Cloud tea is like life; life is learning, wisdom is cultivation.<\/p>\n
The Water-Splashing Festival is the Dai people’s New Year, held every year in mid-April in Xishuangbanna. The festival’s signature activity is splashing water \u2014 everyone douses each other with blessings, and you end up completely soaked and happier for it. I, an old tea head, never go to Banna for the festival without bringing a pot of local raw pu-erh. After being soaked through, a cup of raw tea makes you feel entirely revived.<\/p>\n
Xishuangbanna is one of the core producing regions for Yunnan pu-erh tea. The elevation ranges from about 600 to 1,400 metres, with a tropical rainforest climate \u2014 warm and humid year-round. This climate is ideal for tea trees, which is why Banna’s pu-erh is of exceptional quality. The famous tea mountains of Banzhang, Yiwu, and Jingmai are all in Banna.<\/p>\n
This year for the Water-Splashing Festival I brought the 2022 Banzhang Ancient Tree Raw Pu-erh. Banzhang tea comes from Bulang Mountain in Menghai County, Banna, at roughly 1,700 metres elevation. Banzhang tea is known for its bold character \u2014 heavy bitterness that dissolves instantly, powerful returning sweetness, and abundant tea energy. Drinking Banzhang at the lively Water-Splashing Festival is especially fitting.<\/p>\n
On the first day of the festival, several friends and I went to the Water-Splashing Square in Jinghong City. The entire square was packed with people, everyone armed with water guns, basins, and buckets, splashing each other. We were soaked from head to toe. After the splashing, we were all shivering with cold. I immediately found a shady spot, took out the thermos I had brought, and poured several cups of Banzhang raw tea for everyone. An old friend took one sip and said: “Wow, so bitter!” Then another sip: “But so sweet!” That is the charm of Banzhang \u2014 sweetness after bitterness.<\/p>\n
There is a benefit to drinking raw tea after being soaked through: it helps the body recover. The weather at the festival is hot, but being drenched with water makes you feel cold. A cup of warm raw tea warms you from within while replenishing lost fluids. The minerals and trace elements in raw tea can help restore the body’s energy.<\/p>\n
The tea farmers in Banna do not stop working during the festival. They go to the tea mountains to pick leaves in the morning, come back to splash water in the afternoon, and continue processing tea at night. I once asked a tea farmer: “Why are you still picking tea during the Water-Splashing Festival?” He said: “The tea trees do not wait for you. If you do not pick today, tomorrow the leaves will be too old.” Simple words, but full of truth. The tea farmers’ respect for and cherishing of the tea trees is something city dwellers find hard to understand.<\/p>\n
Banna’s raw tea differs greatly from other producing regions \u2014 its wild character is particularly pronounced. This “wild rhyme” is a quality that comes from the natural world, as fresh as the air deep in the forest. It is connected to Banna’s tropical rainforest environment \u2014 the tea trees grow in primeval forest, surrounded by all manner of plants and creatures, and so the leaves absorb the essence of nature.<\/p>\n
Tea has grades; all may enjoy it regardless of status.<\/p>\n
On the second day of the festival, I made a special trip to Banzhang tea mountain. Walking among the tea gardens, ancient tea trees surrounded me on all sides \u2014 some several hundred years old. I found the largest ancient tree, sat down, and brewed a pot of Banzhang raw tea. Drinking tea on the tea mountain feels fundamentally different \u2014 the air is pure, the view is vast, the tea aroma more intense. After finishing the pot, I felt completely refreshed, as if merged with the natural world.<\/p>\n
The Water-Splashing Festival gave me more than just the experience of splashing water; it gave me the memory of a pot of good tea. Drinking tea in Banna feels different \u2014 the air is fresh, the climate warm, the tea fragrance stronger. That is the magic Banna brings to tea. Next Water-Splashing Festival, I will return to Banna and drink another pot of local raw tea.<\/p>\n
Make friends through tea, please enjoy a cup.
\n—<\/p>\n
Author: Old Tea Head · Lin Shen (LamSam)
\nZen Tea Manor ZENTEA MANOR
\nTianying Supply Chain Company
\nwww.zentea-shop.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Water-Splashing Festival is the Dai people’s New Year, held every year in mid-April in Xishuangbanna. The festival’s signature activity is splashing water \u2014 everyone douses each other with blessings, and you end up completely soaked and happier for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lamsam-tea-notes-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6484,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6112\/revisions\/6484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zanteamanor.zeabur.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}