After a small hiatus, I am back with another tea variety – this one comes from China, it’s green and known by the name of Longjing. English speakers might recognize it by Dragon Well tea, too. When purchasing this tea, I didn’t know much about it, just where it comes from and that it’s supposedly one of the best known and apreciated teas in China.

After searching the internet a bit, I got confused because they say most of the Longjing tea we buy is fake. The original Longjing comes from the Lion Peak Mountain in West Lake (Xihu), a small area of 168sqkms which makes this tea very rare.  While there are about one hundred(!) Longjing varieties now growing in other provinces, too, the West Lake one has become especially sought after (although in West Lake they apparently grown more than 30 varieties of Longjing…).

Longjing (spelt also lung ching) leaves undergo a pan-fry process, like most of Chinese teas. The appereance of the leaves is yellowish to greenish. I was able to steep it three times and the 2nd steep was the one I liked the most.

Longjing aka lung ching tea leaves

For the first infusion, I boiled water and cooled it down to about 80 degrees celsius. I would normally let it steep for not more than 2 minutes. For the 2nd and especially the 3rd infusion I would use almost boiled water.

1st steep

The taste wasn’t bitter at all, I could say it left a slightly sweet aftertaste. In the 1st infusion especially, it tasted a bit grassy.

A cup of yellowish lung ching tea

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