Green Tea

Long Jing

Long Jing Tea is famous for its green colour, delicate aroma, mellow taste and beautiful shape.

The appearance of LongJing tea is characterised by smooth, flat, straight leaves and its jade-green colour. Usually, Long jing tea and other kinds of tender green tea can be drawn only two or three times. When you drink Long jing tea, it's better to enjoy the aroma first, then appreciate the liquor colour, the moving of tea leaves in the glass and finally taste the liquor.

The optimum water temperature is 80 or 90 degrees. It is recommended that you first boil the water and then let it cool. Using water that is too hot will cause the tea leaves to be spoiled and tea liquor will turn a dark yellow very quickly. However using water that is not hot enough, the tea will not easily infuse and the leaves will float on the surface of the water. When making long jing in a tall glass, we can appreciate the beautiful dancing of the tender tea leaves and buds. Take a trip to the famous West Lake in Hangzhou (near Shanghai) you will see many people enjoying their green tea in tall glasses; it is a great place to enjoy tea and to spend a relaxing time by the lake. A further important note is that when making tea with tender teas it is better not to cover the cups, doing so will cause the leaves to turn a dark yellow and it's not attractive! For lower grade day to day green teas however we can use a tea-cup with a lid when preparing them.

Other Green Teas

Other famous green teas are produced in a number of provinces in China, the most famous of which are from Jiang Shu, An Hui & Si Chuan. Examples of these are named Bi Luo Chun ('Spring Green round (snail) tea'), Huang Shan Mao Feng (from the An Hui Yellow Mountain), Tai Ping Hou Kui, Liu An Gua Pian & Si Chuan Zhu Ye Qing (Green Bamboo Leaf tea).