Long Jing How To

[Space Samurai]

How do you gong fu guys prepare your Chinese greens?

[Space Samurai]

I just did 3 grams in a 5 oz gaiwan for 3 minutes, and the results were dissapointing. Kind of bland. And why is it yellow?

[Chip]

A lot of Chinese greens have yellow liquor.

You can certainly up the leaf. I usually do not go 1:1, but I may approach it.

I usually use a gaiwan also. In a 4 ounce gaiwan, I go with 2.5-4 grams depending on the tea.

[puerhking]

I usually fill up the gaiwan one third of the way with leaf and brew for 30-45 sec. Try water that is a bit cooler until you find the right parameters.

[Sydney]

It varies based on the long jing, but a rule of thumb for me is a teaspoon of leaf to no more than 6 oz of water for 2.5 minutes.

Lather, rinse, repeat a few more times.

[Mary R]

And why is it yellow?

You are so spoiled by your Japanese teas.

Seriously, I didn't know green tea could actually *be* green until I started in with the good senchas. Most everything else is a nice hue of let down yellow.

Maybe CynTEAa would be willing to weigh in on the LJ instructions? She's pretty much mastered that one, from what I hear.

[Proinsias]

I give most of my Chinese greens the same treatment these days.

I tend to go with maybe 7 or so grams of tea, maybe more, in around 5 oz of water - I'm guessing here but I got a few three gram packs of mao jian green recently and was shocked to find it less than half of what I would normally use. I think my leaf use for tea in general is a little excessive - I just spent a good few minutes shaking my wuyi yixing with the wooden thingy on top to cram in as much shui xian as possible and damn it's good.
Fairly cool water and quick infusions, a couples of seconds up to around a minute as I approach round 7-8.

When I drink Chinese green it tends to be when I've got a day in the house. Japanese green to me is a little 'in your face' and demanding sometimes, Chinese green on the other hand I can drink several liters of over the course of a good few hours without paying much attention to before it dawns on me just how nice the tea I have been drinking is, it more accompanies the day than occupies it

Sometimes I also attack the tea at randoms points in the day with just off the boil water, sometimes it works.

Long Jing is a tea I find quite good for chucking a few leaves into a gaiwan, pouring on some water and sipping away as I rush around the house. Although these days I tend to favour no tea at all to tea done in a rush.

[shogun89]

I personaly find with this tea you need water to be about 180 degrees. I will open the leaf and produce more flavor without becoming bitter.

[tenuki]

Most important factor is the tea quality IMO, there are a _lot_ of sub par Long Jings out there and storage/freshness is often an issue too. I tend to use pretty hot water (190+ or so), but high quality leaves are ok with that and you get a bolder flavor.

Then, everything Proinsias said. On the 'just throw leaves in a cup' thing I do that for iced and it is fantastic. I pour 1/3 or so hot water on the leaves, let them brew for a minute or so then fill the rest of the glass with ice and sip, repeat with same leaves as often as nessesary. pic below...




the ice serves as a filter too, it's perfect for summer. Good quality Bi Luo Chung is also simply fantastic this way.

I'm guessing you have a crappy one and are comparing it to the super premium japanese green you drink daily, which isn't really fair and has a predictable outcome. I actually like good chinese greens a lot better, but would probably choose mediocre japanese green over mediocre chinese green. But nothing else green beats a true westlake dragonwell king or a prime Bi Luo Chung in my book.