Where white
tea begins.
From Maolinggang — the mountain recorded as the earliest origin of Anji white tea. Grown in mist, picked by hand, sent whole.
A single mountain
We farm one slope of one mountain. Its leaves turn jade-white in spring, sweeten in the cup, and carry the cool air of the bamboo forest they grew beneath.
lumileaf exists to bring that one place — unblended, untraded, unhurried — to your table.
The origin · est. 1930
The mountain
history forgot.
In 1930, the Anji County Records noted dozens of wild white tea trees on Maolinggang — leaves “white as jade” — tended by the monks of Jinguang Temple. It is the earliest written record of Anji white tea, fifty-two years before the famous mother tree of Tianhuangping.
We grow on that same high, shaded slope today, among bamboo and the old stone foundations of the temple.
Tasting
Clear and sweet, with the cool note of
mountain spring and bamboo.
Signature
Maolinggang
First-Flush White
Hand-picked over ten days in early spring, when the buds are at their whitest. High in amino acids, almost without astringency — a quiet, sweet cup that rewards slow attention.
The ritual
Three quiet steps
Warm
Rinse a glass or porcelain vessel with water just off the boil, 80–85°C. Let the heat settle the room.
Steep
Three grams, watch the buds stand upright and slowly sink. Two minutes for the first infusion.
Return
Re-steep four, five times. Each cup softer than the last. The leaf keeps giving all afternoon.