Xishuangbanna
The southernmost Yunnan prefecture and the heartland of pu-erh, containing both Menghai and the six famous tea mountains of the Yiwu area. Almost every well-known pu-erh production area sits inside it.
Elevation
Recorded at 700–2000 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Climate
Tropical monsoon climate with a long wet season; the humidity is part of why the region’s tea ferments as it does.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
The Yunnan spring, rainy-season and gu hua autumn sequence, in the prefecture where the price gap between them is widest because the village names are worth most.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as xi shuang ban na. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Teas this region is known for
- Yiwu sheng pu-erh — Soft, sweet and honeyed with only mild bitterness — the sheng most likely to be enjoyed by someone trying raw pu-erh for the first time, and the one most often recommended for exactly that reason.
- Menghai shou pu-erh — Thick and smooth with a clean sweetness, and much less of the fishy pile note that afflicts poorly made or too-young shou. Rest is the main variable: a three-year-old cake is a different drink from a fresh one.
Other teas recorded from here
Other growing regions in China
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
- Ailao Mountains
- Anhua
- Anji
- Anxi
- Bada Mountain
- Bailin
- Beiyuan
- Bingdao
- Bulang
- Changxing (Guzhu)
- Dongting Mountain
- Duyun
- Emei Mountain
- Enshi
- Fengqing
- Fu’an
- Fuding
- Fuzhou
- Gande
- Hekai
- Hengxian
- Huangshan
- Huoshan
- Jinggu
- Jingmai
- Jingyang
- Junshan Island
- Lao Ban Zhang
- Laoshan
- Lincang
- Lingtou
- Lu’an
- Lushan
- Manzhuan
- Meijiawu
- Meitan
- Mengding Mountain
- Menghai
- Mengku
- Mengsong
- Nanjing (Yuhua)
- Nannuo Mountain
- Phoenix Mountain
- Pingshui
- Pu’er (Simao)
- Qimen
- Rizhao
- Shengzhou
- Shifeng (Lion Peak)
- Songyang
- Taiping
- Tanyang
- Tianmu Mountain
- Tongmu Guan
- Tunxi
- Weishan
- Wenzhou
- Wudong Mountain
- Wuyi Mountains
- Wuyuan
- Wuzhou
- Xianghua
- Xigui
- Xihu (West Lake)
- Xinyang
- Xiping
- Xiushui
- Ya’an
- Yangloudong
- Yibang
- Yibin
- Yichang
- Yingde
- Yiwu
- Yixing
- Yongchun
- Youle
- Yuan’an
- Yueyang (Beigang)
- Yunnan
- Zhangping
- Zheng Yan (Wuyi core)
- Zhenghe
- Zhenjiang
- Ziyang
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this region against something it is routinely confused with, and argued the differences out in full.
- Lincang vs Xishuangbanna — Two of Yunnan’s three principal pu-erh prefectures, and the pair that shows how much of pu-erh’s reputation was built on one of them. Xishuangbanna contains almost every famous production area; Lincang supplies a great deal of material with far less name recognition.
- Pu’er (Simao) vs Xishuangbanna — The prefecture that gives pu-erh its name is not the prefecture most pu-erh comes from, which is the kind of fact that quietly resolves a great deal of confusion. Pu’er, formerly Simao, was the trading and pressing centre rather than the main growing area.