Enshi Yulu Steamed Green Tea

Enshi Yulu, jade dew, is a needle-shaped green tea from the mountains of Hubei, steamed in the old Tang-dynasty way instead of pan-fired. The cup is vivid green, savory and sweet, with steamed greens, chestnut and a note of sea mist. Brewed in a glass teapot at 75°C.

Origin & Story

Almost all Chinese green tea is pan-fired. Enshi Yulu is one of the very few that are steamed, in a method that goes back to the Tang dynasty. Enshi, in the mountains of southwestern Hubei, has been a tea area for a long time: in the Tang it was known as Shizhou, in the Song its tea was counted among the tribute teas, and the name Yulu, jade dew, was used for it under the Ming and Qing.

The steaming is quick: hot steam halts the enzymes in the leaf within seconds, and the leaves are then cooled, rolled into fine needles and dried over low charcoal heat. The method faded in the twentieth century and was revived in its last decades. Its processing skill was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

In the cup the tea is a vivid, clear green and the flavor is fresh and savory-sweet: steamed greens, boiled chestnut and a hint of asparagus, with a faint sea-mist note and a clean, lingering sweetness.

Steamed tea likes cooler water than pan-fired tea, from 70 to 80°C. This page uses about 3 g of leaf for 240 ml at 75°C and a first steep of a minute to a minute and a half, and the leaf will give four or five infusions.

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