West Lake Tea Farmers Grow Back Long Jing Varietal Trees

According to recent news from West Lake, local farmers started to grow back Long Jing Varietal trees last year. Long Jing Varietal is traditional Long Jing tea tree. Long Jing #43 tea tree was introduced in 1970s, and gained popularity among tea farmers due to its early harvest time, which in turn translate into higher profit. There was a period that many West Lake tea farmers cut down their Long Jing Varietal trees to grow Long Jing #43.

Although Long Jing made from Long Jing Varietal and Long Jing #43 share many common characters, they also have some differences. Many long time Long Jing drinkers prefer the taste of Long Jing Varietal.

It is estimated that about 90% of Long Jing trees in West Lake area will be Long Jing Varietal by end of this year. Although Long Jing #43 may start harvest in early March, Long Jing Varietal harvest normally starts around late March. This dramatically cut short Pre-Ming production period. People are anticipating a price increase of this year's Long Jing production.

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Reading Long Jing Tea Leaves

A friend of mine showed me a photo of Long Jing he found on the internet the other day. After carefully examining the photo, we both agreed that it was a faked Long Jing. The so called Long Jing was actually made from Zhu Ye Qing of Si Chuan. We posted a blog back in 2004 warning people about faked Long Jing from Si Chuan. Below are photos of the most common faked Long Jing on the market. The one on the left is Wu Niu Zao from Wen Zhou, Zhe Jiang, and the one on the right is Zhu Ye Qing from Si Chuan.

Both Wu Niu Zao and Zhu Ye Qing are early harvest teas. Because that early harvest Long Jing demand much higher prices and only have limited productions, some illegal business people chose to fake Long Jing with Wu Niu Zao and Zhu Ye Qing in pursue of maximum profits. Real Long Jing teas have beautiful straight, flat leaves with none or very few hairs. Faked Long Jing, on the other hand, have fluffier leaves, some even covered with hairs. Leaves of faked Long Jing from Zhu Ye Qing are smaller than real ones. Leaves of faked Long Jing from Wu Niu Zao are bigger than real ones. We have more info regarding authentic West Lake Long Jing on our site.

What's in your cup?

Linda

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How Long Jing Is Made

High grade Long Jing are still being processed by hand. This short video shows how Long Jing is hand made by workers. The first step is called Qing Guo. Workers process fresh tea leaves by hand in 80 to 100 celsius degree woks for 12 to 15 minutes. This step turns tea leaves into initial straight, flat shapes. The second step is to classify leaves into different categories. The third, and final step is called Hui Guo. Categoried leaves go through further process by hand in 60 to 70 celsius degree wok for 20 to 25 minutes. Workers apply different techniques to remove the tiny hairs and compress the leaves into final smooth, flat shape.

After watching this video, will you have more appreciation for the cup of Long Jing in your hand?

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2009 Spring Tea Updates

It is this time of year again – Spring! And yes, new teas are coming! Here are quick updates on some of our popular teas:

West Lake Long Jing – Harvest time expected to be delayed till after March 20 due to recent cold weather. Tea drinkers will have to wait till April for large productions to hit market.

Yunnan Black – The extreme dry weather since late last year has severely delayed this year's black tea harvest. Our producer is expecting harvest to be delayed till May.

Linda
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West Lake Long Jing Expected to Hit Market on April 1st

Although some early harvest started to hit market in recent few days, large production will have to wait till April 1. As expected, quality of this year's production is the best among past few years. Shortened pre-Ming harvest period caused shortage in quantity, and that in turn, drove up this year's price by 10% to 20%.

Linda
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Cold Weather Will Likely Delay Harvest of This Year's Ming Qian Long Jing

Recent extremely cold weather in many southern parts of China raised concerns over this year's tea productions. Several news reports from Xi Hu (West Lake), the original production region of West Lake Long Jing, suggest that this year's Ming Qian Long Jing will likely start to be available around March 25. Mass production, however, will have to wait till late April. On the positive side, the cold weather killed pests and slowed growth of new leaves, which in turn improved quality of this year's production.

Linda
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2006 First Batch Xi Hu Long Jing Sold For RMB7200 per KG

Recent news from Hang Zhou reported that this year’s first batch of Xi Hu Long Jing was produced in Weng Jia Shan on March 12. Auction price for this year’s first batch Xi Hu Long Jing started from RMB1880 per 500g. It jumped to RMB3600 per 500g and sold in less than 3 minutes.

The first batch Xi Hu Long Jing is Long Jing #43, an early harvest variety. This year’s Xi Hu Long Jing may be available on market by March 20th.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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This Year’s Xi Hu Long Jing Won’t Be Available Till End of March

According to recent news, this year’s Xi Hu Long Jing won’t be available till end of March. Therefore, those on market now are all fakes.

Experts in the industry told reporter that Long Jing tea buds just started to show up on tea trees. If weather permits, customers should be able to taste this year’s Xi Hu Long Jing by end of March.

Tea Lovers at JinYuXuan Tea House
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Majority of Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun are from Si Chuan

Recent news from ChengDu Business Paper said that 80% Long Jing (from Zhe Jiang), Bi Luo Chun (from Jiang Su) on the market are actually from Si Chuan. According to the news, unethical business people purchase Si Chuan teas at low prices and sell them as Long Jing or Bi Luo Chun at 3 to 4 times the paid prices.

An expert told the reporter that appearance of real Long Jing and Si Chuan tea, Zhu Ye Qing, are quite similar. It is very hard for regular people to tell the differences. Experts from Tea Research Institute also said that Long Jing demanded high prices while its production was low. Therefore, some business people produce Si Chuan Long Jing to make high profits.

For real tastes of authentic Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun, check out our selections. More talks and videos regarding Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun can be found at our Green Tea Talk .

More from our blog: Reading Long Jing Tea Leaves - learn to identify faked Long Jing.

Tea Lovers at TeaHub
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