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First Flush West Lake Dragon Well Longjing #43
Longjing tea, also named as Dragon Well tea, is one of the most famous Green Tea having rich heritage with more than 1500 years of history. It is always on the top position among the 10 most famous Chinese Tea. It is one of the finest types of green tea in China, Longjing tea is known for its emerald color, beautiful flat shaped leaves, sweet taste with perfect combination of bean and floral notes.
This year’s batch of first flush longjing tea is from a small tea farm in Longwu village, the core production area within West Lake area of Hangzhou. As the tea trees just started to sprout, the size of the first flush longjing tea are tender and fat. When comparing with later-harvested tea, the dry leaves of this batch are relatively small with fat buds. The tea has a strong aroma of roasted beans. It is essentially a high-temperature fragrance produced through the traditional pan-frying process.
Harvest Date: 27 March 2024
Weight per pack: 25g/ 50g/ 100g/ 250g
Tea Farm Location: Longwu, Hang Zhou, Zhejiang, China
Varietal: Longjing #43
Types of Green Tea (Green-killing method): Chao Qing/ Pan-fried Green Tea
Tasting Notes: refreshing and layered mouthfeel, roasted bean aroma, lingering sweetness with floral and chestnut notes
Dry Leaves Appearance: fat and thick buds, flat, yellowish green
Tea Liquor Colour: bright and clear light yellow green
History of Longjing tea
Longjing / Dragon Well – the name probably comes from the local Longjing village and Longjing temple of the same name, which in turn possibly got its name from an eponymous well, whose waters apparently twisted and danced like a Chinese dragon after heavy rainfall.
There is a legend that Emperor Qianlong (1735–1796), of the Qing dynasty, visited the tea plantations in the west lake area. He was very interested in the tea and tried picking the tea in the plantation. When he was picking the tea, he received the news that his mother in Beijing was ill and rush back to Beijing in a hurry, and totally forgot he had put the leaves he had picked into the sleeve of his robe. When he visit his mother back in Beijing, his mother smelt the fragrant aroma of the leaves and asked people to make the tea for her. After drinking the tea, she made a full recovery and the emperor declared longjing tea cured his mother’ ill. The emperor was so happy and granted the 18 tea trees under Shi Feng Mountain as the Imperial Tea Trees.
After that, Longjing tea became the tribute tea and the popularity of Longjing spread around the country. The 18 tea trees still remain at the Shi Feng
Three main growing/production area of Longjing Tea
“West Lake Longjing” almost become a synonyms for Longjing Tea. When talking about Longjing, people always related it to West Lake Longjing. West Lake Longjing is so famous and the price is relatively high. The real West Lake Longjing is mainly produced in the West Lake Scenic Area of Hangzhou. The core production areas within West Lake include Shifeng Mountain, Meijiawu, Yunqi, Hupao, Longjing Village and other places. The production of longjing in West Lake area only accounts for about 10% of the total production amount. Its fame and very limited yield are the main reasons contributing to its extremely high price.
In fact, there are three main production area of Longjing Tea:
1. West Lake region (10% of the production), area within West Lake Scenic area, the first core production area include Shi Feng, Long Jing Village, Mei Jia Wu, Yun Qi, Hu Pao. The second core production area includes places like Long Wu, Zhuang Tang, Liu Xia, etc.
2. Qian Tang region (30% of the production), area outside West Lake area but within Hang Zhou, it also refers to the high mountain area in the upper part of Fuyang River, includes places like Fuyang, Lin An, and Yu Hang, etc.
3. Yue Zhou region (60% of the production), zhejiang area outside Hang Zhou, places includes Shao Xing, Yue Cheng, Xin Chang, Cheng Zhou, Pan An, etc.
Taste and aroma of Longjing tea
In terms of aroma, the most typical taste of West Lake Longjing is its “Dou Hua Xiang”, which means bean and flower fragrance. The traditional bean fragrance of Longjing is very characteristic, it is also well balanced in its floral and nutty notes, It is sweet with longlasting “hui gan” – sweet aftertaste.
What's the differences between Cultivar #43 vs Qun Ti Zhong
Longjing #43 is the varietal developed by Tea Research Institute of CAAS (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), it is an excellent varieties cultivated from the Qun Ti Zhong. The picture on the right is Longjing #43, the tea trees are relatively neat and tea plantation is in tea rows. This Tea is special in its early germination, higher yield. It sprouts early in spring and can be picked around middle of March. The dry leaves is tender and green, it taste elegant and refreshing, with bean and floral aroma.
Qun Ti Zhong, also named as old tree varietal. The picture on the left is Qun Ti Zhong, the tea bushes look different to each other. The harvest period is relatively late, 7-10 days later than Longjing #43, starting from the end of March. The seed germination rate is low, and the differences between tea bushes are large, resulting in different sizes of fresh leaves and inconsistent in the time of sprout, which make it difficult in harvesting and post making process. The tea buds and leaves usually looks wild and rough when comparing with the tender tea leaves of varietal #43, and it tastes like a mix of floral and bean notes with layered mouthfeel.
Whether it is Longjing #43 or Qun Ti Zhong, they has its own advantage, there is no such thing as either one is better. Choosing Longjing tea depends not only on the growing area and varieties, but also on the making process and quality control.
Making Process of Longjing Tea
Picking
The picking period of Longjing tea usually start from late March and end in late April. The tea is also graded by different time period, first flush tea, pre-qing ming tea, qing ming tea and Yu Qian tea.
Withering
Longjing tea needs to be withered on a bamboo baskets after picking, which usually takes about half a day. The purpose is to reduce the grassiness, enhance the fragrance of tea, and reduce the bitterness. It also helps improve the appearance of the tea leaves, avoid the tea for clumping together, which is very essential for the next frying step.
Green-killing by Pan-frying
The traditional stir-frying of longjing tea need to be done by hand, gives longjing tea their characteristic flat shape. There are 10 usual process includes tap, belt, squeeze, shake, straighten, expand, buckle, grasp, press and grind. The whole process of stir-frying is divided into three stages: Qing Guo, Hui Chao, and Hui Guo.
Qing Guo (青鍋) , translated as green wok, which means the fresh leaves are pan-fried for around 15 minutes, the kill-green step deactivate the enzymes, and reduce about 70-80% water content of the tea.
Hui Chao (回潮) , translated as re-tidal, it is a step of putting the pan-fried tea on a bamboo basket for one hour, this step helps the leaves to be soften and re-absorb the moisture.
Hui Guo (輝鍋), translated as wok-tossing, it means to further stir-fry the tea in the wok, and reduce the water content to less than 5%, this step also helps shaping the tea leaves into flat shape. This steps take around 20 minutes.
Selecting and Grading
After the pan-fried tea is dried, broken leaves will be picked out, and the tea will be selected and divided into 3-4 grades.
Drying by “Shou Hui”
“Shou Hui”, translated as “collecting ash”, it is the final step of drying in the traditional making process. The tea is packed and put inside a big pot with some packs of lime inside (Calcium Oxide). The purpose is to keep the longjing tea dry and remove the “fire flavor” of the pan-fried longjing tea. The quality and taste will be significantly improved after this final step.
