What is Lu'an Guapian tea? Get to know this distinctive green tea

Lu'an Guapian is a green tea produced in the Dabie Mountains area of Lu'an City, Anhui Province, and is also one of what people often call China's top ten famous teas. Its most distinctive feature is that only single leaves are used in its making, with neither buds nor stems included, a practice that is quite rare among famous high-quality green teas. Because the dry tea, once unfurled, resembles a melon seed slice, it is named Guapian (melon slice).

Lu'an Guapian once served as a tribute tea in history, and traditional processing requires several steps, including leaf sorting, pan-firing, and repeated old-fire roasting, among which the charcoal-fired old-fire roasting is the key step in forming its unique aroma. The finished tea has a precious green color with a frosty bloom, and after brewing the liquor is yellow-green and bright, with a high, clear aroma that often carries an orchid fragrance or a roast fragrance, a rich and full taste, and an obvious sweet aftertaste.

On the market, Lu'an Guapian is graded into different levels according to the tenderness of the raw material and the picking time, generally mainly spring tea, with the quality of tea picked and made around Guyu being relatively better. Tea from the core production areas is of better quality and relatively higher in price, and when purchasing you can make an overall judgment based on origin, appearance, and aroma.

When brewing, the water temperature should not be too high; hot water of around eighty to ninety degrees is more suitable. You can choose a glass cup or a gaiwan, and when pouring water, do so slowly along the wall of the cup to let the tea leaves fully unfurl. As a traditional famous high-quality green tea, Lu'an Guapian is suitable for daily drinking and has the effect of refreshing the mind and cutting greasiness, while people with weaker stomachs and intestines should not drink strong tea on an empty stomach.