geek out time

[StoneLadle]

Camping to learn more, as my drinking has always been in the region of no less than 12 years old...

Generally find the Banchang and YeShengs from the early 2000s coming good now if stored traditionally. Dry stored versions are too dry and astringent for my weathered palate and body...

[klepto]

@StoneLadle What sort of flavors, and other nuances do you associate to those places?

[StoneLadle]

StoneLadle What sort of flavors, and other nuances do you associate to those places?

Those came to mind primarily because I've been sorting those teas recently and harvesting samples from the edges of cakes.

For the old wild trees, the defining character for me is the forwardness and strength. Generally these were first produced as part of special commissions during the PE boom years so they are turning the corner and starting to age. The drier stored examples from 2003-2005 are still lively and forward, colour still not quite red from orange. Some like the 04 Banzhang are have just turned and I expect the camphor and mint to integrate nicely with the thinning tannins for more depth and smoothness... The texture still buzzes the tongue and I expect that to be there for another 5 years or so...

[klepto]

I found an interesting blog post about this, but not sure how accurate it is:
https://www.rinsedtea.com/puerh-region-guide

Menghai is characterized by an aggressive flavor with notable huigan (the return of sweetness up the throat following a bitter flavor) when young and a deep mushroom and wild forest sensibility when aged - while retaining and increasing in huigan from its young age. Besides Bada, it is fair to say that a majority of tea from Menghai will age very well - strength is a decent (not surefire) way to tell if a puerh will age well.

Bingdao

Translating to Ice Island, Bingdao has it near Laobanzhang and Guafengzhai levels of popularity. Maybe Ice Island invokes this, but Bingdao teas are often cooling. Sweet and gloopy with characteristics described above. Lots of dried fruit and floral notes to balance everything out. Will definitely age well.

Bangdong

Bangdong is both a village and a county. Thick, jammy and very sweet. More astringent than bitter (astringent is more texture versus bitter as a flavor). These teas often have a cooling, camphorous aftertaste.

The guide isn't finish but I'm curious what others think about it.

[mrmopu]

@@klepto

I like the BuLang mountain region for the punchiness and bitter that the area brings. I also like MengSong area and especially Baotang tea. I seems to carry a thicker profile and echoes some of the BuLang area stuff. It can also carry a sweeter note as well. I like stuff that kicks back so your taste could vary. I always seem to have trouble YiWu and JingMai stuff as these are softer teas for me. I am also a YeSheng fan too as these can bring that bitter bite first and foremost.

[klepto]

I like the BuLang mountain region for the punchiness and bitter that the area brings. I also like MengSong area and especially Baotang tea. I seems to carry a thicker profile and echoes some of the BuLang area stuff. It can also carry a sweeter note as well. I like stuff that kicks back so your taste could vary. I always seem to have trouble YiWu and JingMai stuff as these are softer teas for me. I am also a YeSheng fan too as these can bring that bitter bite first and foremost.

I have really begun to like bitter teas that have an amazing sweet aftertaste. The young and aged Yiwu's I've come across aren't goign to wake you up in the morning , but they might tuck you in at night. After my war chest has gotten a little lighter I am going to sample teas from these areas and perhaps start a thread. Maybe compare teas from the same areas would be interesting also.

[mrmopu]

I like the BuLang mountain region for the punchiness and bitter that the area brings. I also like MengSong area and especially Baotang tea. I seems to carry a thicker profile and echoes some of the BuLang area stuff. It can also carry a sweeter note as well. I like stuff that kicks back so your taste could vary. I always seem to have trouble YiWu and JingMai stuff as these are softer teas for me. I am also a YeSheng fan too as these can bring that bitter bite first and foremost.

I have really begun to like bitter teas that have an amazing sweet aftertaste. The young and aged Yiwu's I've come across aren't goign to wake you up in the morning , but they might tuck you in at night. After my war chest has gotten a little lighter I am going to sample teas from these areas and perhaps start a thread. Maybe compare teas from the same areas would be interesting also.

I think you will also find a lot of variety in the region as well. It will be fun for you to experiment and for us to track your journey.

[Tea Adventures]

My two favourite puerh regions right now are Mahei and Hekai. If you’re looking for a bitterness with a sweet aftertaste, I think Hekai will be something you might enjoy.

[StoneLadle]

Thing is this question to me, for what it's worth, is rather mute... Some drink the green stuff and some drink the old stuff.. everyone wants the old stuff, but somehow get stuck
... When they get old, it's either good or bad, by storage and by base... Not bass, base...

So how?

My favourite region, is HKG stored, 15-20 years minimum , the rest is just gut rot...

[klepto]

Thing is this question to me, for what it's worth, is rather mute... Some drink the green stuff and some drink the old stuff.. everyone wants the old stuff, but somehow get stuck
... When they get old, it's either good or bad, by storage and by base... Not bass, base...

So how?

My favourite region, is HKG stored, 15-20 years minimum , the rest is just gut rot...

If you are looking for a certain body feeling, flavor profile, then its not mute. Otherwise you can just drink puerh if you want puerh Some people go deep into the rabbit hole on old factory cakes. All these rabbit holes make tea exploration fun.

[Maerskian]

Reading StoneLadle post noticed he just took what i was about to mention even further which is the right way to do it.

The question indeed has multiple layers and there's a need of additional information, even though i can understand the general notion but it's one that can be deconstructed way too quick when you take more than a few seconds to think about.

Let's think about popular yet relatively affordable regions ( otherwise we risk "LaoBanZhang-ing" this thread ) that are trendy like Yiwu , Naka, Hekai ... [will just stop it there, feel free to fill with the one you like] . Once we pick one, a couple.... we should really start adding "layers" :

- do we really know the specific village/place that maocha was sourced from ? some reputable sellers deliberately like to keep this as opaque as possible, initially hoping customers just focus on the tea alone which is a valid point although it has an obvious downside; there's also the matter of reliability of such info but let's forget about it to keep it simple .

- year ; some specific harvests are better than others as we all know, but then this layer can extend to personal preferences: some enjoy young sheng, others won't touch it until it has some years in it, some want it to feel "old" already... which then branch out to what StoneLadle suggested: storage .

- I'd even add : harvest. As a tea drinker that increasingly walked away from young sheng i'm slowly managing to enjoy it more than i could ever dream thanks to autum teas, in fact i'm finding some autum teas from particular areas ( Pasa , Mengsong ... ) i love more than spring versions ( even after tasting different years/sources )

- Then we have sources: specific factory cakes ? boutique tea ? ... and of course now it has become a thing since not so long ago ( this is a very young hobby after all ) : leaf grade .

- Back to StoneLadle post: what experience do we have telling apart teas from different regions ( let's say we're talking about equal leaf grades/sources to avoid further - yet as real as life itself - complexity ) with X years on identical wet/dry/natural ( HK/TW/home/etc... ) storage conditions ?

All in all, the equation is more complex and worth mentioning some variables involved when trying to resolve it.

[BriarOcelot]

Adding a bit to the above post.. I think the one thing that I've picked up from watching William ('Farmerleaf') videos on Youtube (among others) is just how much the processing matters. Like, what harvest it was (was the weather perfect for that period etc) and can that be somewhat 'fixed' by blending or processing tricks. What a spring tea will have that a summer/autumn tea won't.

How was the withering done... what types of leaf and grades were used etc. etc. Also, old-school recipes that were pretty much built for ageing as opposed to newer ones which are intended to make tea drinkable younger (and possibly age less well).

This is all regardless of the region.

The business of 'thinning' out valuable maocha (from those famous villages) and blending it with different material. Or using up leftover material to make other (cheaper) cakes. With factories, this is exacerbated as they buy up a lot of leaves and produce such a plethora of recipes every year. As well as how all that processing has so vastly changed in just the past 10-20 years.

As a consumer, it's very hard to balance all of that and come up with a true statement saying that tea from a particular region tastes a particular way. How do you know that all the material came from that region? Was it all from the same year even (let alone place)?

Storage is a massive factor too. But the base 'character' of the young tea prior to that storage (it's base composition) is going to affect how it ferments and ultimately what sort of effects X type of storage is going to have on it. Maybe tea with a particular composition will obtain a certain characteristic only IF stored dry (or wetter). What about that?

I know a few older drinkers who just simplify it and say they only drink X recipe stored in X place for XX years and that is 'the best'. With all the variables and unknowns, I can see why.

I wish I could drink fresh spring tea year by year and then store one cake in various conditions and do comparative testing 5, 10, 20 years later... has anybody documented that?