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  • Meng Ding Gan Lu
Meng Ding Gan Lu - Image 1

Meng Ding Gan Lu

Meng Ding Gan Lu is a green tea from the Mengshan Mountain of Sichuan province. It is one of the Top Ten Famous Chinese Teas.

Wholesale pricing and quantities are per kg (2.2lb) unless otherwise indicated

SKU: WF-MDGL1EU-C

About this tea

Meng Ding Gan Lu is a green tea from the Mengshan Mountain of Sichuan province. Mengshan (蒙山) is one of the oldest places in China recorded to plant tea. Monk Wu Li Zhen (吴理真) was there to plant tea around BC200. Later in the Song Dynasty, he was officially memorialised as Tea Ancestor (茶祖), and the tea garden he built was preserved and named Imperial Tea Garden (皇茶园). The tea produced in this garden was the tribute tea to the imperial family throughout the Song Dynasty. Gan Lu literally means ‘honey rain’ in Chinese. Actually, it is a Chinese word that originated from Sanskrit, which means ‘immortal’. In the past, there were many temples in Mengding Mountain, and the monks were the pioneers to produce this tea. It’s imaginable that they use Buddhism language to name this tea. The top-grade Meng Ding Gan Lu is made by the earliest single buds germinated in Spring. And the traditional processing of this tea is very onerous. Generally, it needs three times of frying and three times of rolling. And charcoal heat is necessarily used for baking and drying of this tea. The fine tea material of Mengshan and the exquisite processing make the tea have a very fruity flavour and a tender, pure sweet taste.

The gate of Mengding (蒙顶 Peak of Mengshan)

Meng Ding Gan Lu

 

Imperial Tea Garden (皇茶园). The imperial stone tiger is still aggressively watching over the tea garden.

Meng Ding Gan Lu

 

Part II Plucking and Processing of Meng Ding Gan Lu

Meng Ding Gan Lu

The fresh buds and leaves were put on the ground in thin layers for slight withering.

The traditional hand-made processing of Meng Ding Gan Lu is very refined and onerous. It requires very skilled work from the worker. And the daily output of a worker is very limited, just 2-3 kilos at maximum. As always, the best quality tea is always hand-made. The processing of Meng Ding Gan Lu is featured by three times frying and three times rolling (三炒三揉), and charcoal heat baking dry.

The next handling after frying and rolling is body shape making. Just before the tea is almost dried and the leaves are still hot and soft, we use our hands to make the tea body shape we want and bring out pekoe. Immediately after this processing, the tea leaves are dried, thus the body shape is fixed.

Meng Ding Gan Lu

Body shape making and bringing out tips.

The last handling is to bake-dry the tea. Traditional baking of Meng Ding Gan Lu is by charcoal heating. As the Chinese have experienced, wooden charcoal heat always makes better food than electric heating.

Around one kilo of tea is put on the surface of a bamboo basket evenly in thin layers. And charcoal is burnt under the basket; smoke is definitely prohibited.

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