Everything you need to know about LONG JING DRAGONWELL GREEN TEA

Hey teaheads, this is Don from Mei Leaf. In this video, understanding Long Jing. Long Jing Green, a.k.a. Dragon Well. We call it Imperial Green. It is definitely, by far, the most famous Chinese green tea, probably one of the most famous teas in the world. We're in Xihu, specifically Weng Jiao Shan village area in Xihu, where they make top-grade Long Jing tea, and I thought it was about time to give you guys the lowdown on Long Jing so that all of you know how to source the best possible Long Jing tea. We're going to do that by going through the scope of this tea, season, cultivar, origin, picking and processing, and elevation. I'm going to give you all the information that you need to know so that you are all going to be Long Jing experts. Let's go. Welcome to Weng Jiao Shan in Xihu, in Zhejiang province. This area produces top-quality Long Jing at high-end prices. You can see the pickers are busy heading into the fields to go to work. If you're lucky enough to be a local from this area then every single person in the household is entitled to rent from the government one Mu of the most prime real estate for Long Jing tea. One Mu equates to about 666 square meters of land, which will produce something in the region of 100 kilograms of tea every single year. That is a fairly good birthright for living in this area. Let's go and join these pickers and see some picking. First up, of course, is season, and as with all green teas, spring tea is king. There are some very limited areas in Zhejiang province that will pick summer tea, but for the vast majority it will only be spring picked tea. The first harvest of the year depends upon the variety. So there are some varieties which are earlier flushing than other varieties. It will start at the earliest in February, but usually in March, and go on all the way until the end of April. So what happens is if the tea plant flushes they'll take their pickings, and then they will leave it, and when it flushes again they will then continuously from the first flushes of the year, in February and March, all the way until April, and then at the end of April, when the pickings are over, they will cut the bushes down, they'll trim them down, and they will leave them until the following year. As I said, some places will continue picking in the summer. I would stay away from any summer-picked Long Jing tea, because it will tend to be more bitter, and it will be much more likely that it will be sprayed with pesticides, because as the weather gets warmer there will be more insects and they will have to be controlled. So summer tea, summer pickings, is going to be very, very low-quality Long Jing, usually reserved for those tea bags, those green tea tea bags. So stay away from any of that. Right, let's move our attention on to spring pickings. The very, very first pickings of the year command an extremely high price. A ridiculous price, in my opinion, because those first pickings are very, very light-tasting. However, people always want the first pickings of the year, and so they will pay a premium for it. You then have another sort of calendar marker, which is the Qing Ming festival, usually beginning of April, sort of fourth of April. In general, the highest quality Long Jing comes pre-Qing Ming, just before this time. So between that first harvest, up until around the fourth of April, that is your sort of golden spot for Long Jing tea. Of course, it depends on the weather, it depends on the year. Sometimes you can get excellent Long Jing which is picked after Qing Ming, but that's a good marker for you, and you'll often see the term pre-Qing Ming tea written on the packs. And the earlier the picking always means higher price to market. The yield of the harvest is usually around 25 percent pre-Qing Ming. So if you take an area producing, say, 100 kilograms of tea, 25 kilograms will be produced pre-Qing Ming, and the other 75 kilograms will be picked between sort of early April and the end of April. So you can see how much faster the leaves grow, and how much more yield you get afterwards. So always go for spring pickings, and ideally go for pre-Qing Ming. Let's quickly talk about the cultivars involved in Long Jing production. The original, the authentic, is called the Chun Ti Zhong variety. Hundreds of years of history, very, very traditional, and slightly later harvesting Long Jing. About 70 years ago the tea institutes in China started to play around with varieties, to try to create varieties which were earlier harvesting. Remember, as we said before, earlier to harvest means potentially a higher market price. They've created a couple that have become very, very solidly part of the Long Jing production, and that is Long Jing 43, and the Xiao Ye Fu Ding, the small leaf variety. Both of those are produced in large quantities, and produce excellent tea. More recently, about 40 years ago, the tea institutes created a new one called the Wu Niu Jiao variety, which is extremely early harvesting, very, very early, and again, means quicker to market, and potentially a higher market price. Over there, in the background, you can see, hopefully, that some of the bushes have a slightly more red tint to them, compared to the bushes here in the foreground. The bushes in the foreground are Long Jing 43. So many of the tea plants in this area are Long Jing 43, and the ones that have a slightly red tinge, that is the Chun Ti Zhong variety. So that is the authentic, original variety, and will be harvested later on in the year like, you know, about two or three weeks later. In terms of the age of the tea trees, these are all about 30 years old. As with all tea production, the older the tea tree the stronger the taste, and therefore the more expensive the price. In terms of the general flavor differences between the different varieties, these are generalizations, but the Chun Ti Zhong tends to have more of that roasted-bean, nutty flavor, and the Long Jing 43, and the Xiao Ye Fu Ding tends to have a little bit more freshness, but a good, balanced flavor. And the new one, the Wu Niu Jiao variety, the early harvesting one, is very, very green. For the Long Jing purist it tends to be that it's too green, too fresh, doesn't have enough of that roasted-bean flavor. These are generalizations, of course. All the other factors that always relate to the quality and flavor in tea, such as terroir, processing, etcetera, all come into play. But as a generalization, Wu Niu Jiao tends to be the most green, Chun Ti Zhong tends to be the most roasted-bean, and the 43, and the Xiao Ye Fu Ding can be a nice balance in-between. I forgot to say that one of the other advantages of these newer varieties, like Long Jing 43 and Xiao Ye Fu Ding, is that they have higher volumes, higher yields. So not only is it earlier harvesting, but also you get more tea out of the bushes. That means that economically it's much more advantageous, rather than the original Chun Ti Zhong variety. But it's always so sad when I come and I see things like this. This here is the original Chun Ti Zhong that they are cutting down and replacing with Long Jing 43. Don't get me wrong, Long Jing 43 makes excellent tea, but it's always sad when you see that economics is homogenizing the tea market, and all of these older varieties, these original varieties, are being destroyed. Let's talk about the most important factor in determining the price of the Long Jing. Not necessarily the quality, but the price of the Long Jing, and that is the origin of the tea. Zhe Jiang province is the home of Long Jing tea. You can grow tea that is similar to Long Jing, and you can technically call it Long Jing, or Long Jing style teas, and that can be grown in other provinces apart from Zhe Jiang. For example, in Gui Zhou province. But generally, it is considered that Long Jing from those other provinces is not so high quality. This is generalizations, as always. So if we forget about those other provinces, and we focus on Zhe Jiang, Zhe Jiang Long Jing is then split into two broad categories. The first category is just called Zhe Jiang Long Jing, and the second category is Xi Hu Long Jing. So Xi Hu Long Jing is West Lake Long Jing, so any Long Jing which is grown around West Lake. If we zoom in on Xi Hu there are different areas. We're in Weng Jiao Shan area of Xi Hu, but there are other areas. The famous area called She Feng, which is Lion's Peak, which has those 18 imperial tea bushes. You've also got Hu Pao, you've got Long Jing Quan, and you've got Long Wu. Those are all areas that if your tea comes from those areas you can call your tea Xi Hu Long Jing. Then you have the other areas in Zhe Jiang province. For example, Xin Chang Wu Yi, not the same Wu Yi as makes Da Hong Pao. You've got Qian Dao Hu, you've got Weng Jiao, and you've got Xian Ju. All of those areas are broadly classified as Zhe Jiang Long Jing. So the price is very dependent on which part of Zhe Jiang your tea comes from. Every tea seller, or many tea sellers, claim that their tea is from Xi Hu West Lake area. This is Xi Hu. We're standing in it now. The price of this tea is very, very high. Early, early spring pickings, so pickings that are happening around now, will be in the region of about $200 per 100 grams of tea, retail. The later pickings, sort of end of April, so the last pickings of the spring so they don't pick here after that, the last pickings of the year, in essence, which happens at the end of April, will go down to around about retail $45 per 100 grams. So if you see any Long Jing tea which claims to be from Xi Hu for lower than that price then I would strongly suggest that it is not from Xi Hu, and it is being labeled, or branded, Xi Hu Long Jing because of the price. This gets us on to that sticky subject of, is Xi Hu Long Jing so much better than the Long Jing from other areas? Well, of course, terroir comes into play here. The soil, the microclimate, everything about the terroir in this area will contribute to very strong-tasting tea with a lot of that nice roasted bean taste to it. It is also true that because it's famous there's a lot more attention to detail here, because they want to make sure that they maintain that brand. Okay? So that means that they will have higher-skilled workers, that they'll pay more for their workers, that they'll have more attention to detail during the production, and therefore, Xi Hu Long Jing tends to be high-quality, not just because of the terroir, not just because of the brand name, but because the brand name means that they're focused even more on attention to detail. I should also say that the varieties that are grown in these different areas vary. So in Xi Hu they will only grow Long Jing 43, and Chun Ti Zhong, but in the other provinces they will also grow these other varieties, like the Xiao Ye Fu Ding, and the Wu Niu Zhao. But that is not to say that tea produced by high-quality producers in other areas in Zhejiang are not high-quality. In fact, I think that you can get incredible teas from places like Xin Chang, from places like Wu Yi, from places like Chen Dao Hu. All of these places can produce exceptional Long Jing. So don't be put off, and don't be sucked into just the labeling of the tea. That would be my advice to you. Try to find Long Jing from good suppliers that are being honest about where they are sourcing it from, and hopefully they are sourcing it from the right places. As with all green tea, the pickings are extremely fine. A bud in one leaf, or a bud in two leaves, and they are always hand-picked. I'm going to see if I can steal... You can see here, lovely, fine pickings. A bud in one leaf, or a bud in two leaves. Super delicate. Oh, that incredible, freshly-picked tea smell. So the fresh leaves then immediately head over for processing. One of the best things about being in tea country during picking season is eating these fresh leaves. These are delicious. I can't stop eating them. They're so fresh, and succulent, and crispy. The flavor is incredibly nutty. It's like eating the raw almonds, raw hazelnuts. Very, very nutty, obviously with that nice green taste to it. So mild. So lacking astringency compared to other raw tea leaves that I've been eating on my travels. It's so nice. It's like nature's little bounty all around you. Hello! Finally, in our scope analysis comes E, elevation. Elevation is not a major factor to determine quality or price. Of course, if the tea is being picked in late, late spring, early summer, then you want to make sure the elevations are high enough that they don't have to use pesticides, because lower elevations means more insects. But in this area, because this is only spring-picked tea, they stop picking in the end of April. That's not an issue. The elevation here is around 250 meters. Other parts of Zhe Jiang province you will have higher elevations, but elevation is not a major concern to think about when you are selecting your Long Jing tea. Another stellar meal in the mountains. The food here is so good. Farmer's food is always the best food. It puts Michelin-star restaurants to shame. The bamboo shoots here are so fresh. You really don't need to do anything with them. You just need to add a bit of soy sauce, and gently cook them, because the natural flavor is just so incredible. Something as simple as eggs and tomato is somehow elevated into the most incredible meal. You can check it out, Celine. Look at the spread that we have. An amazing soup here. Chicken soup with bamboo shoots. You've got fish. Fresh fish. So, so fresh. Super flaky. Incredible. Bamboo shoots, prawns, a cornucopia of delights. All delicious, every single dish. So yummy, so healthy, and of course we are drinking Long Jing tea. So this is from Wang Jia Shan. This is this area. Really, really rich and strong in that roast nut aroma and flavor, and when you get down to those wet leaves incredible strawberry aroma is coming off them. This tea is the product of Mr. Suen here. Mr. Suen is 74 years old. Check out the health, the glow on his face. Incredible. A testament to the power and health of good living, fresh air, good tea, and fresh food. He was telling me his story, and previous to the opening up of land he was living in quite poor conditions, in poverty conditions. Then in 1983 the government began to rent the land to the local people here, and they began to grow and produce their own tea. That was when the economic situation in China also was on the rise, and now, thankfully, in this area there's plenty of money coming in, and lots of people are very happy, because they've got enough money and they can live a healthy, happy life. He was telling me that money doesn't matter, of course. All that matters is you have enough money so that you can relax, you can take in this amazing scenery, enjoy some good food, and drink with your friends. So, Mr. Suen and his incredible Long making machine. Celine and Chef Lucy are making Long Jing tea. Cheers! Celine and Chef Lucy are making Long Jing tea. The processing of Long Jing tea takes place just footsteps away from Peking. We're in village area. When the leaves come in then they might still be a bit moist from the early morning juice. So they'll spread the leaves out, let that extra moisture dissipate. If the conditions are perfect then they'll move straight on to the withering phase. What they'll try to do is they'll spread the leaves out indoors, in a cool and dry place, preferably sort of in the basement area of the house, and that will allow the leaves to become pliable, as it just starts to reduce some of the moisture, the cell walls start to break down, the stems become pliable, you can't fry the leaf directly from fresh. That usually takes about five hours, but depends upon the weather, of course. Then we move on to the all-important fixing stage, or pan-frying stage. Traditionally, that is done in woks like this, right? But for 99 percent of the Long Jing being produced these days it is actually done by machine. So let me show you. So this de-enzyming phase is all about heating the leaf up to about 180 degrees, 200 degrees, in order for it to stay green and be fixed. So we have here this machine. We've got some fresh leaves here, which have been withered already, so they are pliable, nice and pliable stems. Then this machine here loads up 250 grams, which drops into this machine here. Here you have this area where they will oil the metal slightly with tallow seed oil, so tallow seed oil just to make sure it doesn't stick, and then the plate will be heated up to about 180 to 200 degrees, depending upon the quality of the leaves, how much moisture is in the leaves. This machine rotates the leaves so they're never staying still on the hot plate, and it will bake for about... it will fry for about 8 to 10 minutes. So 10 minutes of frying at 185 degrees. These leaves are half-fired tea. So they have been fixed now. The enzymatic processes have been stopped, but what they want to do now is shape the leaves further, and add extra flavor, and make sure that the moisture really, really is down to less than 7 percent. So what they'll do is they'll leave these leaves for about 15 minutes. While they're still warm the extra moisture will dissipate for 15 minutes, and then it will go on to the second firing, which is all about shaping, reducing moisture, and adding that extra flavor. That is usually still done by hand, in this area especially, so let's go check it out. So this is Mr. Cun, and he is doing that second firing process. The pan starts at 150 degrees, and slowly they increase it over about a two-minute interval, up to 200 degrees. So the last 10 seconds it is 200 degrees, scorching, scorching hot. He has to be careful that it doesn't burn himself. And you've also got to be careful that you don't burn the leaves, because at 200 degrees if you don't continuously move the leaves you will cause that tell-tale burning, scorched mark, which is not desirable for Long Jing. So what he's doing now is shaping the leaves, making sure it's flat, reducing that moisture, and adding that extra nuttiness to the flavor. After that they'll take these sieves, they'll sieve the leaves. They'll be different grades. They'll sieve the leaves. Anything that remains on the top of this is the extra-large leaf. They will go through a third firing process. Because they're larger leaves they may have extra moisture. As I said, we want to bring the moisture down to under 7 percent. Then the leaves are graded. Any fannings are taken out. They may dry the leaf in hot air if they feel that there's a risk that there's extra humidity in it. And what they'll do is they may also, if it's very, very early pickings and very, very fluffy, with lots of that bud fluff of the tea, they may take some of that out. So there are machines that you can put the leaves through that blow air, and take away the tea fur in case it's just too fluffy. The fear of burning your hands keeps you concentrated, that's for sure. Oh, it's hot. Oh, you can feel it. One touch and you're burning. Okay. Wow! You can feel it on your hands. It is scorching hot. Do not be fooled by how easy it seems for him. That is hot! My hands are tingling with the heat. 200 degrees. If your skin contacts that wok it's definitely getting some blisters. But it's so satisfying to feel the tea wilt, and the smell coming off it is amazing. Acorns, green chestnuts, roasted nuts. That is now finished Long Jing tea. Now you keep it in sub-zero temperatures, very, very cool, and you sell it to market. Fresh Long Jing at super-high prices. Xie Xie. So, freshly out of the wok and into the cup you do not get much fresher Long Jing than this. We've just hit it with a little bit of hot water, and the roast bean aroma coming off this is very potent, very, very intense. There you go. Take a look at that. Xi Hu Long Jing, picked today, processed, right now, just finished, straight in a glass. Life doesn't get much better than that, people. Now, with crowds of people watching, time for me to taste. It needs to infuse a bit longer, but really strong in that roast bean aroma. I'm just going to munch the leaves a bit. I love to eat these leaves. It tastes like edamame, roasted beans, no bitterness, no astringency, and once that nutty creaminess dissipates you get the sweetness afterwards. Really, really sweet, tiny bit of grassiness, but very, very little, and a nice floral sort of aromatic to it, like orchid floral aromatics, just there as well. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Life is good. The Long Jing to my right has been pan-fired once by machine, and then finished by hand. This is the standard way that 99.9 percent of the Long Jing produced in the world is made. The Long Jing to my left is fired both times by hand. So hand-fired for the first firing, and the second firing. You can see a definite difference. This one here much more uniform and green in its coloring. This one here darker, finer, in terms of the actual shaping. It looks more impressive on this one here. So clearly, the shaping makes a big difference, definitely darker on this side. We have tasted them, and I have to say that the one on the left here is much more roast bean flavor, much more of that traditional beany, nutty flavor, whereas this one here has got more of those top-end notes to them. This is a matter of preference, but certainly this is the tea for the traditionalists, the traditional Long Jing drinkers that want really, really heavy roast bean flavor. But it goes to show, same leaves, same picking, one firing done by machine, and it has a big difference in the look and in the taste. It's getting into the late afternoon here in Weng Jia Shan village. Tea production is still in full force. We've gone through the entire scope analysis for Long Jing, so let's try to bring it all together so that you can have some pointers to bear in mind when you are selecting your Long Jing. First of all, season. You want early spring pickings. I wouldn't touch the first pickings of the year, because you're paying well over the odds for tea which is excessively light, in my opinion, but pre-Qing Ming is always a good idea. Cultivar depends on your taste. The Chun Ti Zhong is the original, the authentic. It doesn't necessarily mean that that is the best tea for you. The Long Jing 43 is great. The Xiao Ye Fu Ding is great. The Wu Niu Jiao is great as well, if you want more of a green-tasting tea. So that is really up to your personal preference. Origin, Xi Hu is going to be the most consistently high-quality, in terms of grade, but is really, really highly priced, in my opinion, overly priced, because you're paying for the brand. So I think if you feel you want to splash out loads of money then, of course, go for Xi Hu, but you can get incredible Long Jing as long as you trust the sourcing from places like Xin Chang, Wu Yi, Chen Dao Hu, all those other places. So I wouldn't focus too much on origin, but I would certainly ask the question to your suppliers as to where it came from, and try to get a feel for if they know their sourcing well. I certainly wouldn't trust anything that's being sold in the shop for less than $45 for 100 grams that claims to be from Xi Hu. Picking and processing. You want to make sure it's a bud in one leaf, or a bud in two leaves. If you see Long Jing tea, which is all leaves and no buds, I would stay away from that. Other than that, it's very hard to assess the quality just by looks. You need to focus on taste. Sure, you're looking for generally slightly shorter leaves. That usually means younger pickings. You also want to see a consistency of shape and color so you know it's been produced well. So in other words, you're looking for the level of skill, and the level of consistency, and the level of attention to detail that is being placed in the processing. So consistency of shape, consistency of color. You want to see a nice, vibrant, green-yellow color. The amount of yellow to the amount of green is going to have an effect on the taste. The more yellow, the more nutty, the more roast bean flavor. The more green, obviously, the more fresh the flavor, and more grassy the flavor. So again, down to your personal taste. As we said, elevation is not such a big deal, so I wouldn't focus too heavily on that. Those are the markers that you should be looking for, and the type of information that you need in order to make your buying choices. However, as I said, taste is paramount. That's the most important thing. We're going to be doing a completely other video all about assessing the taste of Long Jing tea, so stay tuned for that. That's it for me. I'm Don from Mei Leaf. Thank you for being a part of the revelation of true tea. Stay away from those tea bags, keep drinking the good stuff, and spread the word, because nobody deserves bad tea. Bye.