Lao Cha Yuan Ganlu (Old Garden Sweet Dew)

Green Tea 2024

A hand-crafted tea made from the earliest harvest of heirloom tea bushes in a high-elevation Mengding tea garden. An infusion that’s as crisp as spring water, sweet as a spring garden, and as layered as a fruit pastry.

$28.00

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Tea Origin
Mengding Mountain, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province, China

Tea Bush
Lao Chuancha (Old Heirloom Sichuan Tea Bush)

Tea Maker
Mu Zegang

Harvest Time
March 23-24, 2024

Plucking Standard
One bud, one leaf

The high mountain slope in Mengding Mountain that Gao Shan Ganlu (High Mountain Sweet Dew) comes from, dotted with tea bushes in a garden surrounded by trees, with cloudy mountain peaks in the background.
The high mountain Mengding tea garden that produced Gao Shan Ganlu (High Mountain Sweet Dew).

This is a small lot of Sweet Dew made from the first spring harvest of seed-grown heirloom Sichuan bushes. Those bushes are growing on a couple of acres of steep and forested mountainside, at a higher elevation from our usual Mengding Ganlu (Sweet Dew). This old tea garden is still planted with Sichuan’s old native tea bushes that are well-adapted to the local climate and environmental conditions of Mengding Mountain.

These leaves got the old-school treatment: hand-fired twice in the pan and rolled three times between the palms to dry. That brings a contrast of cool and warm top notes, bright melon and cucumber with buttery chestnuts and fresh baked bread. A cold breeze in the sunshine.

Lao Cha Yuan Ganlu (Old Garden Sweet Dew) brewing guidelines

5 grams (1.5 Tb) tea

12 oz 85°C (185ºF) water

3 min. first infusion

At least 4 infusions: 3, 3, 5, 8 minutes