First Pick: Heirloom Enshi Yulu Presale
One River Tea
Regular price
$26.00
Sale
Tea: Taizicha Enshi Yulu - Jade Dew (苔子茶-恩施玉露)
Type: Hubei Steamed Green Tea
Harvest: Late March 2026
Region: Enshi, Hubei, China
Producers: Wildbrook Co-operative
Tasting Notes: baked seaweed, buttered broccoli, toasted soy, cream, spring violets
Enshi Yulu, or Jade Dew, is one of the only Chinese green teas that is steam processed to "kill the green" and stop the oxidization process. The result is a much more sweet green tea with deep umami notes, which relates more closely to Japanese green teas rather than to most of the modern Chinese Green teas.
This year, we have bought a Taizicha cultivar version from the same co-operative set up with Flowinverse Tea, in Enshi's Tunbao Township. This heirloom varietal has more down, a slightly rougher shape, but also a more full fragrance and balanced flavor. Grown at a model organic co-operative site, this material is the native sort of heterogeneous leaves that Enshi Yulu was originally made from. Since 2025, there has been an effort to better utilize this sort of material and move away from cultivars like Longjing #43 or Zhenong #117.
This is the first time we have ever offered a Taizicha version of this tea. It will offer notes previously available in our Hefeng Maojian, being slightly thicker and toasty while still retaining the basic vegetal flavor profile of Enshi Yulu.