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| tea plant , Hangzhou |
Last week, I visited the Xihu Lake ( West Lake) area
near Hangzhou, Zhejaing Province in China. Besides being a very scenic place, it
has the reputation of producing the best green tea in China - Xihu Longjing tea, or Dragon Well tea.
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| first growth March picking ( Swallow's tongue) |
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| pre Qing-Ming picking - first Spring tea shoots early April |
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| later picking - lower grade 'Dragon Well After the Rain' tea |
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| tea picking baskets and tea picker's hat |
I tasted the three grades of Dragon Well tea and learnt some important tips about preparing the tea , for example, the water should be 85 degrees C. Like most other Chinese green tea, Longjing tea leaves are
roasted early in processing
(after picking) to stop the natural oxidation process, which is a part of
creating black and oolong teas. The actions of these enzymes is stopped by
"firing" (heating in pans) before they completely dry out. Longjing tea leaves are therefore "unfermented." When steeped, the tea produces a yellow-green color. The tea contains vitamin C, amino acids, and, like most finer Chinese green teas, has one of the highest concentrations of catechins among teas.
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| heating pan |
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| sorting basket |
What a wonderful trip, it must have been fascinating to see how the tea is produced, the tea itself sounds very healthy. I was given a very large and lovely box of Chinese tea for Christmas but sadly as I don't read Chinese I have no idea what kind it is, so really am not sure if I am preparing it correctly, but it has a really nice flavour.
ReplyDeleteJackie