Meng Ding Gan Lu is one of China’s most revered historic green teas and is often listed among the “Famous Teas of China.” It comes from Mengshan in Ya’an, a misty mountain long associated with some of the earliest recorded tea cultivation in Chinese history.

Local tradition credits the Han-era cultivator Wu Lizhen with planting tea on Mengshan around the 2nd century BCE. During the Song Dynasty, he was honored as the “Tea Ancestor” (茶祖), and the garden associated with this origin story became known as the Imperial Tea Garden (Huang Cha Yuan). Tea from Mengshan was selected as tribute for the imperial court for centuries, cementing its prestige.

Gan Lu (甘露) literally means “sweet dew” or “nectar.” The term entered Chinese through Buddhist translations from Sanskrit, where it carries the meaning of a divine, life-giving nectar. Mengshan was historically home to many temples, and monastic communities played an important role in early tea cultivation and refinement here—likely influencing the poetic name.

Leaf Standard and Craft

Top-grade Meng Ding Gan Lu is made from the earliest single buds of spring, harvested before leaves open. The traditional craft is notably meticulous and labor-intensive:

Pan-firing → rolling → pan-firing → rolling → pan-firing → shaping → low-temperature drying

Classic production often finishes with gentle charcoal drying to refine aroma and stabilize the leaf.

Character in the Cup

The combination of fine early bud material from Mengshan and this repeated hand-crafting produces a tea that is:

Delicately fruity and floral

Exceptionally tender and pure

Sweet, round, and elegant

Silky in texture with a lingering, clean finish

Meng Ding Gan Lu is prized not for intensity, but for

refinement, softness, and historic pedigree

—a tea whose reputation has been built over many centuries of careful cultivation and craft.