Jiangshan Lü Mudan
Shaped green tea from Jiangshan in Zhejiang, developed from 1980 in Bao’an township from local bushes and named for the form and colour of its leaf.
Character#
A local tax-bureau report describes plump buds, thick emerald-green leaves and a fresh, clean taste.
Processing#
Spreading
摊放Spread the picked leaf for about 4 to 5 hours, turning it once or twice.
Fixation
杀青Stir-fire small batches of leaf in an iron wok, with a helper fanning away the steam.
Rolling and shaping
揉捻、理条Roll lightly on clean bamboo ware by rubbing, pulling and shaking, then straighten the strips and spread them thin to await baking.
Baking
烘干Bake first in a traditional bamboo basket over charcoal, let the leaf soften, then bake again at a gentler heat.
Also sold or written as 2#
- 仙霞化龙Xianxia Hualong
- 江山绿牡丹茶Jiangshan Green Peony tea
Notes#
Green peony, not white peony#
The name means green peony. Despite the similar name, this is a green tea made by fixation, rolling and baking; the white tea Bai Mudan is a different product. The 2000 monograph says the tea’s two names refer respectively to its place of origin and to the form and colour of its leaf.
Restored in the 1980s, with differing accounts of its past#
The modern tea was revived in the early 1980s. The 2000 monograph places trial work in Bao’an township and relates older Jiangshan tea stories, but its precise revival chronology needs clarification. Those older stories provide cultural context, rather than evidence that today’s tea has been made continuously since antiquity.
Where it is made#
The monograph places the original area on hillsides either side of the Hualongxi stream in Bao’an, on the northern foot of the Xianxia range, with Peijiadi and Longjing villages named for the best leaf. It gives 400 to 1,000 m for the main production area. Between 1990 and 1995 the production base grew to 233 hectares in three zones: a handmade core, a machine-fired zone around the Xiakou reservoir and a zone known for fine processing and early sales. Those figures describe the 1990s, not the present.
Where to buy#
No listings recorded for this tea yet.
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.