Meng Ding Gan Lu is a green tea from the Mengshan Mountain of Sichuan province. Mengshan (蒙山) is one of the oldest recorded places in China where tea was cultivated. Monk Wu Li Zhen (吴理真) planted tea there around 200BC. During the Song Dynasty, the tea garden he built was preserved and named as the Imperial Tea garden (皇茶园). The tea from this garden was the tribute tea to the imperial family throughout the Song Dynasty.
Gan Lu literally means ‘honey rain’ in Chinese. However, the word originated from the Sanskrit word for immortal. Meng Ding Gan Lu is made from the first buds of Spring. The traditional process for this tea is painstaking, requiring that the tea is fired and rolled three times and finally baked over charcoal.