2024 Top Grade West Lake LongJing西湖龙井 Green Tea 50g Tin

The super Longjing tea has a flat shape, brown beige color, even color and mellow fragrance, with orchid and chestnut fragrance. It is famous for its "green color, fragrant, sweet taste and beautiful shape". The secondary Longjing tea is tender green in appearance, with chestnut aroma. The lower the grade, the more complex and thick the dry tea color is, the aroma changes from floral to fried, and the leaf bottom changes from tender buds to bud leaves.

The production areas of Longjing tea are clearly differentiated. The core production areas are "Shifeng, Longjing, Yunqi, Hupao, and Meijiawu", followed by the West Lake production area. In addition, the Longjing tea produced in Hangzhou City is second-class (Qiantang Longjing), and the Longjing tea outside Hangzhou is again first-class (Yuezhou Longjing). The more the core area, the smaller the scope and the less yield, but the better the growing environment and the better the quality.


What is the difference between this West Lake Longjing and Mingqian Longjing?The origin of West Lake Longjing is more core than that of Pre-Qingming Longjing, and the level is also higher than it. Pre-Qingming Longjing is produced in Hangzhou, and West Lake Longjing is produced in Hangzhou West Lake areas.

West Lake Longjing has a history of 1,200 years. It is produced in the mountains around Longjing Village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, hence its name. When Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty visited West Lake in Hangzhou, he praised Longjing tea and named the 18 tea trees under Shifeng Mountain as "Imperial Tea". Longjing tea has thus become famous in the world. Due to long-term quality control and word-of-mouth inheritance, it has become one of the most famous green teas in China today.

① The dry tea is "brown rice color" with yellow-green color, not pure green; ② The aroma is the aroma of roasted beans + orchid; ③ The leaves are tender and evenly formed into flowers, and they expand when exposed to water; ④ The packaging has the anti-counterfeiting code of the Tea Growers Association, which can be scanned to verify the origin.

Longjing tea has clear production areas. The West Lake production area is the core protection area of the Longjing tea national geographical indication, with unique soil and climate, and the tea soup has a strong chestnut aroma with orchid fragrance; the Qiantang production area is the production area around West Lake, with a strong stir-fried bean aroma. Both are hand-fried, and the output of the West Lake production area is scarce, so the price is higher.

The material of the first spring Longjing is Wuniuzao (early-growing tea tree variety), which can be picked in the Qiantang production area in early March. The dry tea is emerald green, with plump buds, and tastes sweet with a tender bean aroma, but its brewing resistance is lower than that of West Lake Longjing (traditional Longjing population variety). First spring longjing is suitable for tea lovers who pursue "freshness".

Mingqian tea is the first buds picked before Qingming Festival. It is cold and has few pests. It has a high amino acid content and the tea soup is fresh and sweet. The Qiantang production area's Mingqian tea is available 5-7 days earlier than the West Lake production area. It is more cost-effective and suitable for staple food tea.

Green tea storage needs to be protected from light, sealed, moisture-proof, and kept at low temperatures. It is recommended to use sealed bags to prevent oxidation of the tea leaves. It is best to store it in a refrigerator (0-5°C) and avoid storing it with odorous items. Long-term freezing is not recommended to avoid absorbing odors in the refrigerator.

If there are small white balls on the tea leaves, it is not moldy, but tea hair. Tea hair refers to the tiny hairs on the tip of the tea buds. They grow one by one on the tea buds. This layer of hair is rich in a lot of nutrients such as amino acids and tea polyphenols, which is the source of the umami flavor of the tea soup. Generally speaking, the tenderer the tea leaves, the more tea hairs they have, so the tea hairs of Longjing before the Qingming Festival will be particularly rich. Tea hairs appear on the surface of dry tea, and there are some cotton-like "little white balls" mixed in the tea leaves, which are grouped into small tea hair balls. These are all normal phenomena of Longjing.

You can tell whether tea leaves are moldy by the following methods:
1. Smell
Normal tea leaves can smell a light tea fragrance, which makes people feel comfortable just like the breeze in the south of the Yangtze River; while mold smells a pungent musty and sour smell, which makes people feel uncomfortable.
2. Touch
Normal tea leaves are crisp and easy to break; when tea leaves are damp, the leaf stems will become soft and not easy to break. They will not feel as dry as before, and the moldy parts can be easily twisted off.
3. Brewing
If it is a normal Longjing tea soup, after brewing, the tea soup is translucent, green and attractive, with a high and fresh tea fragrance. It smells refreshing and refreshing, and the more you smell it, the more you want to smell it; after brewing moldy Longjing, the color of the tea soup is also uneven, turbid, and the smell is pungent.