Manzhuan: Manlin, Manzhuang, and Bazongzhai

Manzhuan (蠻磚) is the Six Ancient Tea Mountain with the best-preserved ancient trees. Its liquor is sweet and smooth with light bitterness, somewhat like neighboring Yiwu in style, but it's a notch less famous. For people who want to drink tea from the Six Ancient Mountains on a friendlier budget, Manzhuan is often what tea drinkers call "a good choice."

Where Is Manzhuan?

Manzhuan is in the south of Xiangming Yi Ethnic Township, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan, bordering Yiwu to the east and Yibang to the north, centrally located among the Six Tea Mountains. The tea mountain covers about 300 square kilometers, with ancient trees distributed between about 565 and 1,540 meters.

Today's Manzhuan tea area is mainly within the Manzhuang and Manlin village committees of Xiangming Township, with tea villages including Manlin, Manzhuang, Manqian, Bazongzhai, and Walong; Manlin and Manzhuang have the greatest concentration of ancient trees.

There are two accounts of where the name "Manzhuan" comes from: one ties it to a Kongming legend, saying Kongming buried bricks (zhuan) here; the other holds that it comes from Dai, meaning "big village." As with many tea-mountain place names, both accounts circulate and neither is settled.

Manzhuan's History

From the late Ming to the late Qing, Manzhuang was the tea trading hub and central village of the Manzhuan tea mountain. The tea world often cites the claim that in the Qing dynasty Manzhuan had more than ten thousand mu of tea gardens, and Manzhuang, Manlin, Manqian, and Bazongzhai were all big tea villages at the time.

After the late Qing and Republican era, war and the decline of the tea trade left Manzhuan, like the other Six Ancient Mountains, with abandoned gardens and a shrinking population; Manzhuang, once a big village, was later reduced to just over 20 households. And precisely because it went so long without large-scale development, Manzhuan's ancient trees survived in the forest.

The Tea of Manlin and Manzhuang

Manlin (曼林): The place with the most gardens in Manzhuan, and also where ancient gardens are best preserved. The ancient gardens around Da Manlin cover over 1,000 mu, with an average tree age generally thought to be over 300 years. Manlin's ancient trees grow mixed with forest; in recent years locals have also interplanted precious timber trees such as huanghuali, Indian rosewood, and agarwood among the tea, and built a sightseeing trail of about 600 meters. Tea labeled "Manlin" on the market is usually the most closely watched of Manzhuan's teas.

Manzhuang (曼莊): Manzhuan's central village and historic trading hub. The Manzhuang village committee has over 50 hamlets, nearly every one with tea; some households have several hundred mu, others a few dozen. With so many hamlets and scattered gardens, the sources of Manzhuang tea cover a fairly wide area.

Bazongzhai, Manqian, Walong: All were once big tea villages; today they're smaller, and their tea is often sold under the "Manzhuan" name together with tea from Manzhuang and Manlin.

By one account, the surviving ancient gardens of the whole Manzhuan tea mountain total about 2,930 mu, making it one of the Six Ancient Tea Mountains with the best-preserved ancient-tree resources.

The Style of Manzhuan Tea

Manzhuan is a large-leaf tea area, with thick, downy buds and leaves, making tea with dark, glossy, long, sturdy leaves. The impression it gives is:

• Liquor color: Young tea is yellow-green to golden, bright.
• Taste: Thick body, fragrant and smooth, light bitterness and astringency; slightly bitter on the tongue, but it clears quickly.
• Sweetness: Sweetness in the liquor, with a rich, lasting sweet aroma.
• Huigan: Quick and long-lasting.
• Aroma: A bit deeper than Yiwu, leaning toward a deep, sweet fragrance.

That's why many tea drinkers say Manzhuan "is like Yiwu": equally soft and sweet with low bitterness, just with a slightly deeper aroma and a slightly thicker texture. After a few years of storage, Manzhuan's sweetness and thickness become more pronounced. Yiwu's style is in The Yiwu Overview, and drinking the two side by side is very interesting.

Why Manzhuan Tea Costs Less

Compared with Yiwu and Yibang, Manzhuan tea of the same grade is usually cheaper, for roughly these reasons:

• Fame: Yiwu has the historical aura of Hao-grade aged tea, Yibang has Mansong tribute tea, while Manzhuan keeps a relatively low profile in the market.
• Output: Manzhuan's ancient gardens are well preserved and extensive, so the supply of raw material is more ample than in scarce areas like Mansong or Gedeng.
• Market exposure: When the pu'er market heated up in the 2000s, Manzhuan wasn't heavily promoted the way Lao Banzhang and Bingdao were, so its prices weren't pushed up.
• Positioning: Manzhuan is right next to Yiwu and similar in style, so it's often discussed as "around Yiwu," and its own name became familiar to tea drinkers only later.

A lower price doesn't mean lower quality; it's mainly a difference in market buzz and fame. To learn more about what affects pu'er prices, read What Determines the Price of Pu'er.

FAQ

Is Manzhuan tea like Yiwu tea? Very. Both are soft and sweet with low bitterness and astringency; Manzhuan's aroma is deeper and its texture thicker, while Yiwu's aroma is more lifting and its texture softer.

Which is better, Manlin or Manzhuang? Each has its own character. Manlin's ancient gardens are the best preserved and it's often seen as representative of Manzhuan; Manzhuang is the historic central village, with many hamlets over a wide area. Which is better depends on how each batch actually performs.

Where is Manzhuan? In the south of Xiangming Yi Ethnic Township, Mengla County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture; it's one of the Six Ancient Tea Mountains. An overview of the six mountains is in The Six Ancient Tea Mountains and Yiwu.

Is Manzhuan tea good for aging? Yes. Manzhuan tea has a thick texture and high sweetness, and after a few years of storage its sweetness and thickness become more pronounced.