Longjing Fluffballs

[beachape]

I guess I will have to dissect one of the fluffballs next time I get some longjing( hopefully sooner than later).
The dryer lint rolling analogy makes good sense. As
long as they are not spider eggs I think we are all better off.

[brad4419]

Wow this is amazing timeing!

This morning I was in a big hurry and threw some long jing in my teapot and found a whole bunch on these small fluffballs in my tea and had no idea what they were. I threw those leaves out from the teapot and brewed up something else. I thought it was mold or something bad I shouldn't be drinking. After reading your responses I feel so much better that its safe to drink. I would hate to have to throw away so much long jing. These are much smaller puffballs than the first picture and not as many.

[beachape]

I'm glad that my topic on longjing fluffballs is making an impact in the world of tea. Now that you have some prime fluffballs for investigation (I drank all my longjing last season and have yet to buy 2010 tea), do you feel that they are rolled up balls of silver-tip-fluff? I remembered them being like tiny little pussy willow catkins.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... branch.jpg

[TIM]

If you are paying less then $0.7 per gram this year for pre-ming longjing, most likely it's fake or not from (Xi Hu) West Lake.

For the fluffballs stuff, I never even heard of it. If its from the bud's silver hair, they should dissolved into hot water? Very sketchy....

[beachape]

They don't dissolve in water. I think they float....but I can't remember completely. Maybe brad4419 can chime in.

[Chip]

If you are paying less then $0.7 per gram this year for pre-ming longjing, most likely it's fake or not from (Xi Hu) West Lake.

For the fluffballs stuff, I never even heard of it. If its from the bud's silver hair, they should dissolved into hot water? Very sketchy....

Agreed on both points ...

Maybe they should market these so called fluff balls and sell it for $1 per gram and really clean up ...

[Geekgirl]

Geez you guys, Now I want some Fluffball tea.

[debunix]

I've tried about 4 different Long Jings, two different vendors, no fluff balls here either.

[murrius]

I have occasionally seen what looked like smallish seeds in long jing; nothing like the picture here though.

[gingkoseto]

I just did some random search - Hand-processing technique of Long Jing (this can be google translated)
http://www.tea0571.com/Article/hangzhou ... 12/55.html

In both part 1 (processing of high grade products) and part 2 (processing of intermediate grade products), the last step include "sift-removing crushed leaf pieces and fluffy balls" - these fluffy balls will not be in perfect ball shape as in beachape's pic1 and pic3 and will mostly be removed. Depending on cultivar and individual worker's operation, there is sometimes some small patches of fluffs on the leaf surface that can't be removed (like in beachape's pic2, but color of this picture is too green for a Long Jing, may have been photoshoped).

In part 3 (processing of lower grade products), there is no such as step of "sift-removing crushed leaf pieces and fluffy balls", because lower grade leaves lack silver tips. So ultimately the flavor and leaf shape are quality factors of a tea, and whether or not there are fluffy balls may not exactly indicate the quality (unless there are too many, meaning some of the leaves have been stolen by somebody )

[brad4419]

I had more long jing today but didn't see this new posts until just now but I went through my LJ leaves and I can't find any fluffballs so they must have dissolved.
They were small and I don't think there are fluffballs all through this pack, maybe I just hit a patch of them. Oh well it tastes good anyways. Im just relieved its not somthing harmful since I drank halfway through the 100g bag without noticing them.

[tenuki]

"Longjing Fluffballs" - Sounds like either an insult or the name of my next band....

[Tead Off]

"Longjing Fluffballs" - Sounds like either an insult or the name of my next band....

I think you're on to something.

[gingkoseto]

Here is something I had never heard of, but think it's interesting to share
Just saw this ("it was impossible to determine the dimension of the image" - computer said)
http://teaconner.com/bbs/attachment/36_ ... de4fc7.jpg

The author says it's Zhejiang Long Jing (same province, but not same region as Xi Hu Long Jing, same tea cultivars used). The local farmers proudly call the fluffball Dragon Pearl and take it as an indicator of high quality leaves. I thought in common practice these fluffballs are to be removed. But it looks like these farmers would leave them (at least some) in the tea. His tea is all gone. Otherwise I would like to buy some and try it.

[tenuki]

You have found the sole remaining public picture of the legendary "Longjing Fluffballs" - the much vaunted 1978 champion mens synchronized cotton candy spinning team. You can read about their remarkable history in the best selling and controversial book 'Pink Fluff and Cigarettes.'