In 2026, we visited our friend at Tong Lu, a garden in Zhejiang Province built around the well-regarded Jiukeng cultivar, a plant that has thrived in this part of eastern China for decades. The growers there are producing both green and black teas, and the care they bring to both is precisely the kind of quiet, purposeful craft that makes these sourcing trips worthwhile.

The Jiukeng cultivar gives Tong Lu Green a character that sits comfortably in the gentler end of the Chinese green spectrum: light-bodied, low in briskness, and easy to return to cup after cup.

The twisted leaves, a mix of bright and dark green, brew into a soft lima bean liquor that's almost translucent in the light. The aroma leans fresh and cool, like sliced cucumber on a warm afternoon, and the flavor follows through with that same garden character: cucumbers, a hint of zucchini, clean and easy on the palate.