Four villages, one mountain, and a cellar master’s eye
In spring 2024, Amgalan Chin set out for Bulang Mountain, a place he calls the beating heart of sheng pu-erh. He spent three weeks moving between the four villages that have come to define the region’s reputation — Lao Banzhang, Hekai, Manxinlong, and Pasha — each separated by ridges and mist but united by the same metamorphic soil and ancient tea-garden heritage. Lao Banzhang was first: towering trees, fiercely independent farmers, and a tea so powerful that Amgalan describes it as “a punch that becomes a caress”. Hekai, tucked into a cooler valley, offered a softer, fruit-forward character; Manxinlong perched on limestone showed an earthy structure that reminded him of old Russian brick teas; Pasha, where tea bushes share ground with forest ferns, delivered a honeyed sweetness and a finish that lingered like a lullaby. At farmhouse tables, he cupped each village’s maocha fresh off the drying mats, selecting lots that together would read like a map of Bulang’s micro-terroirs. Back in his cellar, the maocha was shaped into 40g mini-cakes — one per village — and rested for six months before release. The flight is a palate trainer, a journey, and a quiet reminder that the mountain’s bitterness is never a single note.