Notes of asian pear, corn silk, and squash blossom.

Green tea from Sichuan, China・2018・玉露・Organic

This is an early harvest organic green tea crafted from a cultivar native to Sichuan. Its beautifully shaped, pale green leaves produce a tea of extraordinary clarity.

The source garden sits at 1200m near Mengding Shan. The location of the garden is one of the essential contributing factors to this tea’s character: temperatures rarely exceed 59F/15C, and cloud and mist shroud the garden most of the year.

When the tea makers acquired the original tea garden in 2005, it had been abandoned for several decades. The garden was overgrown and in disrepair, but offered the tea makers an opportunity to identify and produce tea from heritage tea varieties in a fully organic environment. To make the project viable, most of the older tea plants were cut, leaving only the root structure and trunk. Onto them were grafted younger tea plants, using only indigenous tea cultivars from Sichuan.

Jade Dew is the first variety from this garden to enter full production. Crafted from a small leaf cultivar commonly called “lao chuan”, this tea’s origins can be traced back to imperial tea gardens that produced green teas for the Song court during 12th century China.

This is a pre-Qing Ming green tea. The leaves were handpicked over the course of five days beginning March 28, 2018. Only the downy intact buds and attached leaves were picked to produce this tea.

This tea was produced using a more complicated heritage method for green craftsmanship. Once picked, the leaves were withered, steamed to set, fan dried, fired twice, and shaped. Because of wildly variable temperatures this spring leading to somewhat sporadic growth rates, the leaves do not appear as consistently sized as last year's tea. However, this tea brews with more character than last year's.

This tea brews clear and sweet, with notes of asian pear, corn silk, and squash blossom.

Brew: 4 grams・150 ml・180° F・1 min

This tea takes well to short infusions using slightly higher temperature than most greens. A characteristic of Sichuan green tea is a slight bitterness on the finish. We happen to like that slight bitterness, and think it adds dimension to this tea.