Monkou Tea District, an Ancient Village in Iceland

Everyone in iceland tea has heard of it, and friends who know or don't know Pu 'er tea should be able to see iceland tea's name online or offline. So, what is iceland tea? Or where did iceland tea come from? Let's talk about it in detail in this article.

I once talked about iceland tea's confusion when he first came into contact with Pu 'er tea in my previous Pu 'er tea article. I didn't know where Iceland was at that time. Searching Iceland online will jump out of Iceland and other countries, but iceland tea is obviously not produced there. Later, I learned that Iceland is located in Shuangjiang County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, but I still doubt whether iceland tea is the tea produced on the island. I didn't know I had made a big joke until I went there. Many of my guesses are wrong, because Iceland used to be the village of A Dai. In the Dai language, this place is called "flat island" or "C island", which means a place where bamboo fences are used as the gate of the village. Later, for some reason, it was translated into Iceland in Chinese, and the name was officially recognized. Even the Naner Reservoir at the foot of the mountain where Iceland Village is located was renamed Iceland Lake, but

Before I talk about iceland tea, let me tell some stories that have been circulating in tea circles: in the past, there was a saying that the class chapter was king and Yi Wu was the last, but with the passage of time, this sentence gradually became that the class chapter was king and Jingmai was the last. Later, iceland tea began to appear in the market, and this sentence became that the class chapter was king and Iceland was the last. Until now, this statement has never changed. This can explain two points: First, the quality of iceland tea is the same as that of Banzhang tea, and second, their styles are different. If the class chapter has the domineering demeanor of a king, then Iceland can be said to have a gentle and moist state like a queen. Ok, I'll start talking about iceland tea next.

In Mengku Town, there is a famous Bangma Snow Mountain with an altitude of 3,200 meters. The top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round, and there is a dense virgin forest, where ancient tea trees with big leaves are covered. Halfway up the hill in the northern section of Bangma Mountain, there is an ancient village, which is the old village in Iceland. This is the northernmost part of Mengku town, 33 kilometers away from Mengku town, bordering Lincang's South American township. Along the Nanmeng River, you can reach the old village in Iceland in less than an hour's drive from Monkou Town. With the popularity of iceland tea in recent years, some tea merchants now divide the tea districts in Monkou into old villages in Iceland, and divide different mountain villages into the so-called core area of Iceland and the second ring road of Iceland, but there is no specific distance to divide the number of rings. According to the official classification in recent years, Iceland has become synonymous with an administrative village, and several villages next to the old Icelandic village have been divided as the center. The specific names are Old Village of Iceland, Nanqiang, Border, Nuowu and Bawai, which are referred to as "Five Villages of Iceland" for short. So if we said iceland tea before, we only meant the tea produced in the old village of Iceland, but now,

Let's talk about the big-leaf tea grown in Monkou of Shuangjiang River, always talking about the old village in Iceland, because the historical materials about Shuangjiang River in Yunnan and various tea books will mention that in the 21st year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1485), the toast of Monkou of Shuangjiang River sent people to introduce more than 200 pieces from Xishuangbanna and successfully cultivated more than 50 pieces in the old village in Iceland. Later, these tea trees were introduced to various tea areas in Mengku, thus forming a group variety of big leaf tea in Mengku. Later, in the twenty-sixth year of Qing Qianlong (176 1), the daughter of Han Muzhuang, a chieftain of Shuangjiang Daidi1,married the chieftain of Shunning (now Fengqing) and married several hundred catties of tea seeds in Shunning. These tea seeds are locally grown and have local varieties. It not only has the advantages of many components of Monkou big leaf species, but also has the aroma of local native species. It is the most suitable variety for making black tea among all the varieties we can find now. The tea made from this raw material has a typical Yunnan red taste. Similarly, the big-leaf species of Mengku later spread to Dong Bang, and finally formed a unique black-leaf species in Dong Bang, which is now the famous Xigui tea. It can be seen from here that sometimes seemingly trivial things in history can cause an uproar in later generations. No one would have thought that there would be such a legendary story about the most famous tea in Lincang tea area today, and they are also magically linked together. But it is precisely because of coincidence that many scholars are still studying and demonstrating the authenticity of the legend of seed collection, and we non-professional researchers can only listen to this historical story in the audience.

Having said so many stories about the old villages in Iceland, let's focus on the current situation of the old villages in Iceland. Now there are about 50 families in the old village, mainly divided into three ethnic groups: Dai, Lahu and Han. Among them, most of the Dai villagers are surnamed Feng, which is inseparable from the fact that the old village in Iceland has always been the private tea garden of the Dai toast in the past history. Therefore, since ancient times, the tea produced in the old village of Iceland is the best in the whole Shuangjiang tea area. This can be seen from the existing ancient tea trees in the old village of Iceland. Most of the fresh leaves are juicy and old, and they are still tender when they grow to three or four leaves. Moreover, the tea fields in the old villages in Iceland are red loam with rotten rocks and high mineral content, which provides natural material conditions for the growth and unique quality of tea trees in the old villages in Iceland. All tea lovers who have drunk the real Iceland Laozhai tea are strikingly similar to this tea, that is, the taste is sweet and refreshing, with a rock candy-like aroma and charm, and the throat is cool and sweet. In fact, there are two reasons why I think it is more reliable to explain this phenomenon:

First, because tea generally contains hydrolyzed tannins, when hydrolyzed tannins are decomposed in the mouth, on the one hand, glucose will be produced, which makes people feel sweet; On the other hand, hydrolyzed tannins absorb heat in the process of decomposition, which makes people feel cool. Therefore, when the content of hydrolyzed tannin in a certain tea is high enough, the coolness will be obvious, and when the charm of tea is presented, people will feel like eating rock sugar. In fact, in addition to the tea in the old village of Iceland, other teas with good quality will also have this phenomenon, but it is not as obvious and intense as the tea in the old village of Iceland.

Secondly, for the whole Lincang tea area, Mengku tea area is located in the center of Lincang tea area, Yongde tea area is in the west and Dong Bang tea area is in the east. Taking Nanmeng River as the boundary, Monkou tea can be divided into two parts: the aroma in the eastern Mid-levels is higher, but the aroma of tea is weaker, while that in the western Mid-levels is just the opposite. The tea in Iceland village is located on the bank of Nanmeng River, and the tea produced has the characteristics of both the East Mid-Levels and the West Mid-Levels. It can be said that it is the best tea with the excellent quality of Monkou tea area.

It can be seen from here that iceland tea's reputation is far-reaching, not supported by a false title hype, but conquered the public tea drinkers by taste. Otherwise, there won't be waves of tea lovers chasing after the real iceland tea and wanting a cup of tea, but it has also caused the price in iceland tea to remain high and become the "Bai Yueguang" in the hearts of many tea lovers. Of course, this is also related to the scarcity of tea production in old villages in Iceland. The output of iceland tea has always been a mystery in today's tea market, because it seems that Iceland is everywhere, so some people say that iceland tea produces dozens of tons a year, and because a lot of tea is sold under the false name of Iceland, some people say that it is only a few tons. According to a survey conducted by lincang Tea Research Institute and Mengku Town in 20 14, the oldest ancient tea tree in Laozhai, Iceland is over 500 years old, and there are only 4,954 trees over 100 years old, especially 23 trees over 300 years old, which is really rare. According to my friend who is a tea farmer in Laozhai, Iceland, the output of spring tea and autumn tea in Laozhai, Iceland is generally maintained at around 800 kg. Some people either don't pick summer tea or make white tea or Pu 'er cooked tea, which will be more, but no one estimates. As for big trees and small trees, the tea yield is higher, but because the age of the trees is less than 100 years, the taste is still different from that of ancient trees, but the tea price of these trees is still much higher than that of ancient trees in other mountain villages. Therefore, in recent years, the tea garden in the old village of Iceland has been over-managed, that is, all other miscellaneous trees on the mountain have been cut down and tea trees have been planted, resulting in the destruction of the original ecological environment. However, with the government's protection measures, the tea garden in the old village of Iceland has improved in the past two years, but it has also led to the relocation of the old village of Iceland this year. It wants to completely return tea to build a tourist town with Icelandic characteristics.

We can't comment on these policies in the short term. We can only look at the long-term effect. However, it is foreseeable that in two years, the old village in Iceland will become the new village in Iceland. Like other relocated villages, I am glad that the government can attach importance to protecting the ecological environment of the origin of Chashan, but I sincerely hope that the original intention of protecting the ecology can be followed, so that every tea friend, farmer and tea man can enjoy the delicious food of iceland tea forever!