Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha Spring Tea
Encounter a heart-warming tea container, taking a sip or two of light and elegant tea in the middle of a busy schedule; between touch and vision, clearly comprehend heaven, earth and people of nature and ingenuity.
Frequently Bought Together
- Chinese: míng qián gù zhǔ zǐ sǔn chá chūn chá
- Translation: Pre-Qingming Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha Spring Tea
- Type: Green Tea
- Cultivar: Zi Sun Cha
- Origin: Guzhu, Huzhou, Zhejiang
- Harvest Date: 2026/03/16
- Storage Methods: Refrigeration, Sealing, Moistureproof, Avoid light.
- Shelf Life: 18 months
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Close your eyes and take that first sip. What do you taste?
If you said "tea," try again. This is the 2026 harvest of Guzhu Zisun—and what you’re actually tasting is the moment a mountain wakes up after winter.This is the first light of dawn burning through the mist over Guzhu Mountain. It’s the taste of rain hitting bamboo leaves. It’s the electric green of a new shoot pushing through the damp, rocky soil of Zhejiang. This isn’t just Chinese Green Tea; it’s springtime, captured in a cup.
We call it Purple Bamboo Shoot Tea because that’s exactly what it looks like when the farmers hand-pick it during the fleeting Pre-Qingming (Ming Qian) window. The buds are tiny, plump, and tipped with a faint purple hue—full of the plant’s life force, harvested before the sun gets strong and the leaves relax into maturity.
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History of Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha
Production of this tea dates back at least to the 8th Century CE, when Lu Yu, China's Sage of Tea and author of "Cha Jing", set up a tea factory here dedicated to producing Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha as the first tribute tea for the Tang Dynasty Emperor. Lu Yu, the famous tea master, was instrumental in promoting tea and tea culture during the Tang Dynasty (619-907AD). In addition to writing the first book about tea, he built the first Tribute Tea factory for the emperor in Gu Zhu Mountain in Zhejiang Province in 846 AD. It was his belief that Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha was the very best tea, and became a Tribute Tea for over a thousand years. Initially, this tea was steamed into cakes and then ground into a powder to drink. - It was picked entirely by hand using the standard of primarily two tiny leaves and one bud, and the processing was also carefully done by hand to preserve the integrity of these beautiful little leaf sets. As with most Chinese green tea, this tea was picked, withered in the sun and/or indoors, heated in a low-temperature wok to kill the enzymes in the leaves that would otherwise cause them to oxidize and turn brown.
- When you brew these delicate, downy leaves, the liquor turns a brilliant, pale yellow-green—the color of young willow leaves in early April. The aroma hits you first: a clean, high note of fresh sweet pea, a whisper of wild orchid, and the subtle sweetness of just-unfurled bamboo shoots.
- And the flavor? It’s the crispness of the first snap pea from the garden. It’s a wave of umami that washes over your tongue, followed by a lingering, cool sweetness (what tea lovers call hui gan) that makes you want to breathe in deeply and smile.
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Yes, this tea has a story. It’s the very same Gu Zhu Zi Sun Cha that the Tang Dynasty Emperor insisted on drinking. It’s the tea that Lu Yu, the Sage of Tea, declared the finest in the world in 780 AD, leading to the establishment of the royal Da Tang Gong Cha Yuan (Great Tang Imperial Tea Factory) right here in Changxing to guard these very slopes.
But the story doesn't matter if the tea doesn't taste alive. This one does. It tastes like a secret the mountain keeps, and we get to share it.
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Glass Cup Brewing Method:
• The ratio of green tea to water is 1:50, and a glass cup of about 300ml can pour 5g of tea.
• Pour water into the cup (the water temperature is 80~85°C), pour it slowly along the wall of the cup, and let the tea leaves fully infiltrate. The speed of water injection should not be too fast.
• Wait for 3 to 5 minutes, and you can drink the delicious, green tea soup, and then when you drink 1/3 of the teacup, you can refill the water again, usually brew three times.
Customer Reviews
Steeping photo
Elegant needle leaves, even prettier than in the photo. I stepped gently in a gaiwan at 158F, and it was perfection. Subtly nutty and floral, so delicate!
Don't have a taste, fresh and refreshing, and the tea fragrance is more pleasant.
Sweet, with a hint of orchid fragrance. The customer service is very enthusiastic, thank you very much.
The taste is fresh and soft, and the sweetness comes quickly. There is a kind of sweetness like walking in the bamboo forest after the rain, and there is also a kind of leisurely feeling among the mountains. Good tea, good tea!