Naka 2025 autumn

Year: 2025, autumn
Weight: 10 grams sample and 250 grams bing*
Country of origin: China, Yunnan province

* This autumnal collection is wrapped in the same wrapper design, distinguished only by a stamp with Chinese characters indicating the name of the tea. A few bings’ wrappers also have hand-written names in Latin letters on them, written by Milos Karasek himself—a well-known Slovak artist who designed the wrappers for these cakes.

Details:

— story of Naka mountain

Naka, a village located under the Manlü Village Committee of Mengsong Township, is where generations of the Lahu ethnic people have lived. The ancient tea trees of Naka are the most representative of the Mengsong tea region; this old village, nestled among winding mountain forests, reveals a unique sense of simplicity and mystery. Throughout the entire Mengsong tea region, the quality of Naka tea ranks among the very best.

It does not have the heavy body of Yiwu tea, nor the overpowering strength of Bulang tea; yet it is smoother and sweeter than Bulang Mountain tea. It lacks the high aroma of Nannuo Mountain tea, but surpasses it in lasting depth and persistence. Overall, its flavor can be summarized as: high aroma, sweet liquor, a full and weighty taste, with a clearly noticeable astringency.

Naka tea is not only historically famous; anyone familiar with Menghai tea knows that even today, its reputation in Menghai stands shoulder to shoulder with Nannuo Mountain and Banzhang tea. This is due to its plump buds, intense flavor, rapid saliva production and returning sweetness, and long-lasting aftertaste. Locally, it has even earned the elegant nickname “Little Banzhang.”

Of course, beyond these qualities, Naka tea possesses some truly distinctive traits, known as the “Two Distinctions.”

**First Distinction — Small-leaf variety:**
In the ancient tea gardens around Naka, large-leaf, medium-leaf, and small-leaf varieties grow together, with small-leaf types predominating—something extremely rare in the Menghai tea region, which is famous for large-leaf tea trees.

**Second Distinction — Stone-grown tea:**
In the growing environment of Naka’s ancient tea gardens, rocks cluster beneath the tea trees and are visible everywhere—this is classic ancient tree tea growing out of rocky crevices.

Lu Yu wrote in *The Classic of Tea*, in the chapter “The Origins of Tea”:

> “As for the land—those of the highest grade grow among broken rocks; those of the middle grade grow in gravelly soil; those of the lowest grade grow in yellow earth…”

— tasting notes

It has been a while since I had this tea made by the same farmer from the same trees. It used to be an iconic tea back then, about 10 years ago.

Fresh bread-bake–like notes, with a delightful sweet taste in the first brew, ending with a haze-like pitch. Although the punch of energy felt in the body is apparent, aromatics of fresh tea leaves remain pure, and the bitter-sweet level goes up nicely. Sweet pea hints pop up nicely, with a nutty bitterness ending sweet and tasty.

I would say this is a bitter type of tea—not exactly the same as Bulang Mountain–type teas, but a slightly different type of bitterness. An apparent gushu-like profile is represented by fine wood-like notes. I would call this Naka bitterness, as it is quite unique: pure, distinct, and with an umami-like feel, making you want to drink more and more of it.

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