Late Spring Mogan

Name: Yu Qian Mogan Green 2021 Organic Green Tea - Seven Cups
Brand: Seven Cups
SKU: AGT-LateMo22
Availability: InStock

Green Tea 2022

Late Spring Mogan green tea dry leaves in a wooden display box.

Cupped infusion of Late Spring Mogan green tea and strained leaves.

Late Spring Mogan’s tiny, twisted leaves from the late spring harvest have a surprising umami-rich flavor, with tender spring vegetable notes layered over savory fruit and a delicate mineral astringency. This is a great everyday green tea for a nutritious, high-end spring tea from an excellent origin at an affordable price.

Tea Origin: Moganshan, Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China
Tea Bush: Jiu Keng, Mogan Quntizhong (Mogan Heirloom Tea Bush)
Tea Maker: Wang Xiangzhen and Zhao Xianqin
Harvest Time: Late April
Plucking Standard: One bud, two leaves

While Moganshan (Mogan Mountain) is famous for its production of the rare yellow tea Mogan Huangya (Mogan Yellow Buds), it is far more widely known for its outstanding classic green tea. Late Spring Mogan’s tiny, twisted leaves from the late spring harvest have a surprising umami-rich flavor, with tender spring vegetable notes layered over savory fruit and a delicate mineral astringency. This is a great everyday green tea for a nutritious, high-end spring tea from an excellent origin at an affordable price.

The Moganshan Tea Gardens

A woman standing among rows of tea bushes holding a leaf. A rolling mountainside with rows of tea plants extends into the misty distance behind her, with other mountains in the background. — Zhuping examining a tea leaf while visiting the mountaintop tea gardens where Yu Qian Mogan Green is grown and made.

The weather and climate in this area is especially good for tea cultivation. The average temperature there is 15°C (59°F) with humidity hovering steadily around 80%. The tea bushes easily take to growing in the shade of clouds at the top of Mogan Mountain, surrounded by bamboo, mist, and mountain springs. The air is cool, crisp and clean, and the serene quiet of the area inspires a calm in visitors. When you walk among the tea fields of Moganshan, you can see far into the distance and into the valley below. Because of its high altitude, tea grown here usually grows slower and needs to be harvested about a week later than in other areas.

A row of short young tea bushes with a row of taller, older ones behind them and trees in the distant background. — Older (back row) and younger (front row) Jiu Keng cultivar tea bushes in the organic tea garden on top of Moganshan. Without the use of harsh herbicides, sensitive plants like ferns still grow here.

Late Spring Mogan is made from seed-grown bushes, not cuttings, that had seeded from the Jiu Keng variety and Mogan’s local heirloom tea bushes. The old tea bushes growing here have strong, deep root systems. The tops of the bushes are only cut every two years so they have plenty of time and space to grow normally. The bushes are irrigated with spring water. Farmers use natural fertilizers such as cut grass and weeds and fermented rapeseed paste (a byproduct of canola oil) to preserve the pristine environment.

Origins in the Green Tea Capital: Hangzhou

Moganshan has long been praised for its green tea, and actually produces far more green tea than yellow. This particular origin was even mentioned in Lu Yu’s Cha Jing, the first book on tea ever written over 1,200 years ago. Mogan is the tallest mountain peak in the Hangzhou area at 758 meters. This entire region of Zhejiang Province has a very long history of producing excellent green tea, including Longjing (Dragon Well), the most famous green tea in China. The Hangzhou origin which produces our Shifeng Longjing (Shifeng Dragon Well) is only about an hour’s drive away from Moganshan.

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.