First Pluck Sweet Dew
Green Tea 2024
The very earliest harvest of Mengding Ganlu (Sweet Dew), the vanguard of the first spring tea of the year. Hand-rolled tiny tender buds brew up with full yet soft layered flavor with floral-chestnutty aromas and a sweet finish.
$25.00
- Tea Origin
- Mengding Mountain, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, China
- Tea Bush
- Fuding #9
- Tea Maker
- Luo Ping
- Harvest Time
- February 15th, 2024
- Plucking Standard
- One bud, one leaf
Mengding Ganlu (Sweet Dew) is the oldest famous tea in China and has been selected as a tribute tea since 742 BC in the Tang Dynasty. A slightly later harvest of this tea is part of our regular catalog. This earliest of the early spring teas was made from the Fuding #9 bush, an early-flushing cultivar transplanted to Mengding from Fujian Province.
Sweet Dew is plucked as one bud and one leaf. In contrast to all-bud teas, this later harvest allows its leaves to be less stiff and more workable. These tender pluckings are withered and then de-enzymed by hand-frying in an iron wok. As the tea is worked in the hot pan, it is kneaded by the tea makers repeatedly twisting the leaves a few times between the palms of both hands and then sprinkling them back into the pan, a time-consuming traditional method that was very possibly inspired by the handmade technique that produces the similar-looking Bi Luo Chun (Spring Green Spiral). This hand-rolling develops Ganlu’s signature curly shape and white fluff, as well as its floral-chestnutty aroma, fresh taste, and sweet finish.
No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea. Click here to read more about our promise to fair trade and the environment.
