This is a high end raw pu'er for those that aren't afraid of a strong tea with a dominating personality.

Fan's of last year's Pasha may pine over a session of this year's Bakanan: vapors of charred beef briscuit, ramen broth, dark leafy vegetables and herbs give an aromatic prelude before the first sip.

Without the oppressive avoirdupois of Lao Man’e, this Bakanan leaf almost immediately starts dolling out a defined, hefty, savory, and salivating mid-range profile.  Higher notes of wildflower and light honey occasionally shimmer above this viscous, distinguished soup, but is swallowed up by a beastly return sweetness fumigating back up the gullet on the swallow’s exhale.  

When whittling leaf off the bing, careful not to let your eyes grow bigger than your gaiwan — this tea easily eats up the foolhardy by way of mid-session heaviness and astringency.  While this tea’s Bulang bitterness generally stays in balance with a captivating sweetness provided by the 甜茶 Tiánchá stock variety it’s comprised of, overleafing will surely lead to a premature defeat.  The body high from this one is the real stunner.  If you've been finding those cha-qi talking tea cult leaders a little sus this one might just have you second-guessing your agnosticism on the matter — well, at least now you know there are better reasons for that position.  Shimmying up the spine from the kidneys, be sure to breathe the substance up and around — the sweats and even a trip to the bathroom may be inevitable, but a headache isn’t.  Pace yourself with this beast.

If this tea hasn't bested you by the time the later steeps start to flow, this tea will reward you with a steady supply of juicy, pine syrup minerality.

satellite image of the famous 班章五寨 Bānzhāng wǔzhài or five villages of the Banzhang area, Southern Menghai County in the Bulang Mountains (plus Banpen)

坝卡囡 Bàkǎnān is a small Lahu ethnicity village of about 40 households.  The neighboring village hype legend Lao Banzhang produces what some refer to as the "King of Pu'er".  While LBZ is indeed great tea, the exorbitant price doesn't make for good value, and the challenge to find not just a more cost-effective imitation, but perhaps another diamond in the rough has been underway since LBZ started putting up big numbers about 20 years ago.  Bakanan is considered a premiere terroir in its own right, and those that are familiar with the Lao Banzhang taste will find familiarity as well as intrigue in this tea.

Bakanan has over 150 acres of prime ancient tree gardens that are estimated to be over 200 years old.  We originally met the Yang family in Lao Banzhang in 2019 and have been partnering with them ever since, carrying their tea from operations they've had set up in Banpen as well as more recently in Bakanan (2022, 2023).

After a reunion with Mr. Yang, we met up with his 22 year-old son Zhilin, who has been assigned operations manager down in Bakanan.  After spending time and getting to know Zhilin as well as the family gardens in Bakanan, it became clear it was possible to gain greater selectability in terms of tea from specific parts of the garden and harvest timeframe.  Ancient tree tea harvested on April 9th was selected for this year's Bakanan, produced from the gardens in the photos below:

As expected of one of the more successful families from Lao Banzhang, production specs are just as on point with their Bakanan production.

This year's cake wrapper artwork theme, Water Creatures of the Mekong, feature fish and mammals that call the Mekong River (the part that runs through Yunnan is referred to as the Lancang River) home.  A hand-inked drawing by Rosy Kirby of Lost Mountain Prints of one of these creatures grace the front of each cake, this year's Bakanan cake features the fish the Genghis Khan Shark Fish Pangasius sanitwongsei.