Hangzhou (1) – Longjing (Dragon Well) Tea
2014 June, Hangzhou China
Green tea is made by pan-roasting the tea leaves before the leaves dry out or oxidize. One of the important types of green tea is called Longjing (translated as Dragon Well) tea. The name is after a well located in ShiFengShan (translated as the Lion Peak Mountain) in Hangzhou China. ShiFengShan produces most authentic Longjing tea due to its special soil (full of minerals), climate (average 16.1C) precipitation (1500mm yearly) and history. In the old days, the tea produced here is sent to emperors in Beijing. I thought this well is called dragon well because people see dragons in it. Apparently, it makes sense, based on wiki: “Longjing, which literally translates as ‘dragon well,’ is said to have named after a well that contains relatively dense water, and after rain the lighter rainwater floating on its surface sometimes exhibits a sinuous and twisting boundary with the well water, which is supposed to resemble the movement of a Chinese dragon.”
Selecting Longjing Tea: every year, in the market, longjing tea is sold in a variety of packages in different prices, ranging from 1 dollar to thousands of dollars per 50 g. See below my own collections of this year’s longjing.
To select good longjing, here are a set of factors to consider:
- Time: The first year’s longjing is the best. The second year’s tea is still drinkable, but it typically turns brown and will taste a touch of sourness. Thus, the best approach is to add some fruit or flower to cover such sourness. Early spring tea is called Ming Qian Cha, meaning the tea collected before Qing Ming, which is a Chinese festival on 4/5. Ming Qian Cha is considered best because it is very tender and fresh. Due to its sparseness, every year there is a bidding event to sell the Ming Qian Cha from the Lion Peak Mountain.
- Color, Smell and Taste: The tea leaves are typically yellow-green shaped as a sword. When you smell the tea, the best tea smells a touch of sweetness like flowers. The old tea smells a bit dusty and the new but not good longjing tea smells roast from the cooking not from the tea.
- Packaging. Authentic Lion Peak Mountain tea will have a laser label marked Chinese Character of Lion to seal the boxes. All the tea produced this year will be marked with a label of new tea of the year to seal the boxes. The famous producer often marks their addresses and name somewhere on the package.
Making Longjing Tea: There are different tea pots and tools sold in the market. We can generally classify them into three categories: a teapot to make tea, a bowl to collect and distribute the tea and a set of small cups to drink the tea. There are also other tools such as water pots and stoves to keep the water hot. (See pictures below).
To make the tea, you will put the tea leaves in a tea pot and add hot water. In the first pass, you wait for 30-45 seconds and dump the tea (without leaves) into the bowl. The tea from the first pass can be a bit bitter so the tea is used to warm the cups and will be dumped before drinking it. In the second to later passes, you let hot water to stay with the leaves about 1 – 2 minutes and then dump the tea. The flavor of longjing tea is a bit sweet. Unlike black tea, which is stronger, green tea does not drink with milk because the favor of the tea is too subtle to be tasted after adding the milk.
Tea Culture: Tea and its culture often attracts like minded people. In Hangzhou China this summer, I was passing a store near LinYin Temple. The owner of the store was making longjing tea and invited me to drink a cup of tea with him and one of his friends. We talked about the Buddha paintings he made, the Qi Xian Qin, a Chinese instrument he was teaching during nights and the nightlife of the LinYin Temple area. At the end of the conversations, I happily bought some over-priced pants from him :):D
Last Thursday, I met this Chinese girl at a party. She earned the tea appreciation certification from a school in Hangzhou and taught the tea course since then in Western countries such as Germany and Canada. The second day, I invited her over to try my tea collections. Listen to the rain, talk over the tea is one of the best ways I can think of meeting friends.
Chemicals in Green Tea: Green tea contains caffeine and vitamin C as well as Theophylline and Theobromine (the two also exist in cocoa beans and are considered very good for improving heart functionality and reducing the blood pressure). In fact, one of my friends is doing research on how to use green tea extract to cure a rare genetic related heart disease. Another interesting chemistry in green tea is L-theanine, which can help relax and reduce the stresses (credited to J).