Six Famous Tea Mountains Company

In pu'er, "Six Famous Tea Mountains" (Liuda Chashan) has two meanings. One is a place name for the six tea mountains around Yiwu during the Qing tribute era; the other is a brand, Yunnan Six Famous Tea Mountains Tea Co., Ltd., founded in 2002. When tea drinkers talk about "Six Tea Mountains tea," you first need to work out whether they mean the region or the company.

The Six Tea Mountains as a Place

The ancient Six Tea Mountains are located in today's Mengla County and Jinghong City in Xishuangbanna Prefecture, on the east bank of the Lancang River. The six listed in Tan Cui's Qing-dynasty Dianhai Yuheng Zhi are Youle, Gedeng, Yibang, Mangzhi, Manzhuan, and Mansa; later, Yiwu gradually replaced Mansa and became the most famous of them all. Different old texts give slightly different lists. For details, see The Ancient Six Tea Mountains and Yiwu, and for their rise and decline, see The Rise and Fall of the Six Tea Mountains.

The Six Tea Mountains as a Brand

Yunnan Six Famous Tea Mountains Tea Co., Ltd. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Kunming. According to the company, it has production plants in Fengqing, Lincang, and Menghai, Xishuangbanna, an organic ancient-tea material base in Hekai, Menghai County, and an organic tea garden in Chahe, Fengqing. Earlier materials also mention a processing base in Yiliang.

The brand name comes from the ancient Six Tea Mountains, and the trademark is designed as a map of Yunnan with six leaves forming the characters for "tea mountain." The company chose the name as a tribute to pu'er's heyday in the Qing dynasty, but its products don't use material only from the ancient Six Tea Mountains: Banzhang, Bingdao, Jingmai, Nannuo, Chahe, and other regions on both sides of the Lancang River are all in its range. So to answer "is it connected to the ancient Six Tea Mountains?": there's a link in name and spirit, but its material comes from a far wider area.

Founder Ruan Dianrong

The company's founder is Ruan Dianrong. According to the company and media reports:

• She was born in 1968 in Zhaotong, Yunnan, is of Hui ethnicity, and has a background in law.
• In November 1998, at age 30, she was appointed by Xishuangbanna Prefecture as the sixth director of the state-owned Menghai Tea Factory, and also served as chair and general manager of Menghai Tea Industry Co., Ltd.
• During her tenure, she shut down the loss-making green tea and broken black tea production lines, refocused Menghai Tea Factory's production on pu'er, and restored "Menghai Tea Factory" as the name products were issued under.
• In 2002, she left Menghai Tea Factory and founded Six Famous Tea Mountains.

Her tenure at Menghai Tea Factory ran from 1998 to 2002, right at the end of the state-owned era and before privatization in 2004. For Menghai Tea Factory's history, see Dayi and Menghai Tea Factory; for the broader background of state factory restructuring, see Factory Privatization and the Brand Era.

Signature Products

Six Famous Tea Mountains' product range is built around the slogan of "uniting the six mountains in one lineage," covering both blends and single-mountain teas:

• Yiwu Zhengshan series: raw teas mainly from Yiwu material. "Gongpin Lü Taiyang" (Tribute Green Sun) was an early Yiwu Zhengshan old-tree tea, and a reissue was released in 2023.
• Junchanghao single-mountain mini cakes: launched in 2011, 200 grams per cake, one tea per mountain, using material from Banzhang, Bingdao, Yiwu, Nannuo, Youle, Jingmai, Chahe, and other regions.
• Commemorative and themed teas: for example "Legend 1998," marking Ruan Dianrong's 25 years in the industry, in both raw and ripe, mainly blends.
• Ripe tea and everyday series: including ripe cakes and bricks in various sizes and convenient small packs for brewing.

Product names and series change each year; when buying, go by the product name, material region, and production date on the packaging. For Yiwu's terroir, see Yiwu Zhengshan; for the idea of single-mountain tea, see Mountain Teas and the Old-Tree Boom.

How It Compares with Other Brands

Six Famous Tea Mountains is one of the private brands that emerged from the state-owned factory system in the early 2000s, along with others of the same period such as Lao Tong Zhi (Haiwan Tea). What these brands have in common is that their founders mostly had experience in state-owned factories, knew blending and ripe tea processing well, and each went on to develop single-mountain and themed products. To get to know more brands, read Chen Sheng Hao, Lao Tong Zhi, Fu Jin, Small Brands, and Custom Teas.

FAQ

Is Six Famous Tea Mountains a brand or a place? Both: the place name refers to the six tribute tea mountains around Yiwu in the Qing dynasty; the brand is Yunnan Six Famous Tea Mountains Tea Co., Ltd., founded in 2002.

Who founded the Six Famous Tea Mountains company? Ruan Dianrong, who was director of the state-owned Menghai Tea Factory from 1998 to 2002.

What are its signature products? The Yiwu Zhengshan series (such as Gongpin Lü Taiyang), Junchanghao single-mountain mini cakes, Legend 1998, and more.

Does all of the company's tea come from the ancient Six Tea Mountains? No. The brand name comes from the ancient Six Tea Mountains, but its material spans Banzhang, Bingdao, Jingmai, Chahe, and many other regions.

Where is the company based? It's headquartered in Kunming, with production plants in Fengqing and Menghai.