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Tea leaf from Xishuangbanna

Miam / suan cha (Blang and De'ang pickled sour tea)酸茶

Young tea leaves are withered and boiled, cooled and drained, then packed into bamboo tubes, sealed and buried in the ground. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts grow in them for months, and the tea is eaten, or sun-dried and brewed. An industrial De'ang version ferments for about nine months in a completely enclosed amphora.

Fully documentedTea leaf30 days – 2 years

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedVillage process. The sources used here give no batch size or recipe amounts.
Fresh tea leaves, one bud and two leaves[zhou2025]
WaterA travel report says the buried bamboo tube is frequently watered to aid fermentation[gokunming2010]

Total time across the recorded steps: 30 days – 2 years

Start
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What changes: Withered tea leaves are boiled for 10 to 20 minutes

Step 1 of 5
Pick, wither and boil the leaves
Time
10–20 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: boiled leaves.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Young tea leaves are withered and boiled, cooled and drained, then packed into bamboo tubes, sealed and buried in the ground. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts grow in them for months, and the tea is eaten, or sun-dried and brewed. An industrial De'ang version ferments for about nine months in a completely enclosed amphora. Made in 5 steps over 30 days – 2 years. The longest step, bury the tubes in the ground, takes 30 days – 2 years (Zhou J 2025). Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus plantarum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 yearsReported[zhou2025][gokunming2010]Bury the tubes in the ground
AciditypH 4.8–5.2Measured[zhou2025]Bury the tubes in the ground

What makes this one different

Like lahpet and miang it is a lactic, anaerobic tea ferment, but the leaves are boiled, packed into bamboo tubes and buried in the ground.

Related ferments

Variants

  • De'ang pickled tea (industrial)Leaf spread 6 h, fixed 6–10 min at 100 °C and rolled, then fermented about nine months in a completely enclosed amphora at room temperature and sun-dried 4–8 h.

Safety

Measured pH stayed at 4.81–5.16, which is above 4.6, so the sour tea is not made safe by acid alone. The leaves are boiled, which does not kill botulism spores (WHO), then sealed in tubes without air, and the recipes we read add no salt. No study we read tested it for Clostridium botulinum, so it is not a safe ferment to copy at home.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Zhou 2025 says the history of Bulang pickled tea, called mian, dates back more than 1700 years. In Nongyang village near Menghai, Blang hosts told a 2010 visitor that without suancha you cannot get married (GoKunming 2010).

Starter
The sources we found do not say how its fermentation begins.
  1. [zhou2025] Zhou J., Chen L., Zhang F., Foo H., Cao Z., Lin Q. 2025, Dynamics changes in physicochemical properties, antioxidant activity, and non-volatile metabolites during Bulang pickled tea fermentation, Foods 14:878paper
  2. [zhou2024] Zhou J., Chen L., Foo H.L., Cao Z., Lin Q. 2024, Changes in microbial diversity and volatile metabolites during the fermentation of Bulang pickled tea, Food Chemistry 140293 (abstract via Europe PMC)paper
  3. [mao2024] Mao H., Xu Y., Lu F. et al. 2024, An integrative multi-omics approach reveals metabolic mechanism of flavonoids during anaerobic fermentation of de'ang pickled tea, Food Chemistry X 24:102021paper
  4. [dang2026] Dang X., Li Y., Lv Z. et al. 2026, Impact of processing techniques on chemical compositions and sensory attributes across five types of Yunnan large-leaf teas, Food Chemistry X 103825paper
  5. [cao2019] Cao Z., Pan H., Li S. et al. 2019, In vitro evaluation of probiotic potential of lactic acid bacteria isolated from Yunnan De'ang pickled tea, Probiotics and Antimicrobial Proteins 11:103–112 (abstract via Europe PMC; 24 of 26 isolates L. plantarum)paper
  6. [gokunming2010] Horton C. 2010, Eating tea with the Bulang people, GoKunmingweb
  7. [s1] Wikipedia, Fermented tea (local name miam)wiki
  8. [who-botulism] WHO, Botulism fact sheetgov