Longjing Traditional Supreme, hand-roasted green tea

經典極品 頭採杭州龍井

Wok roasting in Longjing green tea production

A Longjing is roasted, not fried

Many people mistakenly call the process “frying” because of the use of the wok and shuffling of the leaves. What is intended onto the leaves during the process is, however, drying, creating a roasted flavour as well as compressing into a flat shape. It is a complex manoeuvre that only a few master, and more demanding than the old way coffee beans were roasted. Machines have been invented to imitated the manual process for lowering cost and maximising output, but the taste of a masterfully hand-roasted product is achieved only through the traditional way.

While taste cannot be transmitted through the internet to you, we have tried to share the look of this tea by showing its classic characteristics in the product shot —

1. Please notice how uniformly flat the dry leaves are in the centre portion of the dish. The roasting master has to press the leaves against the heated wok to create this flatness.
2. The singled out leaf bud on the top left, besides being very flat, is also partially browned due to the heat. This just enough brownness creates an optimum “roasted” flavour typical of a well made Longjing.
3. Please notice also the darkened endings on the leaf stalks while the leaves are mostly green. There has to be ample withering before roasting and resting in between, yet the whole process has to be done within a few hours after plucking. Oxidation takes place once withering takes place and the breaking point of the leaves, at the leaf stalk, begins first. A limited area of dark colour in that position is a sign of the potent and rich contents in the leaves. The very short time span allowed for this withering limits the black spot only at the stalk ending, while allowing a slight sweetness to be created in the leaves.

Taste profile

Nose: Warm, buttery aroma on an undertone of toasted nuts, cereal and peas, accented with sea salt and light woody spice. Distinct, but pleasantly gentle floral aroma of blooming orchard with an herbal undertone. Palate: Lively body with a good weight and silky to velvety tactility, dependent on your water quality and infusion strength. Malty savouriness in very good length with light bites of salt, chocolate and cinnamon, changing to sweet and refreshing. Finish: Umami, then sweet and then quenching aftertaste.

Infusion tips

To experience its full tantalizing taste profile, steep the leaves in a well pre-heated high density Yixing pot between 160 ~200 ml at 75~80°C at 3 g of leaves to 200 ml of water for 5 minutes. Increase to 2g to 100ml ratio when you prefer a stronger taste.

The best way to actualize the taste profile of this tea is with the use of water from a good but low mineral mountain spring. If a fine yixing pot is unavailable, a well formed porcelain gaiwan or even the taster mug gives satifying results.

This tea can also be infused very lightly too, like most other people do, at 0.5g ~ 1g to each 100ml water for 30 seconds or various duration according to personal preference. Use higher temperature water in this case, such as 90°C.

*Note: If you ever tour Hangzhou where Longjing originated, you might have seen many people roasting the tea on the street in touristy areas, including those so called wholesale markets. Most are basically street vendors acting the process. The products have been previously roasted and are almost always average quality but sold at a premium price. Tea tourist scam is a big business in China, so much so that even tea dealers in the West are often victims without knowing it.