Award-Winning "Jade Dew" EnShi Yu Lu Green Tea

Sifu Lao Cha treated a traveling monk to a cup of Enshi Yu Lu Green Tea.

– Sifu, this tea is so refreshing and delicious! It reminds me of Sencha – the tea that I tasted during my pilgrimage to Japan!

– Sencha took its form from Chinese teas. Since then, our teas have transformed. But today, you are drinking the source.

Enshi Yu Lu (恩施玉露), which means “Jade Dew from Enshi”, is the link between the steaming method invented in China over a thousand years ago and modern Chinese green tea. 

During the Tang dynasty (618–907), steaming (蒸青 – Zheng Qing) was the method used to make all Chinese green tea. Lu Yu describes it in “The Classic of Tea” (茶经 – Cha Jing). After the Tang era, China gradually shifted to pan-firing (炒青 – Chao Qing), and steaming gradually disappeared from the mainland. Japan, which had learned the technique from Tang-era China, kept it and refined it into sencha, gyokuro, and the rest of the Japanese green tea tradition. 

Enshi Yu Lu is a Chinese tea that retains the older processing method. The tea dates to the Qing dynasty Kangxi reign and was originally a pan-fired green called Yu Lü (玉绿 – Jade Green). In 1936, tea master Yang Runzhi (杨润之) reverted to steam processing and renamed it Yu Lu (玉露 – Jade Dew). In 1945, it was exported to Japan, where it earned the nickname "Chinese Gyokuro". In 1965, it was named one of China's Top Ten Famous Teas.

The comparison to Japanese sencha comes up often, since both teas are sun-grown and steam-processed, but the two are more different than they first appear. Enshi Yu Lu uses a lighter, briefer steam on Chinese leaf, while Japanese sencha (especially deep-steamed Fukamushi) uses longer, more intense steaming on Japanese cultivars. Here, the cultivar is Longjing #43 with high amino acid content, which gives the cup strong umami without the intense marine character of Japanese green tea. The rolling is also different: Enshi Yu Lu is shaped into tight, round pine needles.

This tea comes from the selenium-rich soils of the Wuling Mountains (selenium is an essential element with antioxidant properties). Picked according to the one-bud-one-leaf standard, the tea's signature is the "Three Greens" (三绿): green dry leaf, green liquor, and green wet leaf at the bottom of the cup. – At every stage, it stays green.

The aroma is unusual for a Chinese green tea: warm oatmeal with a thread of raspberry, then fresh spinach as the leaves open. The taste has umami, asparagus, and chestnut notes, with a mouthfeel that is both thick and refreshing. It received the Gold Medal at 'The Golden Leaf Awards' in 2024, distinguishing itself among other notable teas.