Nectar of the Heavens

Mengding Ganlu is a green tea representative of Sichuan province.
Records suggest that this tea has been produced since before the Common Era.
In other words, it is a tea with a long history of over 2000 years. When talking about the history of tea, Lu Yu, who published the book called Cha Jing, always comes up, but Lu Yu lived from 733 to 804 AD, so in fact, tea was made about 1000 years before Lu Yu was born.
At that time, China was in the Western Han Dynasty, and Mengting Ganro was made by the monks of temples. At that time, temples were the only ones with organizational power, so tea making, which required a collaborative effort, was carried out mainly by temples.

The photo shows the oldest temple on Mengding Mountain (left) and the gate just before Mengding Mountain (right).

Mengding Ganlu is produced in a region called Mingshan County, a few hours' drive from Chengdu in Sichuan Province.
In Mingshan County, there is a mountain called Mengdingshan (sometimes called Mengshan), and the tea harvested from this mountain is used as an ingredient.
However, in recent years, Mengdingshan has become heavily commercialized as a tourist destination, and many of the tea plantations on Mengdingshan make a living by selling tea to tourists who visit the area.
When sales are primarily to amateur tourists rather than to tea merchants and other professionals, quality becomes less important.
Currently, tea production in Mengingshan is shifting from quality to quantity, and tea that has been grown slowly over time without the use of fertilizer is becoming very difficult to obtain.

Mengdingshan Tea Plantation

The amount of Chinese green tea traded in HOJO's lineup is very small, but due to the reasons mentioned above, it is difficult to obtain high-quality raw materials, so we travel directly to the famous mountains of Sichuan to purchase locally, ensuring a certain level of quality.

Like other high-quality Chinese green teas such as Biluochun from Suzhou, Mengding Ganlu is made by hand-picking the buds that appear in early spring, pan-frying them, and then rolling them by hand. However, since it is not as well-known as Biluochun, you can get good quality tea leaves at a cheaper price.

In Sichuan, Mengding Ganlu is placed in a glass and drunk by pouring hot water directly over it.

This tea has a refreshing sweet aroma and a clean taste, and you can feel the sweetness gradually as you put it in your mouth. It goes down smoothly and is neither too strong nor too weak, and you can feel the sweetness lingering in your throat.
It is also delicious when brewed in water; if you put one teaspoon in about 500ml of water and put it in the refrigerator, you can enjoy refreshing iced tea after a few hours.