早春茶 / 明前茶
Feb 18 – Apr 15
Among China's earliest mainland spring flushes in Yibin and Mengding for Ganlu, Huangya, Shihua, and Chuanhong.
四川
Sichuan
Southwestern province whose western basin rim around Mount Mengding in Ya'an produces Mengding Ganlu, Mengding Shihua and Mengding Huangya.
- Level
- Province
At a glance#
Location
- Garden elevation
- Western Sichuan Basin rim (Mengding Mountain 800–1,456 m) and southern Sichuan hills around Yibin.
Where it lies#
Tea places nearby, plotted by their coordinates. Only physical positions are shown, no boundaries.
108 places shown Across the view · 1,760 km
22 places shown Across the view · 384 km
Altitude#
Garden elevations here and in neighbouring places, as sourced.
Picking calendar#
夏秋茶 (边茶原料)
May 15 – Sep 30
Mature shoots and woody stems harvested for Ya'an Nanlu border-trade compressed dark teas (Kangzhuan and Jinjian).
Terroir#
- Rock
- Cretaceous and Jurassic purple-red sandstones, mudstones, and conglomerate along the Longmen and Qionglai fault scarps.
- Soil
- Acidic purple soil (紫色土) and mountain yellow earth (黄壤) rich in phosphorus and potassium, pH 4.5–5.5.
- Slope and light
- Warm moist air from the Sichuan Basin rises against the Tibetan Plateau escarpment at Ya'an ("the Sky-Leak of Western蜀", 华西雨屏), creating over 200 rainy or misty days per year.
Cultivation#
- Cultivars grown
- Mengshan 9Chuanmu 217
- Landraces
- Sichuan small-to-medium-leaf population (四川中小叶群体种) and southern Sichuan early-sprouting landraces (川南早生种).
- Practice
- Early spring bud picking in Yibin and Mengding (often starting in mid-February) alongside mature stalk-and-leaf harvests for Nanlu border-trade dark brick tea.
上海科学技术出版社 · 2001
Local words#
| Local words | Dialect | |
|---|---|---|
| 三炒三揉 sānchǎo sānròu | Southwestern Mandarin (Sichuan / Ya'an) | three pan-firings and three rollings Traditional craft maxim used by Mingshan and Ya'an tea makers to summarise the alternating wok-firing and rolling sequence that shapes curly, downy Mengding Ganlu. |
People#
- Mengding Mountain tea artisans and Ya'an border-tea makers 蒙顶山制茶师与雅安边茶工匠
- Highland growers and hereditary tea masters in Ya'an, Mingshan, and Yibin who preserve both early-spring Mengding green and yellow teas and compressed Nanlu border tea for Tibetan trade.
Market#
- Primary trade channel
- Spring green, yellow, and Chuanhong black teas trade through Mingshan, Yibin, and Chengdu wholesale markets, while Ya'an border-tea factories ship compressed bricks westward to Kangding and Tibet.
- Trading towns
- Ya'an (Mingshan) · Yibin · Chengdu
- Output
- Sichuan combines China's earliest-flushing basin-rim spring green, yellow, and black teas (in Ya'an and Yibin) with large-scale compressed dark border-tea manufacture.
- Prices of teas claiming this origin
- Early February and March pre-Qingming single-bud pickings from Mount Mengding and Yibin command steep premiums over summer/autumn stalk-and-leaf material pressed into border bricks.
上海文化出版社 (Shanghai Culture Publishing House)
History#
- -53Tradition attributes the earliest recorded planted tea garden on Mengding Mountain to Wu Lizhen during the Western Han dynasty.
- 742Mengding tea becomes a formal imperial tribute tea during the Tang Tianbao era and continues until the late Qing.
- 1074Song-dynasty Tea and Horse Bureau (茶马司) established in Yazhou (Ya'an) to regulate border-tea trade with Tibet.
Notes#
Identity and history#
Rimmed by the steep rainy escarpments of the western Sichuan Basin and the Hengduan transition zone, Sichuan is among the oldest documented centres of domesticated tea cultivation and frontier brick-tea trade. On Mount Mengding and across Ya'an, persistent orographic fog nurtures tender spring shoots processed into multi-panned Mengding Ganlu, flat Shihua, and smothered Huangya, alongside coarse mature foliage fermented into Southern Route border-trade bricks. Southern river counties around Yibin additionally anchor early-spring Chuanhong gongfu black tea under protected regional standards.
Prices of teas claiming this origin#
International retail
Show as table
| Product | Vendor | Channel | per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ming Qian Meng Ding Huang Ya | TeaVivre | International retail | $66.28 |
| Meng Ding Huang Ya Yellow Tea | Sazen Tea | International retail | $168.56 |
| Meng Ding Gan Lu Green Tea | Sazen Tea | International retail | $201.87 |
Listings claiming this origin 3#
Price ranks compare recorded retail offers for the same tea, including offers outside the current delivery filter. Shipping and import charges are excluded.
Prices compared in the selected currency; unknown values appear last.
| Product | Vendor | Price | Per 100 g |
|---|---|---|---|
Ming Qian Meng Ding Huang Ya
DetailsCompare the details Recorded seller claims; a blank means unrecorded here, not necessarily absent from the seller’s page. Matching production does not establish identical storage or condition.
|
TeaVivreWorldwide |
$74.90 / 113 g | $66.28 |
Meng Ding Huang Ya Yellow Tea
DetailsCompare the details Recorded seller claims; a blank means unrecorded here, not necessarily absent from the seller’s page. Matching production does not establish identical storage or condition.
|
Sazen TeaWorldwide |
€15.03 / 10 g | $168.56 €150.30 / 100 g |
Meng Ding Gan Lu Green Tea
DetailsCompare the details Recorded seller claims; a blank means unrecorded here, not necessarily absent from the seller’s page. Matching production does not establish identical storage or condition.
|
Sazen TeaWorldwide |
€18.00 / 10 g | $201.87 €180.00 / 100 g |
Prices recorded on the dates checked. Conversions use ECB rates dated 2026-10-20; original prices appear alongside. Origin, age and cultivar are stated by the vendor.
Places within#
Teas associated with this place#
蒙顶甘露
Mengding Ganlu Méngdǐng Gānlù
Curled green tea associated with Mengding Mountain in Ya’an, Sichuan.
reviewed
蒙顶黄芽
Mengding Yellow Buds Méngdǐng Huángyá
Yellow tea from the Mengding Mountain tradition in Ya’an, distinguished by controlled yellowing.
reviewed
南路边茶
Southern-route border tea Nánlù Biānchá
Dark-tea tradition centred on Ya’an in Sichuan, historically supplied to Tibetan and other western markets.
reviewed
蒙顶石花
Mengding Shihua Méngdǐng Shíhuā
Flat, straight bud green tea associated with Mengding in Sichuan.
reviewed
川红工夫
Chuanhong Gongfu Chuānhóng Gōngfu
Sichuan’s regional gongfu black tea, associated particularly with Yibin and the southeast of the province. Fine leaf strips and a red infusion characterize the style.
reviewed
Sources#
- 王镇恒、王广智主编. 中国名茶志. 中国农业出版社, 2000年12月第1版. ISBN 7-109-06510-3 / 9787109065109.
Show all sources 10Show fewer sources
- 中国茶树品种志 (2001)
- 陈宗懋、杨亚军主编. 中国茶经 (2011修订版) (The Classic of Chinese Tea, 2011 rev. ed.). 上海文化出版社, 2011. ISBN 978-7-80740-664-8.