Lu Shan Yun Wu
Lu Shan Yun Wu (Lushan cloud and mist) is a famous high-mountain green from Mount Lu in Jiangxi, named for the fog that shrouds its slopes for much of the year. That near-constant cloud cover means cool temperatures and diffuse light, the classic high-mountain conditions that slow growth and build sweetness and a soft floral character. The variable that matters most is altitude and authenticity, since genuine high-mountain Lushan leaf differs sharply from lowland tea sold under the name.
Quality Lushan Yun Wu has stout, tightly curled deep-green leaves with visible fine down, and a fresh, sweet aroma carrying a soft orchid-like floral note. The cup should be mellow and sweet with only light astringency and a lingering, slightly floral aftertaste, the hallmark of genuine high-mountain leaf. Thin, flatly grassy or harshly astringent tea suggests lowland material riding on the famous name. Spring pre-rain harvest is the best, and current-year leaf with a lively aroma is the baseline. The combination of sturdy downy leaf and soft sweetness is what authenticates it.
The tea comes from Mount Lu (Lushan) near Jiujiang in Jiangxi, a mountain long celebrated in Chinese poetry and painting precisely for the mist that wreaths it. That fog, with the cool air and diffuse light it brings, is the functional terroir: it slows leaf growth, raises amino-acid content and softens astringency, which is why high-mountain greens like this one drink sweeter and rounder than lowland teas. It is a pan-fired green, with the best leaf coming from the higher, mistier elevations.
Western: 80-85°C, 3 g per 200 ml, around 2 minutes, in a glass to watch the curled leaf open, 2-3 infusions. Gongfu: 80-85°C, 4 g per 120 ml, 20-30 seconds ascending, 4-5 infusions. Like most curled Chinese greens it opens gradually, so a slightly longer first steep than a flat tea like Longjing is fine.
€15-40 (about $16-43) per 100 g for good high-mountain Lushan Yun Wu, with top early-spring lots reaching higher. Cheap tea sold under the name is usually lowland leaf with little of the mountain character.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Mao Feng
Another misty high-mountain Chinese green, from Huangshan, sharing a closely related light floral character.
Longjing (Dragon Well)
The benchmark flat, pan-fired green, a clear contrast in leaf shape and in chestnut-toast versus floral sweetness.
Bi Luo Chun
A downy, curled southern green that shares the curl and down but runs fruitier and more delicate.
Mount Lu is a UNESCO World Heritage site whose mist has been a subject of Chinese landscape poetry for over a millennium; the same fog that inspired the painters is, quite literally, what the tea is named for and what gives it its mellow high-mountain sweetness.