Longjing Tea: A Complete Guide to Xihu Longjing Green Tea

Longjing is a flat green tea from the hills west of West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. Pickers take one bud with one or two opening leaves in late March and April, then a hand worker presses the leaf against a hot wok through ten distinct movements until it is flat, straight and smooth. The best lots come from five historic villages, and the cup is chestnut-sweet with a fresh bean edge and almost no astringency.

Where the tea comes from

The protected origin is a small patch of Hangzhou. Within it, growers and buyers still use the old five-character hierarchy: Shi (Shifeng), Long (Longjing village), Yun (Yunqi), Hu (Hupao) and Mei (Meijiawu). The set was fixed in the Republican period, when the trade listed four names, and Meijiawu was added later. Shifeng sits highest and is generally treated as the finest site, partly because the soil is a pale sandy loam weathered from quartz sandstone and partly because the slope faces the right way for morning sun and afternoon shade.

Beyond the five villages the same cultivar is grown across the wider West Lake district and in neighboring counties, and the resulting tea is sold as Longjing without further qualification. This is legal and often good, but it is not the same product. Leaf from a lowland garden grows faster, holds less amino acid and loses the chestnut weight that the mountain sites give. The gap is not imaginary, and it is why two tins with identical labels can differ by a factor of five in price.

The picking window

Harvest runs from late March to late April and the whole season is decided by two dates. Tea picked before Qingming, which falls on 4 or 5 April, is called mingqian and is the most expensive. Tea picked between Qingming and Guyu, around 20 April, is yuqian; it has more leaf and more body, and many drinkers prefer it. After Guyu the leaf coarsens quickly and the price collapses.

The standard pick is one bud with one opening leaf, or one bud with two leaves when the shoot has run slightly ahead. Shoot length is kept short. The arithmetic explains the price: 500 g of finished high-grade Longjing takes roughly 36,000 to 40,000 bud-and-leaf sets, all picked by hand. A skilled picker manages a few hundred grams of fresh leaf an hour. Machine picking exists but bruises the leaf, and a bruised leaf cannot be pressed flat.

Ten movements, one continuous motion

The hand technique is taught as ten movements, and published lists do not agree on all ten. A common version runs: dou (shake), dai (carry), ji (squeeze), shuai (fling), ting (straighten), tuo (spread), kou (press down), zhua (grab), ya (flatten) and mo (rub). Another version swaps in da and nai and drops two of these. The disagreement is not a sign that the craft is vague. It reflects the fact that different stages need different pressures, and different teachers name the transitions differently.

What matters is the sequence of physical events. Fresh leaf is spread first, for six to twelve hours, until it is soft and has lost the sharp green smell. Then it goes into a wok at high heat, where shaking and lifting stop oxidation and drive off moisture. The leaf comes out, rests, and re-softens as moisture equalises through the blade. Back in a cooler wok, the worker begins pressing: the palm flattens the leaf against the metal while the fingers straighten it, and the leaf takes its flat, tapered shape. A final low-heat pass dries it to a few percent moisture, and the finished tea is stored with a small bag of quicklime to keep it bone dry.

One detail separates good Longjing from the rest: the leaf must be pressed while it is still pliable but no longer wet. Press too early and it smears; press too late and it cracks. Workers call the correct moment the point where the leaf feels like soft leather. No instrument measures it.

What it tastes like

Dry leaf is flat, sword-shaped, pale jade to yellow-green, and smells of roasted chestnut and fresh soy bean. Brewed, the liquor is clear apricot-green. The aroma is high and clean rather than floral. In the mouth the tea is soft at first, then turns sweet, with a slight cooling sensation at the back of the throat and a finish that fades slowly rather than abruptly.

Bitterness should be almost absent. If a cup turns harsh, either the leaf was picked late or the water was too hot. Longjing is one of the few Chinese greens that genuinely suffers from boiling water; the delicate amino acid profile that makes it sweet is also what scalds.

Brewing, with numbers

Use a tall glass, 3 g of leaf to 150 ml, water at 80 to 85 C. Pour water first, then drop the leaf in; it will sink slowly and open. The first infusion takes about 60 seconds. Do not cover the glass. Trapped steam cooks the leaf and turns the aroma dull.

• 3 g leaf to 150 ml water. More leaf does not make a better cup, it makes a bitter one.
• 80 to 85 C. If you have no thermometer, boil and let the water stand two to three minutes in a second vessel.
• Water first, leaf second. This protects the fragile tips and lets the leaf open evenly.
• 60 seconds for the first infusion, 40 for the second, then stop. Longjing gives two good cups, rarely three.
• Drink within twelve months. The chestnut note is the first thing to go.

Buying and storage

Judge the dry leaf by three things. First, shape: flat, straight, even in width, with a slight taper at the tip and no curled or folded pieces. Second, color: a fresh yellow-green, not the bright blue-green of a tea that was dried too fast. Third, smell: chestnut and green bean, clean and sweet, with no trace of smoke or damp paper.

Ask for the picking date, not the packing date. The two are often months apart, and a tea packed in June from April leaf is already fading. Store it in a sealed tin away from light and smell, or in a foil bag in the refrigerator if you will not finish it within a few months. Let the container come to room temperature before opening it, or condensation will form on the leaf.

Health, in proportion

Longjing carries the usual green tea load of catechins, caffeine and theanine. Population studies associate green tea consumption with some favorable markers, but the effect sizes are small and the evidence does not show that drinking Longjing prevents or treats any disease. The caffeine is real: a strong glass in the evening will keep some people awake. Drink it because you like it.

Frequently asked questions