Yunwu green tea · pre-Qingming 2026 · Zhejiang
The early-spring leaf that sits in hill fog, fixed in a hot wok instead of steam. Warm toast on the dry leaf, a pale sweet cup, and water cooler than you think.
Warm wok toast → soft sweet greens → a clean finish that returns sweet
Top, middle and finish are a way of organising time, not a standard term or a promise. Re-tasted against each lot; weight and brewing are below.
Aroma and palate, in the order they reach you.
Typical of the style · re-tasted against each lot
Fixing the leaf in a wok drives off the raw grassy volatiles and stops oxidation before the leaf can turn red. A little browning on the surface of the leaf adds the toast you smell. General to pan-fired green tea; not an analysis of this lot.
Cool mornings and hill fog slow the shoot down, and a slow early-spring shoot holds more free amino acids — the source of the soft, savoury sweetness. Water near boiling extracts catechins far faster and flattens that sweetness into bitterness. Typical of the style; not measured on this lot.
The sweetness that arrives after swallowing is a return, not sugar in the cup: the astringency clears and the lighter sweet notes become noticeable again. Green tea holds less of it than a roasted oolong, which is why it reads as clean rather than lasting. Typical of the style.
Hot metal, cut grass, and the sweetness of a young green vegetable. Nothing here needs a vocabulary you do not already have.
Cloud mist cuts direct sun and keeps the morning cool. A shoot that grows slowly keeps more free amino acids, which is why early high-ground green tea reads sweet rather than sharply grassy. No altitude figure is claimed for this lot.
Pan-firing (chao qing) tumbles the leaf against hot metal. The heat halts oxidation, drives off raw grassy volatiles and leaves a light toast on the dry leaf — a different cup from steam-fixed leaf, without any added flavour.
The producer states Zhejiang, pre-Qingming 2026 and pan-fired yunwu green tea, and nothing more specific. No mountain, garden, cultivar or altitude is named here. The listing title contains the word Rizhao; we do not claim a Shandong origin.
What you can see
A green tea tells you most of it before the water goes in. Three checks you can do yourself.
Curly grey-green strips with pale silvery tips and a warm toasted smell. Brown or dull leaf points to hard firing or poor storage, not to a stronger tea.
Pale yellow-green and clear. Cloudiness means broken leaf or a steep that ran long; a brown cast means the water was too hot.
Only what the producer states: Zhejiang, pre-Qingming 2026, pan-fired yunwu green tea, loose leaf sold by net weight.
Hot is the house method. Cold is a general green-tea guide, not measured on this lot.
Parameters stated for this product · adjust to taste, then keep them
4 g in 250 ml at 80 °C, no lid. Three infusions at 60, 75 and 90 seconds. Let the water cool off the boil for a couple of minutes before pouring; this leaf scorches easily.
If the cup turns sharp and bitter, the water was too hot or the steep too long. Fix the water before you change the leaf.
3 g in 500 ml of cold water, six hours in the fridge, then strain and drink within 24 hours. Cold water pulls less of the bitter fraction, so the sweet side of the leaf reads more clearly.
A general cold-brew guide for green tea, not measured on this batch. Adjust the leaf to your own taste.
A number is an identity, not a stock code. Where a field is unknown, it is left out rather than guessed.
One leaf, six fates. Nothing here is blended across regions.
