Harvest Location: Yu'an District, Lu'an, Anhui
Harvest Date: 04/17/2026
Elevation: 500m
Cultivar: Dushan Small Leaf Species
Lu’an Guapian is one of Anhui’s most distinctive historic green teas and is often translated as “Melon Seed” tea for the flat, oval shape of its finished leaves.
What sets this tea apart is its material standard. Unlike nearly all other Chinese green teas, Guapian is made without buds and without stems. Only the mature leaf is used—typically the second leaf from the spring shoot. During processing, workers meticulously remove the bud, petiole, and central vein, leaving behind a clean leaf blade. This labor-intensive step is essential to the tea’s famously smooth texture and refined taste.
The leaves are then slowly pan-fired at low temperature, softening and shaping them into their characteristic seed-like form while preserving a vivid green color. To finish, the tea is basket-baked over charcoal, a traditional drying method that adds depth and a faint toasted warmth without smokiness.
The result is a green tea prized for its bright clarity, gentle sweetness, and soft, rounded mouthfeel—a style defined not by tenderness of bud, but by the careful transformation of the mature spring leaf.
