From Amgalan Chin’s spring harvest in the outer Banzhang villages
Amgalan Chin has spent years tracing pu-erh’s old trade corridors from Mongolia to the deep forests of Bulang Shan. In March 2024 he returned to a small, high-elevation cluster of villages an hour’s walk from the famed Lao Banzhang nucleus — the so-called outer villages where the same bitter genetic lineage persists but often sells at a fraction of the core zone’s prices.
During the first flush, Amgalan selected maocha from a cooperative of fifteen families cultivating trees between 80 and 120 years old. The leaves were hand-plucked by local Bulang women, wilted under spring sun, and pan-fired in woks over wood fires — a technique that locks in a bold, smoky edge. The maocha rested in loose form until May, when it was lightly steamed and stone-pressed into 357-gram cakes in a small workshop near Menghai.
Amgalan believes this tea’s heavy bitterness is a marker of exceptional aging potential. In his cellar, he has followed similar outer-Banzhang cakes for over a decade: the aggressive start softens into deep, medicinal complexity. He offers this 2024 pressing as a canvas for long-term collectors and as a daily meditation for those who love the raw, unapologetic character of young Bulang sheng. Every purchase supports the families who guard these ancient tea gardens away from the crowds.