THNG036 - Gedeng Qiaomu Hongcha 2026

Product detailed description

⭐️ What makes this tea unique?

✓ The Gedeng Tea Mountain is one of the smallest Ancient Tea Mountains (古六大茶山)

✓ Harvested from mature tea trees (qiaomu 乔木) below 100 years old

✓Offers a unique insight into one of the rarest teas in Xishuangbanna

🍵 Tea taste profile?

This tea provides a distinctive taste of sweet honey, sour stonefruits (red currant) and crunchy peaches with subtle exotic flowers undertones. Compared to neighboring Yibang (倚邦) and Yiwu (易武) tea mountains, this tea has more juicy flavours, softer body and smoother fruity aftertaste. 

This tea is particularly suitable for comparative tea tastings among Six Ancient Tea Mountains and tea lovers with delicate appetite for delicate, softer and sweeter teas. This tea was selected in the late 2025 during our work trip in Xishuangbanna to diversify the selection of Gedeng teas from different tea gardens.

🌏 Tea origin & production? 

This fresh red tea originates from Gedeng Mountain (革登山), one of the historic Six Ancient Tea Mountains located in Mengla county (勐腊县),  Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. Due to its small size (around 150 km²), physical remoteness and sparse population (about 4000 people), the tea production is virtually non-existent on the international tea market compared to other tea mountains.

The tea leaves were harvested from mature tea trees (qiaomu 乔木) below 100 years old across tea gardens close to Zhibang village (值蚌) at elevations of approximately 1,250 metres above sea level. The Spring harvest of 2025 was carried out by Yuan, who hand-picked and manually processed into the hongcha tea (Yunnan hongcha 云南红茶) without any machinery interventions (Artisan tea). The loose tea was then compressed in Zhibang village and directly sent to us.

👩‍🚀 Packing & symbolism?

The package use Chinese characters to emphasize type of tea (Yunnan Hongcha 云南红茶), Gedeng tea origin (Gedeng 革登), sun-drying technique (Shaihong 晒红) and traditional stone mill compression method (Shimo 石磨). In the background, there is the symbol of longevity (Shou 寿) to highlight the historical legacy of the Gedeng tea gardens.

The wrapper has red-golden design with Chinese caligraphy to emphasize the happiness and beauty of this region. The wrapper has imprinted pattern of tea represented by Chinese character Cha (茶). The 200 g tea cake has two layers of paper cover and was moderately compressed, which make it highly suitable for the long-term archivation. 

🫖 Historical background?

Between Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Song Dynasty (960-1276), the Gedeng tea was widely compressed into various bulky shapes (jingcha 紧茶) and used as a form of currency/tribute to the imperial court (gongcha 贡茶). Yet, despite the systemic distribution through the Ancient Tea Horse Road (Chamagudao 茶马古道) and growing demand of  the "puer tea" (shengcha 生茶), Gedeng tea production remains very limited and highly benefit from one of the most preserved environment in Xishuangbanna. 

🎎 How did we obtain this tea?

One of the core principles of Banna House is traceability of origin. We obtained this tea directly from Mr. Yuan, small tea producer from Yi tribe (彝族), who we firstly met during our work trip across Six Ancient Tea Mountains in Xishuangbanna in Spring 2025. Yet, despite we have visited Zhibang tea gardens and discussed the contemporary challenges for Gedeng Tea Mountain, we did not have more to taste his teas. During our second work trip in the late 2025, we drove more than 3 hours by motorbike to Zhibang village to taste his teas and placed the pre-order for Spring harvest 2026, which you are drinking now.

Zhibang village has less than 100 people and used to be populated only by 8 families in 1990s due to the rough living conditions, difficult physical access and active wildlife (tigers and leopards). Until late 2000s, the village was barely electrified and was very poor even to Yunnan province standards. Yet, the environment is very beautiful and it is really worthy to visit the local tea gardens with rich fauna and flora. To date, Yuan's family live in the new house and continue with the traditional tea processing of shengcha, baicha and hongcha. 

🌱 Want to know more?

Check out our tea scientific summaries bellow and other infographics in the product bookmarks. Did you find some typos or errors? Contact us on info@bannahouse.cz