Mengding Ganlu “Sweet Dew” Green Tea
21,00 € – 36,00 €
Each year, we reserve a small batch of handcrafted high-mountain Ganlu—picked just as the first buds awaken on the slopes of Mengding. Grown at higher elevation, these tea trees sprout later, but their leaves carry a quiet intensity: delicate yet nourishing, with a sweetness that lingers like morning dew.
Made in one go, from bud to pan, this year’s Sweet Dew is a once-a-year offering. Using only tender buds from high-mountain tea gardens and crafted through the traditional “Three Times Pan-Fry and Knead (三炒三揉)” processing method, it reveals notes of green bean umami, sugarcane, and warm cookie—bringing you the essence of spring on a Sichuanese mountain
Description
PREMIUM ‘SWEET DEW’ MENGDING GAN LU (蒙顶甘露)
Using only tender buds from high mountain tea gardens, this sweet tea brings you a taste of spring on the Sichuanese mountain
CULTIVAR: Old Chuan Cha (老川茶) Sichuan Native Small Leaf Species
ORIGIN: Wang Farm, Mt. Zhougong, CN
PICKING: 2025 Spring, 13-1500m altitude
PROCESSING: 3x stir-fried, 3x kneaded
TASTING NOTES: Green Bean Umami,Cookie, Sugarcane
RECOMMENDED GONG FU BREWING:
1g : 40ml Tea to Water Ratio
1st brew: 90C, 5 sec Open Lid
2nd brew: 90C, 5c sec Open Lid
3rd+: 95-100C, add 5-10 sec each time
Can be brewed more than 5 times
On our tea journeys through the Mountain cliffs of Ya’an, we were able to secure a very small batch of freshly picked Gan Lu from the Meng Ding Mountain range. When Yiling first found out I loved tea – she took me to Meng Ding the first time I visited her in Sichuan, knowing that as a tea lover going to the mountain where tea was first cultivated would blow my mind to be drinking tea where the world of tea began. We stayed at a tea farm, and I still remember waking up to a beautiful sea of fog with the mountain peaks sticking out like islands and the fog turning into morning dew on the tea leaves.
All the more special for us to have this amazing tea from this special place for us. Gan Lu means “Sweet Dew” which comes from the honorific title given to Wu LiZhen, the monk credited with first cultivating tea, as this tea became a tribute tea to the Emperor during the Song dynasty. For us it’s not only reminiscent of the tea mountain itself, but also for its fresh remaining sweetness and thick dew-like body.
Our Gan Lu comes from an old stone tea garden in Mt. ZhouGong (one of the 5 mountains of Meng Ding). Unlike plantation Gan Lu, this farm is Sheng Tai (natural/untouched tea garden) which uses permaculture biodiversity techniques to facilitate the tea growth. Gan Lu is picked as just fresh buds (the most chemically rich part of the tea plant) just emerging from its first leaf, then goes through a difficult and laborious process of frying, kneading, and filtering three times. We will detail the tea making process in the next post.
Sheng Tai (Natural garden) Gan Lu is incredibly prized and we’re so grateful to have gotten this limited small batch to share. Just looking at the white hairs on the leaf, brings a smile to our face. The white hairs (or Pekoe) are rich in polyphenols and theanine which only appear on the youngest, tenderest buds and disappear with age. It’s dewy body, umami richness, with fresh sweetness that lingers on the tongue, not to mention that it can go for at least 7 brews, it’s hard not to love this tea. DM us for a reservation for a special discount.
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