The Famous Dragon Well Chinese Green Tea

This is about one of the most famous tea plantations in China.  It is  up on the Lion Peak mountainside near Hangzho, which is on the famous West Lake.  You can smell the wonderful aroma of the tea plants on your way up the mountain!  Dragon Well Tea Plantation (also known as Longjing Tea Plantation) is one of the birthplaces of green tea and is known for the high quality of the tea produced here.

Here, we were told, the tea bushes are smaller than say in India.  This means it's easier to pick the tea and the tea itself is delicate and full of aroma and flavor.  At the entrance to the tea plantation you can see some tea workers simply turning the tea leaves in special baskets with their hands.  Dragon Well Tea Plantation is all about quality and quality cannot be rushed, nor can any part of the tea process!

The process from plant to tea packaging is all performed at the Tea Plantation here and much of it is done by hand.  The tea is picked at certain months during the year and depending on the month of harvest, the quality is slightly different.  In the olden days the Emperor of China was given the best pick and no-one else in China was allowed to have the Emperor's Cut.  Fortunately for us, there is no longer an Emperor in China so the Emperor's Cut is available for everyone to purchase - but the price is high and obviously the quality of the tea too.  Spring is the tea picking season and Dragon Well produces teas in April and May.  You can taste the difference when you go to one of their tasting rooms where the whole process will be explained.

There are various names for the Longjing tea - Shi Feng Longjing, for example, is considered the highest quality tea in China and Mei Jia Wu Longjing is renowed for it's jade green color.  The best tea is picked before the Qingming Festival and is known as Mingqian Tea.  Apparently recently someone paid $14,000 for 200 grams of Dragon Well Tea.

After the tea is picked, it is pan dried to step the fermentation process (the drying of the freshly picked leaves) - this step requires skill as the temperature is very important and must be maintained during the process will have the best results for the size, tenderness and volume of the leaves, so it is a very important part of the tea process.  In fact it takes 3 years to master the 10 hand movements to roasting the tea and even then only around 1 kilogram of this precious tea can be roasted per person per day.  The tea is graded into six levels.  The tea itself has a sweet taste with an aromatic floral flavor and is renowned for it's stunning emerald green color.

This tea contains a high level of caffeine as well as EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) and theanine.  Although the high quality of this tea is soothing rather than stimulating, it is also great for weight loss.  Chinese people also drink the ta to improve their health.  Although lots of tea benefit from boiling water (e.g. black teas), green teas are usually more delicate.  Dragon Well tea is best when the water is around 75 degrees celsius, so let the water boil and leave it in the kettle until it cools to the desired temperature if you want to get it right!

The tea plantation itself enjoys many visitors.  You can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful surroundings as well as your tea, go to one of the tea tasting rooms to learn more about the tea process and how to drink the tea, as well as learn about its health benefits.  There is also a shop which sells lots of different things, including u-shaped neck cushions (like the ones people take on airplanes to sleep better).  These were filled with tea so they smelled good too.

Dragon Well tea is produced in other areas of China but is then known as 'fake Dragon Well'.  The plantation on Lion Mountain on the West Lake is the real deal.