Few teas occupy such a special place in the collective hearts and minds of Chinese people as the Longjing variety, which is known for its verdant color, beautiful elegant shape, strong fragrance and sweet mellow taste, hence, to be considered as "the Queen of Green tea".
Longjing Is An Imperial Tea
During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Kangxi Emperor decreed Longjing tea a gong cha or "imperial tea". But he wasn't the only emperor to develop a liking for it. Decades later, his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, also came to love the drink.
Legend has it that the Qianlong Emperor returned to his ailing mother's bedside with a sleeve full of fresh leaves, and his mother smelt the fragrance of the freshly-picked leaves and recovered miraculously after drinking a cup of tea brewed by this kind of leaves. The emperor later conferred these 18 tea bushes planted in front of a temple on Lion Peak Mountain as "Royal Tea Trees", reserving all the tea harvested from them for imperial use. The trees are still living and the tea they produce is auctioned annually for higher price per gram than gold.
Longjing Is A Hangzhou Specialty
Made for more than a millennium in China, Longjing tea originates from Hangzhou (the eastern part of China), especially the area around the West Lake. In Hangzhou, the solar radiation is weak, the rainfall is more, and the temperature is lower. And the West Lake region is known for its mild, temperate, and often rainy climate - the foggy and rainy climate prevents the Longjing tea plants from getting a lot of direct sunlight, high levels of theanine are thus preserved, adding to special taste and health benefits on Longjing tea.
Longjing Is Best Picked Before Qingming Festival
Tea farmers often say, "Tea is an epoch grass, picking three days early is a treasure, while picking three days late turns into grass." So much importance is emphasized on the seasonality of the leaves being picked. The highest quality is made from the youngest and freshest leaves that are hand-picked before the Qingming Festival around the beginning of April. The reason is simple. Generally, it rains during this period. After the rain, the temperature heats up, causing the tea plant to grow faster. When the tea bud becomes too big, it begins to lose complexity in the brewed flavor.
Longjing tea is also known for its delicate picking. The tenderness of fresh leaves forms the basis of the quality of Longjing tea. Due to the different parts of tea tree, the chance of obtaining nutrients is also different, thus the picking is in the order of top buds first, axillary buds next, and latent buds last. Longjing tea area promotes multiple early harvesting and tender harvesting in batches, which can continuously promote the growth of axillary buds and the germination of latent buds, increase the number of buds and yield.
Once picked, the leaves are dried for up to 10 hours. This step can reduce the taste of grass in tea, and meet the requirements of moisture for frying. At the same time, the theanine in leaves are concentrated, which gives the tea most of its taste.
The leaves are then carefully roasted in large heated woks to halt the natural oxidation process and to retain its nutrients and natural green hue. Workers roast the leaves using their bare hands – they can exactly know the heat in the large iron wok, and when to shake the wok, press, or rub the leaves.
Longjing Is Believed To Have Many Benefits
Stress relief. A cup of Longjing tea is widely considered as an ideal way to start the day, as it contains amino-acids known as L-Theanine, which can soothe our heart and make us feel refreshed and energized.
Dental health. There are trace amounts of minerals in Longjing tea leaves that help to reduce dental plaque, and antioxidants can help to fight bad breath. Besides, Longjing tea contains fluorine – it can become a kind of "fluorapatite" that is difficult to dissolve in acid, just like adding a protective layer to teeth, which improves the ability of anti-acid and anti-caries of teeth. However, drinking Longjing doesn't mean you should abandon normal dental hygiene.
Weight loss. Longjing tea has the highest amount of oxidants, which is known as catechins. When this oxidant is mixed with caffeine contained in Longjing tea, it may lead to increased metabolism and burn fat.
Anti-bacterial. Tea polyphenols and tannins in Longjing tea act on bacteria, coagulate bacterial proteins and kill them. If the mouth is inflamed, festering and the throat is sore, you can drink Longjing tea to treat it.
