A customer once said to me that "green tea tastes like warm dishwater. It is too bland!"

It is a view I have some sympathy with. When I first started drinking high grade green tea, I feel instantly energized and refreshed, but couldn't taste anything.

The "Aha" moment only arrived two weeks later when I finally appreciate the rich body and light floral fragrance.

If you were like me, I have two recommendations.

While most Chinese green teas have a light body and subtly floral aroma, the native tea plants of Yellow Mountain beg to differ.

The first is the enormously popular Taiping Houkui tea, commonly refers to as the Monkey tea. The second is this Liuan Guapian tea. also known as the Melon (seed) tea!

Both teas are young, having been invented around 1900s.

Both teas are one of the Ten Famous Teas. There are more than 700 Famous Teas, a tea has to be damned good to get to the top!

What both teas have in common is that they are harvested from the large tea bushes native to Anhui province. Unlike the more common small tea bush, they have thick branches and large leaves.

The word Liuan refers to Liuan county. The mountainous region has been growing tribute tea for the Chinese emperors since Tang dynasty (618 to 907 A.D.).

The word Guapian means melon seed. As you can see from the photo at the top of this page, the tea leaves have been rolled into a curve like a sunflower seed.

She is a late harvest variety. Tea leaves are plucked in late April (during the "After Rain") for ten days.

The making process - the most unique and sophisticated of any Chinese green tea - combines the best of tippy green tea, big tea bush and scented tea.

While a Dragon Well tea is roasted on the same day, the Guapian tea can takes up to a week to make.

The most labor intensive is the stage of "Old Fire", when the leaves are roasted for the third time.

First, the farmers create a hot furnace using 40 kilograms of smokeless charcoal. Then the tea leaves are roasted on top of the furnace five seconds at a time.

Next, the leaves are left to cool briefly. The farmers turn over the leaves slightly, before repeating the whole process again.

The amount of "fire" has to be exactly right. Too little can cause astringency, while too much can cause bitterness. Furthermore, the tender leaves have to be reduced to 6% moisture, while finally looking like a melon seed.

An incredible laborious process, this is repeated 120 to 160 times. It is said that a farmer can walk as much as 10 kilometers in a day. For this reason, she is widely regarded as the most sophisticated of Chinese green tea.

The Liuan Guapian tea grows in the Dabie Mountain of Eastern China, which has been granted the National Forest Park status in 1997.

Scientific studies have found that the Mountain fosters superb conditions for growing tea plants that is rich in antioxidants and theanine.

The soil is rich, with a thickness of more than 1.5 meters. It is slightly acidic, with a PH level of less than 6. Rainfalls are plentiful and average 1,250 millimeters a year.

Most tea gardens are found in the mountain valleys with rich soil and good drainage.

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