Four Shades of Spring in Chinese Green Teas

Spring is the season of first growth.

This May, we invite you to join a special Chinese green tea tasting, where five teas reveal four shades of spring — from the sweet, brisk mung bean cake of Mengding Ganlu, to Biluochun’s delicate floral-fruity fragrance, Anji Baicha’s fresh, crystalline clarity, and Longjing’s gentle sweetness, reminiscent of warm toasted chestnut.

These names are commonplace amongst tea afficianados of all levels, but in the world of tea, grade/quality matters. Some come through Yiling’s own tea teachers, while others — such as the fully handmade Xihu Longjing from the core West Lake area  — are especially rare teas that are not easily available beyond a small circle. This Xihu Longjing for example is over 10 time more expensive than our Ganlu. Is it 10x better? We’ll find out together

The teas in this tasting have been chosen not simply as well-known names, but as distinctive and carefully sourced expressions of some of China’s most celebrated spring green teas. Education is a core part of Nari, and we intend this tasting to showcase the characteristics of each tea so you can walk away knowing what to look for when drinking these teas in the future.

To accompany the tasting, we will also serve a small selection of handmade tea snacks, prepared in-house to create a more complete and welcoming experience of spring tea.

Selection of Teas

• Mengding Ganlu 四川手工蒙顶甘露 

From our Farmer Xiao Wang, this Ganlu is from a small batch of handcrafted high-mountain Ganlu—picked just as the first buds awaken on the slopes of Mengding in March, and made by the same maker of our Mengding Yellow Tea.  

• Bi Luo Chun 太湖洞庭山碧螺春 

Shared by Yiling’s tea teacher, this is a beutiful floral-fruity tea from Dongting Mountain by Lake Tai in Jiangsu, where tea bushes are traditionally grown among fruit trees in a richly layered orchard landscape.

• Anji Baicha 高海拔安吉白茶 

Shared by Yiling’s tea teacher, this tea is harvested right after the Qingming Festival due to the high altitude climate in Anji Zhejiang. It is fully handcrafted and finished with low-temperature drying, leaving a delicate, almost ethereal impression on the palate. 

• Xihu Long Jing & Dafo Long Jing  西湖龙井&大佛龙井 

We will explore Longjing through two of the same cultivar (Longjing43) — one is made by Farmer Wu from the core West Lake region in Hangzhou, where the tea garden overlooking the lake; and the other one from a protected geographical indication area in the hig-elevation Yuezhou, Xinchang.

* Limited seats of 6