<!– This listing is for our 2025 pre-sale of Mengding Ganlu. This tea will be picked and processed in mid-March. If other items are ordered together, everything will ship together once the tea is ready. If you wish to have other items sent first, please place a separate order with those items. We will try to make some of this tea available after the pre-sale period, however, quantity is limited so we recommend securing yours early, not to mention saving 10%. –>One of the most famous teas originating from Sichuan, the history of Ganlu (甘露, or “sweet dew”) green tea goes back over 2000 years. As expected from the name, this tea has a sugary and sweet aftertaste, but also a chestnut flavour that comes out as a result of multiple rounds of careful pan frying, followed by a gentle kneading process, which gives it a characteristically curly shape. The tip-heavy picking grade also gives it a bright, fragrant and fresh flavour. Produced by a small, local family of farmers, this tea uses the Sichuan old varietal (老川茶群体种) grown at a relatively high altitude of 800m in the core production area, which has even been known to be home to some wild pandas. The tea is fully hand fried and processed. Although this tea doesn’t fall into the “budget” category as easily as some, compared to more exclusive and high end teas (like Longjing), Ganlu offers a bolder experience in terms of flavour at a good value. We recommend brewing this tea with 80-85c water in a glass gongdaobei/pitcher and using a smaller amount of tea than you would for gongfu brewing. Something around 1 gram to 30ml of water should be good, but feel free to adjust this depending on taste. Brew the first infusion for around 1 minute, then keep topping up the pitcher as you please. Should you want to brew gongfu style, we still recommend keeping the water temperature low and using glassware if possible. $0.82-0.92/gram
