First picked west lake longjing tea 2024 shifeng best green tea 250g

The most famous green tea in China, handmade from 70+ year old tea bushes of the original Longjing (Dragon Well) cultivar. Deep complex character with a rich flavor and an unusually nutty aroma.

2024’s Shifeng Longjing brews full, slow, and persistent, with layers of toasted cereal grain, green fruit, and fresh meadow grass.

The 250-gram and 500-gram amounts are sold in this tea’s traditional packaging (see last product photo), available online only.
EA ORIGINShifeng Mountain, West Lake, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China
TEA BUSHLao Chashu Quntizhong (Old Heirloom Tea Bush)
TEA MAKERChen Xiaochao and Weng Shunqin
HARVEST TIMELate March
PLUCKING STANDARDOne bud, two leaves

hifeng Longjing (Shifeng Dragon Well) has a rich and complex flavor that changes as you drink. Owing to its traditional processing, the tea’s aroma is not grassy — it is an uncommon combination of gentle floral notes and a nutty toasted soybean or chestnut character. This singular tea experience is created by a combination of traditional growing practices, slightly later harvest time, and the now rare processing style done almost entirely by hand.

Shifeng Longjing is the most famous green tea in china.but few have tasted the original, which grows in the Shifeng Mountain region in Hangzhou City around the beautiful scenic West Lake. Shifeng Mountain is the original center of Longjing tea production, and the most highly prized teas are produced around this area.

The leaves are harvested at a plucking standard of one bud and two tender leaves. Compared to our dfolongjing Shifeng Longjing has a deeper, nuttier flavor and a more complex aftertaste.

Making traditional handmade Shifeng Longjing

his particular tea is harvested at the end of March, before the Qing Ming Festival on April 5th. Fresh hand-plucked leaves are brought back from the gardens and allowed to wither for a couple of hours. Then they begin the firing process to fix the leaves and prevent oxidation. After an initial machine firing, the tea is left to sit for another 3-4 hours before being fried two more times by hand in the wok. (Note: this standard initial machine firing is required by the local government as of 2008.)

For the hand frying step in the wok that develops Longjing’s nutty character, the tea maker pan fires about 150 grams of tea at a time to shape the leaves and remove some of their moisture. In the third and final frying, more leaves can be fried at a time since they have shrunk from losing moisture. When finished, the tea leaves have a moisture content under 5%. Any drier and they would break easily; any more moisture and they would not be shelf-stable for long. The tea maker judges the tea’s progress with eyes and hands alone, relying on an intuitive sensitivity built by decades of experience to tell them when the tea approaches completion.

Characteristics of quality Longjing tea

Dry leaves of good quality Longjing green tea will be even and uniform in size, showing they were picked in the same season, not a blend. The tea color is very clear and lightly yellow-green. When the tea is brewed, you can see the plucking standard and not much tea dust or broken leaves. Appreciate the unique fresh fragrance that gently develops over many infusions. We hope that you will enjoy the full-bodied flavor of this remarkable tea.

No chemical fertilizer, pesticide, or herbicide was used in the production of this tea.