This tea is great. It has all the freshness and taste of a steamed green tea but without the grassy notes. The liquor is very pale in color, almost white.
Mengding Mountain Snow Buds, Huang Ya
This mountain on the Tibetan Plateau in NW Sichuan Province is likely the birthplace of cultivated tea in China. Mengding Mountain is situated northwest of Mt Emei, one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism. Mengding Mountain Snow Buds are a springtime phenomenon: they are ‘first-of-the-season’ compact, tender, juicy buds brimming with the vigor of tea bushes that are beginning their annual growth cycle.
Tea pluckers gather these delicate buds and place them into small silk bags rather than traditional woven bamboo tea plucking baskets. Two people picking in this manner for one full day will gather only one kilo of fresh buds.
This is a very elegant tea with a slightly toasty taste: it needs several steepings to really show off its deep-rooted flavor profile. The overall taste sensation of this tea is sweet, crisp and clean. Mengding Mountain Snow Buds has a cool and bracing quality that affirms its high altitude environment – terroir.
