Saturday 8/09/08 China's most famous tea, Long Jing

[Dr. Eel]

longjing is a delicious tea to me, i love that trademark nutty flavour. it was actually the first loose leaf tea that i properly prepared and enjoyed, and became the gateway into TeaWorld.

[Proinsias]

You might find Bablecarp handy.

xpost, to chamekke obv.

[bronzebed]

love that tea. i voted top 10, though when i thought about it there are a lot of other teas that come before it. so its really a tea that i love but not in the top 10. that chart that had the top 10 teas in china was interesting.

today i am having a very delicious pouchong special courtesy of a good friend, which makes it even more special. i dragged him along to one of my favorite tea shops yesterday and because he couldn't afford to get me something for my birthday he refused to let me pay for the tea i was purchasing. it was really sweet of him.

also, tried using a tea sock infuser thing for the first time today. i think i like it better than other types of infusers.

[auggy]

I haven't had Dragonwell in a while, but I was looking back over my tea notes the other day and read what I had for it... basically it was the tea that let me know I liked Chinese greens. But overall, Chinese greens are just not a favorite. They been fairly absent in my home lately. Might have to fix that sometime.

Salsero, love the glass! And the pot. And the picture.

I'm going to go make a second steep of some fuka. I need a little pick me up.

[Chip]

Long Jing was my fave tea period for years. I used to buy any Long Jing I could in order to try as many different ones as possible.

Although it is not currently my number one, it still ranks a top 10 placement.

The link in my Topic intro is interesting. The Chinese love their greens and 8 out of the top 10 most famous Chinese teas are green. A good poll topic would be if you have tried every tea on the current list. Hmmm ... tomorrow.

I had another top ten tea this morning, Keemun (Qi Men) black from our host, Adagio. Keemun is generally my fave black.

[orguz]

Nothing special in my eyes.

Exactly what I wanted to say. Any of you ordered it from Teahub? I tried theirs and nothing extraordinary.

[Salsero]

Coincidentally, I just ran across a short post that shows some guys making Long Jing
http://amateursdethechinois.blogspot.co ... w-tea.html
(I don't know if this Will is the same as the member of the LA Tea Affair and expert sometime contributor to this forum.)

For many Chinese in the green-tea-dominant parts of China (which, I think, include Beijing), Dragon Well is the shiznit. They will travel to West Lake to find the best they can afford, just as some southerners travel to Wuyi to scare up a special Da Hong Pao. Since the demand is so enormous, the most prized bits can be crazy expensive.

Like Chip, I have gotten spoiled by a couple very competent quality offerings. When a counter girl recently extolled the great Long Jing her store stocked, I sort of figured she meant great compared to other Long Jing and bought 2 oz @ 33¢ a gram. Well, apparently she meant great compared to the lousy greens they normally stock. It was just green tea, no character, no pedigree. I see now that the good stuff I'm used to costs 54¢ a gram, and that is shipped direct from China, no sales girl, no bricks and mortar store.

Someday I will learn.

[chrl42]

Coincidentally, I just ran across a short post that shows some guys making Long Jing
http://amateursdethechinois.blogspot.co ... w-tea.html
(I don't know if this Will is the same as the member of the LA Tea Affair and expert sometime contributor to this forum.)

For many Chinese in the green-tea-dominant parts of China (which, I think, include Beijing), Dragon Well is the shiznit. They will travel to West Lake to find the best they can afford, just as some southerners travel to Wuyi to scare up a special Da Hong Pao. Since the demand is so enormous, the most prized bits can be crazy expensive.

Like Chip, I have gotten spoiled by a couple very competent quality offerings. When a counter girl recently extolled the great Long Jing her store stocked, I sort of figured she meant great compared to other Long Jing and bought 2 oz @ 33¢ a gram. Well, apparently she meant great compared to the lousy greens they normally stock. It was just green tea, no character, no pedigree. I see now that the good stuff I'm used to costs 54¢ a gram, and that is shipped direct from China, no sales girl, no bricks and mortar store.

Someday I will learn.

That's too right, Salsero. And that's why I don't wanna buy LJ. If they are not made from Shi Feng or Mei Jia Wu and hand-produced, I don't specifically find specialty and how much will they be to buy? The demand higher then price higher and China is 1.3 billion of population.

So with money I can spend on greens, I switch to less sought-after teas but with a quality. Those are Zhu Ye Qing, Tai Ping Hou Kui, Lu Shan Yun Wu, Meng Ding Gan Lu, An Ji Bai Cha..and so on...relatively new teas where farmers want to challenge the name of LJ.

[Chip]

That's too right, Salsero. And that's why I don't wanna buy LJ. If they are not made from Shi Feng or Mei Jia Wu and hand-produced, I don't specifically find specialty and how much will they be to buy? The demand higher then price higher and China is 1.3 billion of population.

So with money I can spend on greens, I switch to less sought-after teas but with a quality. Those are Zhu Ye Qing, Tai Ping Hou Kui, Lu Shan Yun Wu, Meng Ding Gan Lu, An Ji Bai Cha..and so on...relatively new teas where farmers want to challenge the name of LJ.

You are quite right, and very rarely does the BEST Long Jing make it to the USA. If it did, It would be out of my range. But Long Jing is still a staple for me and likely always will. But, yeah Sal, there is some evil Long Jing around. And long Jing, like Pu-erh is subject to counterfeiting as well.

Luan Gua Pian, Tai Ping Hou Kui FTW!!! Also on the top 10 Most Famous Chinese Tea list.

I think Zhu Ye Qing was once on the top 10 list. Still a great green.

Chinese greens are great. I have been negligent in drinking them of late.

[olivierco]

I seldom drink chinese greens but Long Jing is ok for me.

This morning some Keemun and Kirameki shincha this afternoon.

[Mengxia]

I love the colour of Long Jing leaves more than the taste, I think. It's such a beautiful, rich green.

[Chip]

I love the colour of Long Jing leaves more than the taste, I think. It's such a beautiful, rich green.

Not just the color, but the whole overall appearance as well. The leaf is sooo pleasing to the eye. I love to scoop this out, smell the dry leaf, smell the leaf in a preheated gaiwan or pot.

There is little I don't love about Long Jing. I guess the price and the frequent uncertainty when ordering.

Back to Japanese sencha Yutaka Midori from O-Cha. I have yet to have a mediocre session of this.

[henley]

Dragonwell was actually the first green tea I ever tried & immediately did not like it. Tried it at a tea tasting -- the smell & taste reminded me of shellfish & pretty much turned me completely against green teas. It was only after the first box pass that I found a green that I liked (thanx, RS!) & have gotten braver about trying other greens. Over a year later, still haven't gotten brave enough to retry Dragonwell. When/If I do, at least I'll know to use a lower water temp.

Sal - You've outdone yourself w/today's pic. Very nice!!!

Upton's Pu Classic this morning- left over from last night. I took Salsero's advice about keeping the leaves in the fridge and don't see where that changed anything. Still good.

This must be the day for leftovers. Made a cuppa Shui Xian last night once the parade of nations started. Couldn't throw out those precious leaves knowing they had only been steeped once so covered them w/a napkin & re-steeped them this morning w/bfast. It was quite delicious!

[Salsero]

Dragonwell was actually the first green tea I ever tried & immediately did not like it.

Well, don't give up the ship. Most of what we see labeled as Dragonwell is the leavings, and even if the tea is good the person making it may be destroying it.

Oh, and a note to everyone: Dragon Well is just a Chinese green tea. When obsessives like us start praising something we like, the expectations we create can be totally out of synch with reality. If you've never had Dragonwell before and you buy some premo leaf hoping for a revelation, I guarantee you will be disappointed. It's just tea.

The people who are so impressed with (whatever) tea, are the ones who have been drinking the medium or low quality stuff for a long while and then find the premo, and are blown away. A newb stumbling on the premo will (at best) conclude of the same tea, "That's nice." Our gustatory perception is very dependent on our tasting history and context our experience brings to it.

[Cinnamon Kitty]

I've tried a grand total of two Dragon Wells: the one offered by Adagio and one that I had at the little tea shop in the mall which was from Harney and Sons. Both were good, but it was not a favorite tea. The main thing that I liked about the Adagio Dragonwell was that it was very easy to brew so it was kept in my emergency tea kit. It was great since I could just ask for a mug of hot water at a restaurant, put some Dragon Well in a tea filter, stick it in the mug, and in a few minutes, I would have decent tea.

I am currently enjoying more steeps of the Aged Nan Tou that I started yesterday.