Tea: Melon Seed Green (Lu'an Guapian - 六安瓜片) Type: Anhui Green Tea Harvest: Mid April 2026 Region: Lu'an, Anhui, China Producers: Wang Family Tasting Notes: Toasted Oats, Cinnamon, Nettle, Daffodil
Guapian is a type of green tea that has survived in roughly the same form since antiquity. These wok-fried leaves are large, natural, and a little ugly. Guapian has been one of China's top ten teas for hundreds of years, and the methodology behind this tea is very unique, featuring whisking the leaves with a hand-held straw broom in a wood-fired wok. This processing creates the iconic wabi-wabi leaf shape iconic to the Guapian, or Melon Slices.
As this tea consists of larger leaves, there is very little 'mingqian' guapian made in Luan. The tea is thick, rich, and delivers a powerful cup of tea without too much bitterness. This is a great tea for those who want a little force in their green tea selection, and are not afraid of some big ugly leaves.
The brew starts off very vegetal, but gets sweeter and creamier as the session progresses, and even positively floral by the final infusions.
We recommend brewing this tea in a gaiwan (2.5 grams to 100ml water with flash infusions) or in a tall glass grandpa style (3 grams to 8 oz of water with a death steep).
I CHEATED!!! Sorry, ORT. And after doing a comparison from 3 different boutique tea companies of this first flush 2026 King Peony from similar regions, this one is hands down my favorite! Thank you One River Tea for all your blood, sweat, and tears that go along with finding such a superior product. I could talk about the unrivaled sweetness or the melon and creamy green bean notes, but it’s already been said very well in all the other reviews. Bottom line, not only is this my favorite tea out of the ones I compared it against, but it’s my favorite tea out of my entire green collection this year. Enjoy!
I received a free sample with my order and was blown away by the color and taste - this is special and needs very little tea to make a really expressive session - thank you for opening my eyes wide!
