"Mengding" names the mountain, not one single tea — Mengding Ganlu (green tea) and Mengding Huangya (yellow tea) are two different products from the same protected family standard.
Mengding Ganlu (蒙顶甘露, “Mount Meng Sweet Dew”) is a green tea from Mount Meng in Sichuan, made in a curled (“half-pan, half-baked”) style and covered by China’s national standard GB/T 18665-2008 — the same family-level standard that also covers Mengding Huangya, a yellow tea from the same mountain.
That shared standard is worth understanding before anything else: “Mengding” names the mountain, not a single tea. GB/T 18665-2008 protects a whole family of Mount Meng products — Mengding Huangya (yellow tea), Mengding Ganlu, Mengshan Maofeng and Mengshan Chunlu (all green tea), plus roasted/pan-fired green tea and jasmine tea made in the same area. Seeing “Mengding” on a package tells you the mountain, not which of these products you’re getting — check whether it’s specifically labeled Ganlu, Huangya, or something else.
Traditionally, Mengding Ganlu is associated with a well-known planting story: legend holds that Wu Lizhen (吴理真) planted seven tea trees on Mount Meng during the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–25 CE), considered by the story to be the first cultivated tea trees in China, and the old verse “扬子江中水，蒙山顶上茶” (“Yangtze River water, Mengding Mountain tea”) is closely tied to this tea’s reputation. Both are cultural tradition passed down through popular tea writing rather than documented history — worth knowing as the story behind the tea’s fame, not as verified fact about its origin.
On the standard itself: processing runs through spreading, kill-green, cooling, a first rolling, a second kill-green/baking, more cooling, a second rolling, drying with shaping and pekoe-lifting, then a final baking and scent-lifting roast. Top grade (特级) is described as fine, even and curled, tender-green and lustrous with visible silver down, giving a sweet, clean, persistent aroma; a fresh, sweet, mellow taste; and a bright, apricot-green liquor.
See the Green Tea guide for where Mengding Ganlu sits among China’s other protected green teas, and Mengding Huangya for the yellow tea from the same mountain and the same family standard.
Look · Dry leaf
Top grade (特级) under GB/T 18665-2008 is described as fine, even and curled, tender-green and lustrous, with fine silver down visible.
Smell & taste
Typical aroma: sweet, clean, persistent. Flavor tendencies: fresh, sweet, mellow. Body: light-medium. These vary by batch, storage and brewing.
Brew · A starting point
Try 3 g in 150 ml water at 80–85°C for 60–90 seconds. Fully decant before tasting.
Read the wet leaves
Descriptive tasting notes focus on the curled shape and tender-green color carrying through to the infused leaf. Appearance alone does not confirm the protected origin or grade.
Sources & review status
- 21份标准提炼.md — Mengshan Tea material card (citing GB/T 18665-2008) — ChinaTea101 owner-supplied Source Library. Used for the family-level GI standard: protected area, permitted cultivars, the Mengding Ganlu-specific process sequence, and physicochemical limits shared across the standard's "特色名茶" (specialty famous tea) products (moisture ≤6.5%, total ash ≤6.5%, powder ≤0.5%). This source documents the process and quality-limit facts but not the Wu Lizhen legend or the "扬子江中水" verse.
- ChinaTea101_Content_Library_Part_D_Supplement.md — "Mengding Ganlu" table (book-sourced: pdf_33 p.36; pdf_42) — ChinaTea101 owner-supplied Source Library. Used for the Wu Lizhen seven-trees planting legend (Western Han dynasty) and the "扬子江中水，蒙山顶上茶" verse — both explicitly presented here as traditional story and cultural verse, not documented history, matching the existing hedge already established on the Mengding Huangya page for the same legend/verse pair.
Imported from 21份标准提炼.md. Updated 2026-09-25. Last reviewed 2026-09-25
How we check claims