Exploring Jingmai Mountain: Summer in the Thousand-Year Ancient Tea Forest

June 20, 2026

Exploring Jingmai Mountain: Summer in the Thousand-Year Ancient Tea Forest

Jingmai Mountain Tea Garden Panorama — Jingmai Mountain Thousand-Year Ancient Tea Forest

Jingmai Mountain Ancient Tea Tree — Ancient tea tree covered with moss and lichen

Why Does Jingmai Mountain Tea Deserve Special Attention?

Jingmai Mountain sits at 1000-1600m altitude, shrouded in clouds year-round. The most precious resource here isn't "beautiful scenery" - it's the ancient tea forest - tea trees over a hundred years old, growing mixed with tropical rainforest.

Not artificially planted tea gardens, but tea trees growing within the forest, sharing space with trees, shrubs, and moss in one ecosystem. This "underforest tea" cultivation method has continued for over a thousand years on Jingmai Mountain.

In 2023, it was successfully inscribed as a World Heritage site. The core value recognized by UNESCO is precisely this thousand-year-old tradition of underforest tea cultivation. Globally, there's no second one like it.

Jingmai Tea Flavor Characteristics

For those who have tasted Jingmai tea, the two words easiest to remember are: orchid aroma.

This isn't artificial flavoring - it's the natural aroma formed by tea trees under specific altitude and soil conditions. On Jingmai Mountain, ancient tea trees grow in symbiosis with epiphytic plants like orchids. The minerals absorbed by the roots and the floral scents adhering to the leaves all end up in the tea soup.

Specific manifestations:

Aroma: Orchid notes, wild honey notes, elevated and long-lasting, obvious lingering aroma in the cup
Palate: Soft and sweet entry, low astringency, quick huiyun
Body sensation: Transparent and clear, especially for aged tea - after drinking, the whole person feels relaxed

This is why our Jingmai spring tea is called "独携天上" (Unique Sky Companion) in our product line - the floral and fruity notes really do have a transcendent clarity removed from worldly concerns.

Jingmai Mountain Has More Than Spring Tea

Many only know Jingmai spring tea is good, but autumn tea is also worth noting.

Spring tea has elevated aroma and delicate palate; autumn tea has fuller flavor and stronger layering. Our listed Jingmai Autumn Tea "荡气回春" 2015 is a representative of autumn tea - after 11 years of storage, the original autumn character has transformed into a richer, more profound foundation.

What to Note When Visiting Jingmai Mountain

If you want to visit Jingmai Mountain yourself:

Transportation: About 3 hours drive from Pu'er city, winding mountain roads, not recommended to drive at night
Accommodation: Both Wengji Ancient Village and Nuogan Ancient Village have homestays, not luxurious but clean enough
Best time: March-April spring tea season is liveliest, but June is also good - rainy season just starting, heavy fog on the mountain, great for photography
Etiquette: Ancient tea trees are "sacred objects" for local Blang and Dai people - don't randomly break branches

Our Relationship with Jingmai

Songdehao's Jingmai tea comes from local tea farmers we've worked with for years, not from wholesale markets. Every spring and autumn tea season, we personally go up the mountain to purchase fresh leaves, overseeing the entire initial processing.

This isn't about "telling a story" - it's because Jingmai tea quality is highly dependent on initial processing - the degree of withering, the kill-green temperature, miss by a bit and the orchid aroma won't come out.

Controlling quality at the source, then shipping directly to you - this is why we can offer prices half that of tea markets.

Songdehao Jingmai Series

Jingmai Spring Tea "Unique Sky Companion": 357g/cake, Raw Puer tea
Jingmai Autumn Tea "Autumn Renewal" 2015: 357g/cake, Raw Puer tea

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