Comparing Longjing varietals

 

I'm reviewing an ITea World Longjing sample set this time.  I guess I'll be reviewing different parts of their sets for another month, since I'm far from finishing an aged tea set and Dan Cong set.  Two friends have passed on some other aged teas to try, so that will be a running sub-theme for awhile.

Longjing was one of the first teas I got into when first exploring better tea.  A visit to China was a pivotal step in getting further into tea, and hanging out in a shop in a Shenzhen market was a key step there, as was a Gongfu brewing demonstration at the company we visited, Huawei.

I didn't try Longjing there though.  In talking to a local Huawei sales guy I asked what else to check out in Bangkok, and where, and he said Longjing in Chinatown shops sounded about right.  If he would've mentioned Wuyi Yancha that would have covered a lot of the next two years of exploration.  I went and bought some, and kept buying it, every other spring for awhile, even though I've always liked oolong and black tea more than green.  

There's just something about Longjing.  Of course there's also something about buying it and drinking it in the Spring, which I get around to covering in this.

So here we are, finally learning and exploring Longjing plant types, which is still a brand new subject to me.  ITea World describes it this way:

Longjing Green Tea Varietal Collection 45G ($25 for 45 grams)

This collection offers a unique opportunity to explore the subtle differences in flavor, aroma, and texture created by three distinct tea tree varietals, all using the same harvesting grade: one bud and two leaves. You’ll experience Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea made from three renowned tea tree varietals: Wu Niu Zao, Longjing #43, and the heritage Longjing Qunti. 

Though harvested and processed in the same way, each tea reflects its unique tree’s characteristics. This collection allows tea lovers to discover their preferred varietal of this classic green tea.

Review: 

Wunio Zao Longjing:  it's so nice to be trying good Longjing again.  At first I'll just be caught up in that, but the minor differences will also stand out soon enough.  There's a typical standard flavor range this definitely expresses, often described as nutty, perhaps better captured as tasting like toasted rice.  Then there's a hard to describe vegetal aspect, and some mineral to the experience; it's complex.

Longjing 43:  very similar, but different at the same time.  I'll do a little more tasting back and forth between these is normal for me for these, more direct comparison.  This includes a little more intensity than the first, more of a green edge, with the first softer and a little more towards floral.  That might sound like the first would be more pleasant then, but the opposite kind of works, at this stage.  That typical Longjing flavor set hitting a little harder is what it's all about.  

I don't mind that it's a touch more vegetal; that works with the rest.  It works to say that vegetal range is centered on a sort of fresh green bean flavor.  It also seems nutty, and the flavor isn't so simple that you can say those two descriptions capture it all.  There's a lot to it.

Qunti Tea tree:  much more floral; much richer.  Really the 43 version stands out as most familiar, but both of these others work quite well.  Intensity is really something for this version, equal to the second, but across a perfume-like floral range.  Feel is extra rich as well.  Sweetness might even bump a little in comparison with the 43 version, and aftertaste expression.  

In one sense this is clearly the best of the three.  It includes a touch of vegetal range, again like green bean, maybe a little towards sugar snap pea instead, but the floral range seems to stand out a lot more.  A distinctive nutty or toasted rice note isn't standing out in all of these as much as it sometimes does.

The second, the 43 version, is really catchy to me too though, for being more what I expected.  You get attached to a certain profile and then others could still be more interesting, and better in different senses, but it would be hard for them to match that association input.

The first seems a little diminished in terms of intensity compared to the other two.

To be clear I think these all probably had a little more to offer back closer to production time last spring.  They're quite pleasant, and of good quality, but intensity and freshness would drop off a little over this long.  I won't be mentioning heavy vegetal tones creeping in, I don't think, or anything like that, so they definitely didn't "go off," but that extra bit of bright intensity is a part of it.

Wuniu Zao #2:  I brewed these a little faster, to see how they would work out on the light side, maybe for 30 seconds, but this is using a lower proportion than I ever tend to brewing Gongfu style.

Green bean comes out a lot more in this round; floral range backs off.  It doesn't work as well as all three had last round, since when I was talking about vegetal notes it was within the context of very bright, floral, or along the lines of nutty or toasted rice contexts.  This is still pleasant, but it has shifted back more into the range of a normal green tea experience.

43:  cleaner, brighter, with more sweetness, a bit of integrated floral range, somewhat nutty effect, and more mineral undertone.  Fresh green bean or sugar snap pea stands out more, but it's brighter in this.  

This is more the Longjing experience that I remember.  To be clear I may have typically not been drinking really good Longjing.  Peter of Trident Cafe shared some teas once and I think that was completely centered on ideal range, roughly as good as the type ever gets.  That's kind of their theme, extensively curating and filtering sources and versions, so what you get in the end is kind of ideal.  These also work as a benchmark for a pretty good quality range, but I'm talking about trying a version that's relatively ideal.

Qunti:  this shifted to more vegetal range too.  As with the first version that impacted the experience, more so than the #43 version.  Maybe all three will be better brewed stronger, back to a more typical infusion strength.

Third infusion:  this matches results in the first round better than the second.  The first was quite pleasant, the Wuniu Zao version, just lacking some intensity and positive complexity in relation to the other two.  The #43 version was most familiar from past experience, with much more intensity, and more mineral base, with more of that green bean / snap pea sort of vegetal range.  It included some nuttiness / toasted rice effect, and was clean and pleasant.  The Qunti version was a bit more floral, with good depth, maybe a little sweeter and creamier in feel.

Conclusion:

All of these were nice.  All of them matched well with very positive past Longjing experience, just giving up a bit in terms of a very fresh edge that comes along with drinking Longjing in the Spring.  I think that's a main point related to this experience:  does it even make sense to be trying Longjing versions in January or February?  Not really, according to traditional Chinese tea appreciation perspective.  I think these hold up quite well, and retain most of the same character and aspects, but that one input is very prized, a type of freshness effect that's hard to describe.  It matches closest to intensity, related to the concept bundles I typically describe teas in relation to, but it's not really just that.

I know a way to explain it, or at least try to in a different way.  When Peter of Trident Cafe sent a Longjing version to try, some years ago, prior to Covid, opening the bag was enough to assure that the flavor profile exactly matched my expectations for an optimal experience, or even exceeded them.  You could tell exactly what you were going to taste, from the intense aroma of the dried leaf.  These had a pleasant dry tea aroma, but it wasn't anything like that.  It covered some similar range, for all three, but it was much more subdued, and in a warmer and different form.  It wasn't incredibly bright and fresh.

These teas would be great for someone to get a feel for Longjing range, but they'd need to have that exact experience to really capture the essence of it.  Most vendors wouldn't sell anything like that tea, to be clear, although most would claim to.  A few random trials of sourcing might miss the mark by a lot.  But you would need to be doing this kind of search in the Spring, per traditional understanding, and my own take.  

Then in a sense this leads me back to a consideration of value.  If these are moderately priced, relatively speaking, this would be a great way to do an intro prior to taking up that quest.  If they cost anywhere near $1 a gram--kind of a higher quality, higher demand norm--it would be giving up too much to have such well-rested versions provide the experience.  If someone wasn't emphasizing value in relation to their tea experience, if an extra $50 here or there made no difference, then it wouldn't matter again.  There would still be another step to be taken, but these make for a positive and informative tea experience, for a moderate expense range.  

If I really am brewing 3 grams each, per their recommended range--and maybe it's 4; it's hard to say--then these would brew 15 infusion sequences in total, or maybe only a dozen.  Even at a considerable $1 a gram pricing that's $3 per individual tea based session, or put another way I would be trying $9 worth of tea just now.  To me that's a lot, but it's not for everyone.

In looking at the pricing when doing the editing these cost $25, just over half that hypothetical consideration rate.  Around 50 cents a gram is pretty good for teas this good.  It's customary for Chinese people, and Chinese tea enthusiasts in Bangkok, to drink green tea in the Spring, so there's also that.  I think these are fine for exploring this type range now, but if someone loved them it would be essential to get back to another trial in the Spring, tracking when versions come out, and trying one very fresh.  

It's not just about the positive freshness aspect; that experience matches with the feel of Spring.  It's like waiting for the fall or winter to get back into masala chai, if that makes sense, or drinking spiced wine or hot buttered rum on a cold winter day.  

An over the top tea meetup at the Sen Xing Fa Bangkok Chinatown shop

 

About another meetup, one that resulted in trying a lot of pretty good teas.  I wrote this event summary in the Facebook group I organized it through, the Bangkok Tea Tasting Club I founded there (just cutting out the thanks part):

We tried a crazy range and amount of tea, I think the most I've ever tried at one time.

It covered white tea, green (Longjing), several Wuyi Yancha and Dan Cong, a Taiwanese and a traditional Anxi Tie Guan Yin oolong (so a lot of the main oolong range), hei cha, sheng and shu pu'er. Wow! Odd no black tea; that's almost all that we missed.

I'll write more about details in a blog post. Chinatown shops tend to let you try teas but nothing like that; they took it on themselves to make it into a special tasting event. Then again Sen Xing Fa probably is the best shop for trying a range of teas I know of here in Bangkok, related to the kind of shop it is.

That's what happened, in short.  I'll break it down a little more by topic but will try to keep this short and readable.

Sen Xing Fa (the shop):  they're close to the main tourist area in Chinatown, on a main food street soi off Yaowarat, the main strip.  They sell a really broad range of teas; pretty much all across the Chinese tea range, onto Thai and Taiwanese oolong range.  This shop was the first place I bought decent loose tea in Bangkok (Longjing), on advice from Chinese vendor staff, or at least a second outlet shop of theirs was, in a market alley a few sois over.

It's interesting contrasting this shop and Jip Eu, the one I keep calling my favorite.  They carry a more limited range of teas, but some options really stand out in that range, unusual versions and great value.  Jip Eu's customer base is locals either buying inexpensive Wuyi Yancha / rock oolong, blended Shui Xian or else good Wuyi Yancha versions, and either tourists or local foreigners seem to be the main customer base for Sen Xing Fa.  Sen Xing Fa may be a better place to try teas because it's set up for that as a result; tourists explore range that's new to them more than locals buying similar teas over and over.  SXF carries a lot of Thai oolong as a result, and Jip Eu really focuses most on Chinese teas, with some exceptions.

As to value since that ties just as much to personal preference versus price as to objective quality level--interpreted in one way, at least--you have to sort through options to maximize that anywhere.

Mr. Tian, one of the family member owners

maybe from 2017, added to this 2018 post

who attended:  it was nice seeing two people I've met before, one a member of the early tasting sessions that FB group was founded to support, Noppadol.  He was sort of a co-host of those, and serving as a part-time tea vendor he shared or sold me some very nice tea, including a Thai Lamphang sheng tuocha, and this sheng sample from Myanmar.  A couple of the others I've talked to a good bit by message, so they all felt familiar.  

In a sense the other earlier tasting seemed less formal, more like meeting at an uncle's house to try some teas with friends, in part because of the smaller group size and less structured theme.  This felt like a tea tasting, even working from lighter to heavier teas, the standard approach.

what we tried:  what didn't we try?  I'll just mention unusual exceptions.  An early Longjing / Dragonwell wasn't atypical but for that being a good quality example of the one type of green tea I really like it was nice (they're probably still a good source for that in Bangkok).  Some of the Dan Cong was pretty good, and good range Dan Cong is a really nice experience.  "Good" is all relative; maybe quality level was still in a upper normal range but pleasantness stood out.  Flavor range was very positive, generally type-typical, sweetness pleasant, and astringency quite moderate, with only secondary factors like full feel, length of aftertaste, and refinement falling short of the highest end versions.

We tried pretty good sheng and shu pu'er, an older CNNP shu (99?), and a CNNP / Zhongcha 7542 version from 96, I think it was.  That's more typically a Dayi / Taetea version (recipe), but CNNP did make their own versions earlier on.  Another participant mentioned that the separation between Zhongcha and Dayi may have been different in form in the mid-90s, which is tea history that I'm not clear on.  Storage input for that aged sheng pu'er seemed too clearly positive for the tea to have spent most of the time in Bangkok, since heat and humidity is great for pushing aging transition / fermentation tempo but not for the most optimized outcome for conventional sheng style teas, and the shop staff confirmed that it had spent more time in China, in the Menghai area.

It was interesting trying a pretty good hei cha, light, complex, and spicy, kind of rushing through that for it being at the end, even though it could've been more of a centerpiece of a less crowded tasting agenda.  One oolong was unlike any version I've tried, described as processed to a finish that doesn't involve completely drying the leaves, pressed to small square tablets, and distributed and kept frozen.  After all that it was still not too far off higher end and typical Taiwanese oolong style, but a little different.  

I think a Rou Gui towards the end was better than I could fully appreciate for being so blasted by all that tea at that point.  Quality markers stood out quite positively in that, if I had it right, the few aspects that show how the tea would probably be evaluated in tea specialist circles (feel and aftertaste again, a match to the pronounced cinnamon input, getting the oxidation and roast inputs balanced just right).

our first host in that shop

So that's it; lots of nice teas experienced with good company.  It was great that the shop seemed to really respect that tasting event as something more than a few tea enthusiasts dropping by, which was kind of how I saw it.  If you signed up for that sort of tasting as a paid event--not that anyone would schedule trying that many teas at once, which didn't fit into the 3 hour original scheduled time--you could expect to pay $50 or more (1500+ baht).  

I'm familiar with the shop, and I've been there a number of times, but that still doesn't explain them taking it all that far.  It seemed they saw it as an opportunity to share some tea and make a special event of it, which was really nice of them.  The one staff I had met, a primary owner, showed up late and swapped in as the shop host, and us trying a few extra really interesting versions late in the session is probably another main thing that extended it.  If you visit there they will try teas with you too, and I suppose if you never leave and keep trying them the count could add up.  

A quick word about good form:  if you taste a tea or two and don't like them there's no obligation to buy the teas, but if you do try a number then it's appropriate to buy at least a little of something.  Or so I see it.

That reminds me of a tangent:  if your tea budget is a little loose I tried an aged brick of Oriental Beauty oolong there once that was really something; you might want to check into that.  That was 8 years old (9 now; that was last year), a half-kilo / 500 gram brick selling for $200.  It sounds like a lot given my budget but that's really inexpensive for aged OB of that quality level (although maybe the price went up too; the price of everything else everywhere did).  Maybe some of the other teas there are selling for rates that aren't as good a value related to market rates, but whenever rarity of a type of version come up there may not be a lot of clear comparisons to be drawn on.  They sell basic factory sheng for reasonable prices, or aged Xiaguan tuochas; that's a nice resource to have.  

It's not unusual for something like aged white tea in Chinatown shops to be whatever it happens to be, something unique related to variable starting point and a random aging input, which is exactly why sorting through options in Chinatown shops is all that much more special than conventional online sourcing.  Not as special when you experience misses along with the hits, but if you are trying what you buy first that helps.

On this visit I bought a couple of basic Taiwanese oolongs to give away to monks, and a standard benchmark version Dayi sheng pu'er cake (8582) to try and probably hold onto for awhile; that's more where my budget lands.  Not according to my wife, who is convinced that I have enough tea, but she's a little more open about teas for that particular gift purpose (monks can't shop for their own tea), and I had to spend a little in thanks after that extensive tasting.  It's a little odd trying a dozen or so really interesting and novel teas and then buying very basic factory sheng, but it's a gap in what I own.

the kids visiting there during covid era

Wild Qi Tea Longjing

I'm trying the last of four teas shared by Shana of Wild Tea Qi, a Longjing version.  She is the official main founder of the tea group I admin for, International Tea Talk.  I have mixed feelings about trying this, on a couple of different levels, and this post may never go out [although in the end it did].  I'll go into that background first, a list of reservations.


I'm sick:  I'll not taste much of this; I'm probably at around 75% capacity for tasting, much improved from two days ago when my sense of taste was mute, from another sinus infection.  The main reason to try this tea is related, to taste it now and then again mid-week to see how different it is.  I won't get another chance to test exactly what being sick does to sense of taste, at least for a few weeks until I become ill again, the way things have been going.

Editing note:  it's a week later now that I'm publishing this, with a second tasting in the middle.  I think I've got this recovery.


It's not Spring:  people tend to prefer and review green teas in the Spring.  There is less point to mentioning them in what is about to change to be the temperate climate winter.  I'm almost not talking to an audience at this point anyway, more writing what is interesting to me, for whoever happens to also be interested to read it.

It's not late fall here in Bangkok either, it's the end of our rainy season, about to be our cool season, which are both close enough to Spring in character, I guess.  As to teas being better fresh they do seem to lose a little of the edge, less so if stored refrigerated, but people make more of the change than they need to.  Well stored green teas lose just a little freshness, which is really unfortunate, but they're far from ruined a half year or a year later on.

Other factors, not necessarily tied to reservations, just background:


It's a Yunnan origin Longjing:  that's not a reason not to review it, just relevant context.  The original, main origin for Longjing is elsewhere, and the only example I've tried from Yunnan, included as a sample along with a purchase from Yunnan Sourcing, wasn't type-typical of more standard versions.  Let's cite a less than idea but standard reference to cover what Longjing is, a Wikipedia entry citation:

...sometimes called by its literal translated name Dragon Well tea, is a variety of pan-roasted green tea from the area of Longjing Village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. It is produced mostly by hand and renowned for its high quality, earning it the China Famous Tea title...

...There are various definitions of Longjing; however a common definition is that authentic Longjing at least has to come from the Zhejiang province in China,[4][5] with the most conservative definition restrict the type to the various villages and plantations in the West Lake area in Hangzhou.[6] It can also be defined as any tea grown within the Xihu District.[7] A large majority of Longjing tea on the market however is actually not from Hangzhou. Many of these inauthentic longjing teas are produced in provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Guangdong.... 

...Authentic Longjing tea tastes sweet, mellow and rounded. Some varieties are distinctly vegetal and grassy, and others carry a hint of roasted chestnut and butter.


I'll add more later about flavor and other character differences, and typical types; the point here was more to clarify that origin issue.  Any tea sold from a different area as Longjing that is clearly identified related to source location is in no sense a fake tea.  It's just not the most conventional version of this tea type, per the typical definition.  The plant type used is probably different, in addition to any other terroir issues or processing variations.

This version was still good, but it's odd discussing any difference when a type is typically associated with being very standard, in terms of aspects.  An example helps clarify what I mean.  Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong oolong (or any of those) tends to cover a narrow range of associated flavors and character, floral or else peach, as general flavors go, with the rest very familiar to a lot of people.  It's odd placing where a version stands if it is slightly off that normal scale range, even if the difference wasn't negative in any way, beyond being less typical.  What if a Mi Lan Xiang Dan Cong was roasted more, in a range more typical of a Wuyi Yancha Fujian oolong, versus flavor profile differing in some other way?  That might be fine, it would just be odd placing it.  Most likely that wouldn't be an improvement, and the conventional range for a much more limited level of roast is in practice in the Guangdong province / Chaozhou area oolongs for a reason.

Here I'm talking about origin area instead, a different thing, but that will carry over to discussion of character differences as well.


Brewing using 205 F / 97 C water (package recommendation):  this is a matter of preference, right?  I've rehashed this issue so many times I'm bored of going too far with it, but there are a few sets of themes and perspectives that stand out.  The standard temperature brewing table relates mostly to Western style brewing preferences (I think; even that's an interpretation), and those tend to vary.  Another school of thought says that it's best to use boiling point water with essentially everything, and adjust intensity or astringency as necessary using timing, dropping infusion time.  Of course especially in the case of green teas those sets of ideas conflict.  Most people and vendors would recommend brewing this tea at closer to 70 C, I think.

The resolution here is clear enough; someone could try any given tea version made a few different ways, and then their own preference and opinion is the correct yardstick.  I suspect I'd like this tea best made using hot water but slightly below 97 C, down around 90, but still hot.  Then again I tend to be a bit sloppy when it comes to parameters, guessing things out, going by instinct.  Maybe I'm robbing myself of a truly optimized experience, or maybe that somehow makes more than enough sense and works well.

I might also mention seeing notice that Shana is currently running tea training courses in China this week, with more on that kind of thing here.  Use of the term "sommelier" tends to draw some heat, related to that kind of thing, since it means a different thing related to wine, and to some implies a close parallel that doesn't hold.  Using "master" in any course title would raise similar concerns, but with a more value neutral title there's nothing wrong with different training providers offering different options. 

Onto a little more background about this tea then the review:


Vendor description:

About a two hour drive from Kunming, Yunnan Province and after a three-hour hike deep into the mountains of Yiliang County we found this gorgeous hidden gem, an ancient tea tree garden hidden right in plain sight.

There were remnants of an old temple and later it was confirmed to be the famous Bao Hong Temple’s old tea garden. This ancient tea tree garden created by a monk who came down from Fujian Province in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He brought with him tea tree seeds, which were a special small leaf variety from Fujian. During the cultural revolution, the temple was destroyed as were many holy sites.


Ok, that's more a story than a description.  I kind of like those stories.  There really is no description of the tea character there, what it tastes like and such.  In a comments section some people claim it's the best Longjing they've tried; that's promising.  Who knows what else they've tried though.  There's a video link on that page and that probably contains more discussion of how it's made and what it's like.

This tea is sold out so it may be something to think about for next Spring, but isn't available now.

Review:

Interesting guessing how much of this experience is dropping out; clearly I'm not tasting this tea normally.  It has more of a mineral / metallic edge than I think is actually present, an input from the illness.  At the same time I can still guess at what it's actually like, beyond how I'm perceiving it.

It seems to overlap with the most typical Longjing scope, the nutty / toasted rice flavor, mild sweetness, towards-vegetal but not really vegetal nature.  It's kind of a joke to break down the flavor to a list though, only a guess how accurate that would be.  It leans a little towards floral tone, with some warmth to it, a rich, fermented grain effect.  I'm not sure that extends to toasted rice but it seems to be in the ballpark.  There probably is a more pronounced mineral aspect to this than is typical, which isn't a bad thing (if it's what I'm perceiving, not an illness-oriented illusion), just unusual.


Savory character picks up in the second round, with plenty of sweetness, fresh aspect range, and good overall balance.  Not to overemphasize the point but "as far as I can tell."  This probably did move away from malted grain to closer to toasted rice, not completely unrelated flavor ranges but different.  There's a fullness to the experience, even for experiencing 3/4ths of it.  At first scent of the dry tea I was concerned this version might be too atypical, and I don't think this is completely conventional.  It works though, and the second round shifts back to closer to that.  Floral still seems a little pronounced, and a mineral undertone.  Beyond that the differences are finer than I can pick up.

Intensity might be even more pronounced in the third round; this seems kind of hard-hitting as green teas go.  I like that about Longjing, that better versions can be intense, and not vegetal, covering a complex, interesting flavor range that isn't grassy.  It will be interesting seeing how much of that mineral is actually there and how much is error input.  This actually has aftertaste experience, a significant amount of it, more than is typical for Longjing.

Of course you never really know if you've tried 10 or 20 versions of a tea type and just haven't experienced the best versions yet, or ones in that general range.  If you keep buying teas from mass-production resale budget vendors you can be assured that you never will experience that.  I don't mean Yunnan Sourcing; a category of vendors that I shouldn't name an example of since that seems rude.  Yunnan Sourcing sells so much volume of tea that you can buy good, bad, and very exceptional versions through them; it just depends.  The best of the best might tend to not come up in such an outlet but I don't think it fits to lump them in with mass-production resale sources, even if that describes their core theme well enough, the Dayi outlet scope and such.

From here I'll need to turn this over to the next tasting round.  It will be interesting checking a take on the underlying mineral, overall intensity, fermented grain versus toasted rice aspect, floral tone (pronounced, but my take on that will shift a little), aftertaste effect, and on what else I missed.  It will be odd doing a guided tasting theme informed by my own input.

I went extra long on the next brew, getting caught up in a fight between my daughter and her mother.  It's nice to have so much of flavor come through, even though it's definitely not optimized, and I never would've brewed it this strong intentionally.  Overbrewing a tea does let you determine flaws in a different way, I just don't practice that enough to be good at it, and using a standard timing and proportion approach to set a baseline would help a lot (the ISO brewing standard theme).  All the same I interpret what I'm experiencing as positive, not in the sense that the tea is good this way, but that it's not right in the right ways.  Astringency and vegetal edge pick way up but it's still clean; even minor flaws would show through as quite unpleasant aspects made this way.  The balance is all wrong, per my preference, but I interpret it as just right for a way-overbrewed version of this particular tea.

I don't think this is exactly like the better standard Longjing character but there seems to be more than enough overlap, and the shift that I'm interpreting (based on partial input) seems quite positive.  I generally felt that way about that Yunnan Sourcing version too, that it was non-standard but in a good way.  At a guess this might be better tea.  I'm basing that on the complexity and intensity more than flavor range, at this point, because the dulling of that level isn't a clear input.

Second tasting impression:

I still think I'm not 100% back to normal related to sense of taste, even though I became sick 9 days ago, and was relatively fully recovered 4 days ago.  It's taking time.  I re-tried the tea again anyway; it's best to keep this moving.

The first infusion brings up a good bit of the characteristic flavor range that is most typical of the type, a nuttiness, in the range of roasted cashew, or in other forms more like toasted rice.  It's not really vegetal or floral; some versions can drift in those directions, even though I don't see that as standard.

Throughout a second and third infusion other aspect range ramped up a lot.  There's a much stronger underlying mineral tone and aftertaste based sweetness in this tea than is typical of any green tea, never mind standard Longjing version.  Both are characteristic of sheng pu'er, but the context of the other aspects is completely different in this.  It's not bitter though, the feel is different, and it lacks dominant floral range, although a bit picks up after the initial rounds.

Intensity level is unusual, related to flavor range, sweetness in general, and especially sweetness of aftertaste.  I wondered if that couldn't somehow tie to a carried-over error in my sense of taste, versus being how this tea really is.  I'm not tasting it in the other teas I'm drinking day to day but it's so pronounced in this that it's unusual.

Conclusions

It didn't completely match that standard Longjing profile, past the initial infusion impression, and not completely in that too.  The main flavor aspect associated with Longjing was present in that round, but additional sweetness and mineral undertone filled in later.  In a sense it was either a neutral or positive difference tied to that standard expectation; this is one of the most intense green teas I've ever tried.  The flavors are quite clean (I think), and overall intensity is off the scale, especially related to sweetness and aftertaste effect. 

I'm surprised that my impression was as close as it was when trying the tea sick versus mostly recovered.  Some detail had definitely dropped out the first time but the general impression was quite similar.

One criticism might relate to someone seeing that as lacking balance; teas in general just aren't this intense or sweet, except for some young sheng pu'er.  It's easy to counter that by using short infusion times but the sweetness is still really dominant.  I've never blamed a tea version for being too sweet in a review, and I don't intend this as doing that, the idea here is to be clear that it's just past the typical maximum for such a scale.

I can relate to why some people claimed that it's the best green tea they've ever tried in those comments.  Longjing is my favorite green tea, so that I typically buy some every Spring, and if one can divorce themselves of the expectation of a version being absolutely standard this is as good as it tends to get.  To me that's a part of the experience of Longjing though, that for this particular tea type the best case is the closest match to that ideal.

The Yunnan Sourcing version I tried not so long ago varied from standard form in some related ways (also a Yunnan origin version).  It swapped in a touch of savory aspect, and was also floral and sweet, just not this sweet, and also wasn't completely typical of Longjing.  It probably wasn't quite this good, even though that is a judgment call, tied more to subjective preference than a quality level distinction, without a standard form expectation to ground that.  It definitely wasn't this intense; no green teas ever are, except for Japanese green versions.

This works for me.  Since it lacks grassiness or other vegetal quality, tasting nothing like spinach or seaweed, the aspects I like least in green teas aren't carried over.  It probably does express some umami; that kind of judgment would be clearer tasting this with a more grounded palate, one completely unaffected by illness.  That I don't mind though.

I tasted another unusual character green tea recently, a Thai steamed version that I've just made notes for.  Again I was surprised by how sweet that tea was, and how it expressed a flavor profile I've never experienced in a green tea, not grassy or vegetal at all.  I might have to go back on saying I like green teas least of all the categories if these exceptional versions keep turning up.

I'll keep buying a Longjing version every Spring either way.  This one was among the best I've tried, just not exactly conventional in profile, which for some would be an improvement, and for others it could be a deal-breaker.

Happy, a local kitten I've become attached to

Yunnan Sourcing Early Spring "Bao Hong" Dragon Well

I'm not the best person to review Longjing, but it is my favorite type of green tea.  Every spring I usually buy a version of it, I just didn't get around to that yet this year.  It's really not "spring" here; I live in Bangok, and we just started the rainy season last month, but it's something else; it ends in October.

I've tried some decent versions so I'm not the least qualified judge of this type either.  One sent by Peter of Trident Bookstore in Boulder stood out as the best I've had; it was competition grade, exactly as those should be (although it seems I didn't actually review it related to a search not turning it up; odd).  You could tell from just the dry tea scent that it was exceptional.  I think I had one last year from a local Chinatown shop (Jip Eu), and one the year before from Teasenz. 

About a year before this blog started, so maybe around 7 years ago now, Longjing was one of the first better teas I bought in the local Bangkok Chinatown, based on a shop recommendation from a Chinese work contact.  I just don't drink much green tea now though; that Longjing once a year, and some Japanese greens that turn up as samples.


I'm not optimizing this related to brewing either.  I have measured water temperatures before but more often just mix a little cooler water with that from a filtration system heating function outlet to get it to an approximate range.  Brewing precision in general isn't one of my things.  I'm not measuring weights of tea, and I change how I prepare it in terms of timing from round to round, based on immediate preference and what I experienced the last round.  On to it then.

Often I've included the vendor description prior to reviews lately, but it seems to work to hold off on that until the end, matching my own experience, since I've not checked before trying it.

Review

I normally wouldn't review appearance or dry tea scent but in this case those sort of matter, or at least work as better indicators than often applies to other versions.  This is a darker green than a lot of Longjing tends to be (which I actually can't place as meaningful, just being thorough).  The scent is in the Longjing range but doesn't cover that bright, intense, vegetal, toasted rice / nutty range to the extent that Trident version did.  That's madness, comparing dry tea scents across about three years of time, isn't it?  Take that part with a grain of salt; brewed tea character is always the main thing.

that touch of cloudiness comes up in discussion here later

This is actually pretty good tea, and a fair version of what it's supposed to be [which later turned out to be different than I thought, but I think this does work to compare it with a standard and location-specific version].  It's missing some of the characteristic intensity, that punch of a narrow but complex set of flavors and other attributes, but the character that is there is in the right ballpark and very positive.  I don't say that unless I mean it; this tea is interesting and positive.  It's not exactly the set I expect from this tea type but what is present works really well.

One might wonder, does the tea always need to be made in exactly the same style to be a valid example of the type?  Processing choices alone vary how a tea turns out, and year to year changes in the weather do as well.  Maybe not, but for some of the most conventional types it seems to work out more that way.  The effect they tend to be shooting for is narrow, exactly the known style people seek out year to year.


Sweetness is good, vegetal tone isn't grassy, instead more in a toasted rice / other grain range, with a pleasant but subdued floral highlight that works.  It's clean and balanced, with reasonably thick feel (which should develop; this seems thinner for being an initial lighter infusion).  The floral range isn't so typical, and the toasted rice should be a little more pronounced.  General vegetal tone is in the right range but it's ramped up from this effect in some versions.  It's good, just not great, and not exactly that specific type I would expect.  Onto checking that next round then.


On the next round a specific version of vegetal range picks up.  It's still not the grassiness I like to avoid in green teas, the reason I prefer Longjing, for typically lacking that, but also not exactly that sweet toasted rice / slightly nutty effect.  This is in the right general range though, for sure.  It has a decent amount of umami effect, which in this balance works well, lending it flavor complexity and fullness, and a good overall balance.

Leave aside expecting this tea to be something in particular and it's a well above average green tea, a version so good it might not be easy to randomly run across.  Focusing on that expectation it would be possible for someone to conclude that it falls short, and judge it negatively.  Mind you all this is based on my own preconceptions and frame of reference, and others who have focused more on this type over a longer time may well come to a different conclusion.  The trace of floral tone is nice in this, it's just not typical, per what I've experienced elsewhere.  But what if the gap was in all those other versions, or my interpretation and memory of them, and a trace of floral tone should be there?  It seems as well to not overthink it all.


The third infusion is holding up well, continuing to develop.  The rich savory aspect is moving a little towards that nut / toasted rice range, closest to typical of the narrow profile type that it has been yet.  It's still clean, well balanced, with good sweetness, and entirely positive character.

To some extent people seeking out a "competition grade" higher level experience or a very narrow type in a version doesn't make sense to me, because teas just naturally vary, as agricultural products in general would tend to.  I can kind of relate to the pursuit though, even if it doesn't match how I approach tea.  In some cases you really can sort out a narrow ideal for some tea versions, not just a limited set of attributes but how those "should" come across, in what intensity, arriving at what overall balance.  I'll cite examples, in case that helps.

Rou Gui that tastes exactly like an earthy version of cinnamon is out there (a Wuyi Yancha type), in some better versions balanced perfectly with a medium level of roast that doesn't taste like char, but fills in complexity and range.  One might go further and expect other levels of aspects to match an ideal, a certain feel, a degree of aftertaste, and so on.  But then one of my favorite tea producers makes an great fruitier style of Rou Gui that's one of my favorite teas (this Wuyi Origin version).

The same approach seems to work well with narrow-region sourced high mountain Taiwanese oolongs; narrow character types can emerge, certain flavors, an unusual intensity, strong mineral base, thick and structured feel, long aftertaste, etc.  It seems to work for Longjing as well, expecting and seeking out a narrow character.

I'm trying it the next round brewed a little faster; that can let aspects show through in a different way.  The floral tone really picks up.  I should be able to describe what it is, which flower, but that's long since been a limitation in these reviews.  It's light and sweet; there's that.  I could say "orchid" but for all I know the broad range of those flowers comes across differently in different versions, and I don't remember smelling one for a long time.  I often dislike quite floral green teas because that range often pairs with a straight-grass flavor aspect and in this it doesn't.  This isn't "quite floral" anyway; it's just one aspect, a bit stronger in this round but relatively subdued compared to the rest earlier.

I'm going to skip the rest for review; I have things to do, and the point here was getting a take on this version and comparing it to my expectations and prior experience, which is covered.  I liked the tea.   As someone who likes Longjing a lot more than every other green tea version for being distinctive and not expressing range typical of other green teas (grass or seaweed) this works for me.  It will be interesting to read the product description and see if any of what I've been noticing turns up there, a type description that accounts for it being distinctive related to standard type expectations.

I did brew it a lot more rounds (that works using a Gongfu approach, better for better quality teas in general).  It kept transitioning a little but was more positive and consistent than I would have expected.  Ten rounds in the character was still somewhat similar, just dropping off in intensity, and usually green teas don't work out like that.

On quality markers and type background

I've talked here about markers, or particular aspects, that tend to work well to identify quality level in different kinds of teas, and that type of perspective seems to apply here.  So far I've only made the claim that a certain range of flavor identifies the ideal for this tea type, which is somewhat consistent and and narrowly defined.  Framed in that summary form it goes a little further than what I meant to claim but that still sort of works.  Typically one would want to consider the feel of a tea and aftertaste effect as crucial points of reference, across most types, although aftertaste does apply more directly to sheng and oolongs.  I've got one more point of reference in mind for this type, which I'll get to after one other point.

I also claimed that the color was a bit dark as some versions go.  That's hard to completely sort out, since leaf appearance can vary for different reasons.  One might think a green tea is darker because it has been allowed to oxidize more, or did so after processing, and there could be something to that, but I can't be certain that other variations come into play.

For this tea type, early harvest Longjing, the amount of fine hair content on the leaves is often a marker for it matching the standard range.  I've not mentioned that here, because I really didn't notice anything resembling that in this version.  Often a brightness in character and creamy feel seem to go along with that aspect, probably not necessarily directly tied to it, but perhaps not unrelated, in that tea harvested at such a time would have that character and that type of "fuzz."  I'll look up a reference to go further with what I'm talking about.

A Tea Vivre vendor's post comes up first in a search on this:


Pekoe is the fuzz on the tea bud, also named as tea hair and often present on the young shoots of tea tree, which is rich in nutrients such as theanine and tea polyphenols. In general, it plays as an important indicator of tea tenderness in many cases...

Pekoe will also affect the taste of tea. It carries less tea polyphenols and caffeine itself, let alone pairing with young leaves, which are relatively fresh but without bitterness, so as to directly affect the taste of tea. For consumers, pekoe can be used as one of the important criterion for the assessment of tea’s quality...


That works for a start, but I was thinking of a differently type of explanation, and I thought the fuzz was called trichomes.  Maybe something more scientific, and research oriented:


Scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the ultrastructure of trichomes on Maofeng, a special Chinese green tea. The trichomes were cylindrical in appearance with a length of 0.6–1 mm, wall thickness of 0.2–0.3 μm and a mid‐point diameter of 9–10 μm. The angles between the trichomes and the leaf under‐surface were below 30° in Maofeng tea though they were 45–75° in fresh green leaf. The trichome wall consisted mainly of fibre and its outer‐surface was unevenly covered with waxy substances and striped. The trichome joint, by which the trichome was attached to the leaf tower epidermis, was expanded and filled with essential oil droplets...


Maybe in the middle for tone would be better.  It's strange none of the blogs that tend to cover this sort of background seemed to ever write about it (Tea Geek, and World of Tea, both of which stopped posting years ago, or Tea DB, which focuses on pu'er, so they wouldn't have).  Other vendors mention it in marketing content but I've already referenced that type of source.  Another blogger friend mentioned her take, in My Thoughts are Like Butterflies:


This specific Long Jing was harvested pre-April 5th, making it a Pre Qing Ming tea, one of the more coveted of harvests [prior to typical Spring rain season, if I remember that part right]. When looking at the leaves I noticed some had wonderful trichome fuzzballs, a sign that yep, these are picked super early and have their young leaf fuzziness, most of the fuzz gets rubbed off during pan firing, but some gets left behind as little fuzzballs... 

Take bell peppers, green beans and Lima beans and saute them with some sesame seed oil and a touch of sweet honey and you have the aroma for these leaves. Just at the start of the saute process too since the bell pepper note still has its crispness...


No mention there of all that vegetal range not matching some standard expectation; I guess the character can vary.  If this YS version had tasted like green peppers, green beans, and lima beans to me I suppose my comments would have come across as complaining about that.

Yunnan Sourcing description

What is this version, after all that?  A sales page description follows, which usually I'd edit down, but the content is interesting, even the parts that aren't required for character description:


"Bao Hong" tea is from Yi Liang county of Yunnan.  It's leaf is quite small and it carries a high level of aroma.  The leaves are always picked when very small and fresh during a two hour window of time in the early morning of mid-February.    The aroma is intense and fresh.  It was first grown in the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) at the same time a Buddhist Monastery was built on Bao Hong Mountain.  The original tea plant was brought by a visiting monk from Fujian.  This tea has been growing on Bao Hong Mountain since that time (over 1200 years ago).  

Yi Liang county has a very moderate  climate with a mean daily temperature of 16.3 degrees celsius, and an average yearly rainfall of about 950 centimeters.  The Bao Hong Mountain tea garden is an average of 1550-1630 meters above sea level, where it is often shrouded in mist diffusing the sunlight just enough to create a perfect light balance.  Bao Hong mountain is remote area of Yunnan where the tea plants enjoy a natural un-adulterated environment.  

The tea itself is full and plump but small.  It has a high level of fragrance and the tea soup is thick and awash with the little hairs that grow on the tea leaves.

Comparable in many aspects to a Dragon Well, but unique in its own right.


It didn't seem that thick to me, but then I've been accustomed to drinking a lot of sheng, which varies a lot, but can express different types of thickness in texture.  I didn't notice those hairs but otherwise all this works.

Even on that subject of fuzz / trichomes though, the initial rounds looked slightly cloudy, which is usually a bad sign for teas, but in reading around about this type it's said to tie in with the effect of trichomes, so that it's a good sign in this case.  I was drinking the tea in a shady spot outside so maybe I just didn't have the right lighting to pick up on the fuzz in the brewed versions.  A little is evident on the leaves in the photo and it tends to show up as very fine hair-like particles on the surface of the brewed tea.

For this version being a variation of Longjing / Dragonwell, rather than being presented as the most type-typical and standard region sourced version, it's exactly as one would expect.  Even that touch of extra floral tone is very positive in that light, exactly the kind of variation one might expect and would value.  Overall the quality of the tea is very positive.  Splitting out and pinning down "quality" as some abstract attribute, separated from preference for aspects or expected character for a type, doesn't necessarily work.  But it's the kind of thing that you know when you experience, indicated by other aspects, like having a bright, clean, complex, pleasant nature, matching expectations or varying in a positive way, expressing good thickness or aftertaste effect, brewing lots of positive infusions, and so on.

Meeting Huyen Dinh in the Bangkok Chinatown, and a Longjing review

with Huyen and Kittichai at Jip Eu (his Bangkok Chinatown shop)

I finally met Huyen Dinh, that one Vietnamese tea friend I did a tea swap with last year.  She's as cool as she comes across in the pictures and messages, very bright in spirit, enthusiastic about exploring lots of kinds of teas.  Her family does gift packaging (kind of a Chinese theme that carries over in Vietnam more than here), so she's building on a lot of prior exposure to a broad range of Vietnamese teas.  She passed on a few more Vietnamese tea versions so I'll say more about that part in another post.

so cheerful!

We visited Jip Eu, my favorite Chinatown shop.  As usual the owner, Kittichai, was very kind about visiting with us and sharing tea, and talking about teas from Thailand and China.  He has family in the Wuyishan and Anxi areas in Fujian; I've seen a picture of him processing tea in a small family operation within the park boundary in Wuyishan before there was even a park there.  Jip Eu has been around for 90 years or so, so that's his main background, buying and selling tea his whole life.  His wife wasn't there; kind of a shame since she's nice to visit with too.


Short visits like that tend to feel a bit rushed but it is nice visiting a shop where sitting down and trying teas for an hour is fine.  As with that shop I mentioned near the flower market, Ong Yng Choon, a lot of local tea demand seems to relate to drinking blended versions of Shui Xian, basic oolong.  It's definitely more moderate quality tea, in terms of character and cost, but blending can offset some of the rough edges that a modest version of a single-origin tea could express.


I should say more about Huyen since meeting her was the main theme.  She has a bright enthusiasm about tea and genuine nature that really works well together.  And Vietnamese tea is a much, much broader subject than most people would be aware of, a really solid grounding compared to being familiar with teas from almost any other countries.  China has a broader tradition, of course, with a bit more higher end to consider, but it's my impression that Vietnam's tea tradition is as developed as India or Japan's.

the shop from the front;  it's old school

they also sell commercially packaged teas, or different others

Huyen mentioned that people in the far North of Vietnam produce tea identical to pu'er (it's from quite near Yunnan, and the plants would probably be nearly identical to some versions there), but that they aren't familiar with pu'er.  They call it dried tea, since after a light frying step (sha-qing) and rolling the tea is dried in the sun.  I've not been completely clear on what some versions of high mountain ancient tree green teas were and she passed on another sample of one.  It's not pu'er, and it's not snow tea, but also not conventional green tea, nothing like the Thai Nguyen area "fishhook" style.  To look at it I'd think it was loose sheng.  I'll say more about that in that review post.

We talked a little about how her visit went, and Thai culture, and of course about different types of teas, and brewing.  It's odd considering people you only know online as friends, although I do, and also odd basing a real-life friendship on a short visit worth of exposure, but that's where it stands with her now.  I kept saying she should meet my kids, since they're the coolest thing to experience in Bangkok, but that'll have to wait until another time.

she visited a nearby shop after I didn't make it to, K Mui Kee

that other shop info

About Longjing and Jip Eu shop background

I bought some Longjing (Dragonwell) during that visit there.  I've been behind in checking out this Spring's teas this year, which loses something due to not being so into green teas.

Some people would have a more developed take on where this stands in relation to other Longjing than I do.  I tend to buy a fresh version once a year in the spring and that's it, and I can mostly compare year to year if it's pretty good or not, not matching up aspects.  That shop owner discussed different alternatives a little and seemed to present this one as the best version, as much as there is a best versus just preference difference.  I've lost track of his description of this tea but that almost seems as well, to just describe this Longjing version and leave off about style or region claims and other background.

That shop specializes in Wuyi Yancha sales, with Anxi Tie Kuan Yin seeming like an emphasis beyond that, and I've bought some Dan Cong there, so green tea is a little off their normal range.  But they do sell a bit of pu'er, and I did buy a compressed silver needle cake there (that one I gave to a Thai princess).  It's not as if Longjing is unfamiliar to even those large-jar lower-quality shop vendors in the Bangkok Chinatown; it's quite central to the Chinese tea tradition.  I've bought it in other shops where they keep fresh versions separate from all that, typically refrigerated since Bangkok heat isn't great for fresh green tea.

If you bought only 50 or 100 grams and planned to drink straight through it and your room temperature really is a normal room temperature, around 70 F or 25 C (funny how those two don't match; room temperature here is 25 C or about 77 F) then it probably wouldn't matter, storing in a normal cabinet would be fine.  Well sealed, of course.  Opinions vary on that point though; some say that cooler is much better, that as with food freshness good green tea is just much better stored cooler.  Others warn that even minor condensation relating from taking a tea in and out of the refrigerator is worse than the warmer storage effect.

Longjing (Dragonwell) Review:

People might interpret the color or size of the leaves in different ways but I'm not really on that page.  To me as long as it looks like Longjing and smells like Longjing the brewed tea effect can decide things from there.  I'll prepare the tea Gongfu style, using shorter infusions versus a Western approach, and of course cooler water, around 70 C.



The initial infusion is light, on the short side, but still very sweet and intense.  The flavors are bright, with that characteristic nuttiness or toasted rice main aspect, supported by fresh tasting vegetal aspect range.  It has a bit of grass to it but that complements that other more pronounced range.  I'm not a fan of most green teas because the grass and vegetables get to be too much, even brewed lightly to emphasize sweetness and offset astringency, but this balance works well for me.


On the next round this is brewed a bit stronger, still nice, still sweet and smooth due to using a low temperature, but a bit more subtle would be optimum.  A bit more green bell pepper comes through, essentially replacing the grassiness, still coupled with the distinctive toasted rice aspect.  I've heard that called either nut or toasted rice, and it can seem like either depending on how you interpret it, or I suppose maybe some people can make a clear distinction when it's more one or the other.

Intense brewed lightly (you can see the fuzz)

The tea has nice sweetness, and an intensity that doesn't describe at all as an aspect list.  It doesn't have a structured feel in the same way some other tea types do, as they affect a different part of the mouth more than others, but it feels full, and flavor is definitely drawn out long after tasting the tea.  It would be a shame to drink it when in a hurry, as I tend to drink teas with work-day breakfasts.


I notice a lot of the fine hairs on the tea surface (trichomes) that can occur when brewing green or white teas, typically seen as a good sign, that the tea is made from fresh and healthy younger leaves.  Even on the third infusion there is lots of that.


Brewing the tea quite lightly drops the aspects back into a great balance; it was nice last round but even better.  Of course what's going on with that relates to preparing this tea Gongfu style, and I think it would still be fine prepared Western style, that it's not necessarily an example of where that would clearly be a mistake.  Western style seems to not work very well for sheng pu'er and oolongs, in general, at least per my preference.


This tea is about as good as I can evaluate a Longjing to be based on remembering one version a year.  The flavors being in the right range identify that, and the overall intensity, and sweetness, and full feel and aftertaste.  Flavors aspects can shift in different ways and it could be slightly nuttier / more like toasted rice, but it's definitely in the right range for better version.  It's my understanding that would change based on how it was prepared, the frying step, and that different people might prefer different things.  A lot of that effect, a bit more frying, could indicate the processing is compensating for flaws, using that step to draw out complexity, instead of relying on the initial tea character.  Of course in saying that I've moved onto guessing, but it's based in part on the practice of re-frying green teas to wake them back up, to change character later.  This tea is definitely really fresh.


The next round is more of the same, a good thing.  I suppose I wouldn't mind a touch of the green bell pepper and underlying grass swapped out for more toasted rice but this isn't the kind of tea one would normally try and wish they were drinking something else.  Huyen raised a good point in discussion about trying teas, related to reviewing them as much as appreciating them:  trying a tea once or twice doesn't give you a full, developed impression.  People vary across different time frames, and that along with minor brewing variations and just noticing more can shift an impression of a tea.  Reviews here are meant to pass on an impression, but not a final, complete, objective interpretation.

Huyen visiting Tea Village in Pattaya, on a short Thailand tea tour

This tea's character is why I like Longjing; that intense, characteristic, fresh taste, and limited grassiness compared to most other green tea styles.  I remember trying a sample a tea friend sent, Peter Jones (of Trident bookstore in Boulder, CO; probably worth checking out), and I knew it was the right tea as soon as I opened the package, not even needing to taste it.  This Jip Eu version may or may not be quite on that level, a true competition grade tea, but towards the higher end of quality level differences become minor, and personal preference for specific characteristics is still as big a factor. 


Both are as good as the average tea drinker could appreciate, with subtle variation in the upper quality range becoming not so subtle once someone tunes into a specific tea version's aspect range more.

Teasenz Pre-Qing Ming Meijiawu (West Lake) Longjing

It's that time of the year again for spring teas.  I've tried some Darjeeling first flush, a very nice experience, but for me Longjing (also called Dragonwell) is the main spring tea I go out of my way to experience.  This one is from Teasenz.  It's sold as first flush Longjing, or as a pre-Quing Ming version, meaning an early spring tea, from the traditional source area, West Lake, or more specifically from the village of Meijiawu.

weather on a recent outing:  hot

Drinking teas seasonally makes perfect sense, enjoying fresh green teas in the spring, switching to mostly more oxidized teas in winter, maybe along with some masala chai, and associating some others with fall.  I just mostly don't.  I live in Bangkok and it's either really hot here or not quite as hot and raining.  The cool season is still hot.  I'm all over the map related to what I drink, and when, both tied to inclination and what vendors happen to send as samples for review.  I was buying a compressed Shai Hong (Dian Hong) from Teasenz anyway so I ordered their fresh Longjing as well, waiting an extra week or two until the product was ready.


Some bloggers tend not to review the same teas over and over, depending on their writing theme, and Longjing is a type that would tend to repeat in style.  I don't have rules or conventions for writing, beyond an inclination to violate assumed rules, so if it worked out to review a number of similar fresh Longjing then I would.  But it won't.  Then again I tried a really nice version sent by an online friend last year and couldn't believe I didn't review that, so maybe I'm just inconsistent.  Onto review then.


The dry tea smell is nice, fresh and sweet, with a bit of a nutty element (or toasted rice, all along the same line, that one characteristic aspect or range).  There is a touch more vegetal tone than I expected in the scent, a bit of extra grass swapped out for nuts, more or less, but dry tea scent doesn't matter as much as final result anyway.

The brewed tea taste is definitely in the right range.  There is a fullness and richness to the tea that extends the experience well beyond taste, and the taste is also nice.  Describing the one characteristic taste or range shouldn't be so difficult, and it is at the center of the experience, but it's hard to completely pin down.  It's a taste like nuts, or toasted rice, not completely removed from fresh cut green hay, or maybe it spans all that range, but somehow comes across as more integrated than three separate tastes.

I think the character of this version is just a little towards the fresh cut green hay from the nuts / toasted rice part.  That could mean more to someone with more depth of background with Longjing; I can only describe how it works out, or how it relates to what I've experienced, not the type-optimum, or processing inputs that led to aspects.

The tea has a very full feel related to how green teas typically come across, more like an oolong, a creamy feeling, although not exactly the same in effect as those.  It's not buttery, it's creamy.  The aftertaste extends quite a bit related to other green teas too.


It's probably not the kind of tea that gives completely different effects related to brewing variation but there is room for optimizing the balance of the elements.  There is an assumption that comes across in most tea writing--across types--that there is typically one standard, optimum way to brew every tea, and to me that probably holds up for this tea a lot better than for some other types.  But there still seems to be room for slight variation per preference.  Really one could brew this tea gongfu style, if they wanted to, and I did try that the second time, even though it works well brewed Western style.  Or I suppose it could be cold brewed, or prepared grandpa style, but this tea is a bit nice for using those approaches.

All that said, I went with a relatively short infusion the time next time to see how that shifted things.  The tea thins, of course, with the fullness and richness dropping back, but the flavor stays mostly where it was.  It wasn't astringent enough one would describe it as astringent but that range, the feel, was most of what changed.  Slightly less flavor intensity is not quite as positive, so brewing it on the light side but strong enough to retain flavor and feel fullness seems right.  Or just going with a completely standard set of parameters would work.

There is room for more description, more of the flavors list approach.  I'd be talking about Longjing in general as much as about this tea, or both really, so to be completely descriptive it would work better to describe the typical range in detail, or possibly that and the ideal, and where this stands in that range.  But that would be even wordier than this already is.  And I mostly just know when Longjing actually tastes like good Longjing, and then only in general terms, not on the level of people that have been experimenting with ever higher levels of sourcing options for this particular tea version for many years.

brewing in a gaiwan, the second time

As flavors list goes, so far:  nutty (closest to fresh roasted cashew, but not exactly that), toasted rice, fresh cut hay--the green version, quite sweet.  That sweetness isn't so far from the taste of very fresh green peas, which aren't particularly vegetal in nature.  Of course I don't mean canned peas or frozen peas; there is a part of the effect you only get in a very fresh version, something more or less just off the plant, picked only when ripe.  They're sweet in a particular way.



The "hay" aspect isn't completely separate from grass, the effect is just pretty far from what I would mean if I described a tea as grassy.  Mineral picks up just a little a few infusions in, as an underlying tone, with a little of the brightness fading, but the sweetness stays mostly unchanged and the fullness mostly continues through.



I tried the tea a second time made in a gaiwan, using a longer infusion version of Gongfu style brewing.  I liked it more, although I liked it just fine the first time.  It's hard to place that; it could've related to not getting Western brewing just right, or maybe more about moving away from Western brewing approach for so long now that I'm not used to it, and not typically being rigorous about using those standard Western style brewing parameters anyway.


The tea retains a lot of the brightness, freshness, and sweetness brewed lightly, using relatively short infusion times (around 20 to 30 seconds, using a typical proportion of tea to water for the approach).  It really seemed a matter of preference, that someone else might like the tea prepared stronger, where a normal Western brewing approach typically lands, and without significant astringency issues to work around it's not as if it doesn't work well stronger too.


It would seem to make perfect sense to me to prepare the tea more than one way and see how that varied it.  Since I bought this tea--it's not just a provided sample--I'll keep experimenting with it, although that definitely relates more to a preference to mess around than a potential to improve results.

Ranking the tea in the Longjing spectrum

One last thing:  how well did I like it, how would I judge the grade?  I think this tea gives up little or nothing related to other better Longjing versions I've tried related to feel, aftertaste, and sweetness; it's obviously very good tea.  The related fullness, creaminess, freshness, and brightness are all where they should be.  I don't remember ever noticing this much fuzz / down in a tea, which is a good thing, a sign of early leaves, per my understanding (this is already long of I'd go into more on that, but you can Google it).

Related to taste range it's a good version of a quality tea, I'm just less certain that it stands out as matching the best version I've ever tried, related to my own preferences.  That one really nice Longjing I tried last year showed off plenty of that one characteristic flavor element as soon as you opened the package, with the scent filling the room, even more fresh and intense in the brewed tea.  I think the aspect range for this tea wasn't far off that one's but it struck a different balance related to proportion of fresh cut hay element versus nuttiness / toasted rice.  It's splitting hairs, but then that's how I see a full description of a fresh Longjing working out, either you split the hairs, consider grade and also bring in subjective preference, or a review is just a flavor-list half measure.

Do I remember that tea right, I wonder; that was awhile back.  If I'd been drinking lower end green teas prior to trying that maybe the shift in level made it stand out as more exceptional than it really was.  Or maybe its status grew in my mind over time.  Or maybe I'm just not drinking green teas much lately, off that page for preference, and I'm rating it lower for an underlying preference shift away from the general green tea type.  In any case I'm just passing on my best guess, which is really all any tea reviewer ever does, although write-ups tend to get presented as relatively objective takes.

I should note that the source for that other tea wasn't an online vendor.  That friend goes out of his way to review and source competition grade teas from as direct sources as possible, and has for years, in a professional capacity.  If someone walked into a random shop or cafe to buy Longjing it almost certainly wouldn't be on that level, true here in Bangkok as well, or probably as good as this tea, for that matter.  I probably should try to verify that though; I've been meaning to go to Chinatown anyway, so I might as well try another version from there.

There was just a discussion thread about "The best green tea in the world" on the Tea Chat forum and someone mentioned a preference to buy teas at less than $1 a gram, which is a relevant part of that general grade issue.  Longjing is a high-profile and highly demanded type of tea, particularly for good quality, region-specific, early harvest versions.  A tea being sold at $1 a gram implies something about quality level, as does costing substantially more or less.  At a guess this tea I'm reviewing is quite good for the cost range it's in, although that seems a bit speculative on my part, given that I'm not trying out lots of sources of Longjing, I just drink it from different sources every year.


I'm also more or less penalizing the tea in description and evaluation for being a green tea, which is strange, since that's exactly what it's supposed to be.  To be clear I love Longjing especially for being distinct from that typical green tea character range, for not being grassy or vegetal, for tasting fresh but mostly in the range of nuts and toasted rice.  It would be completely possible for someone else to switch that around, and prefer this tea over any other they've ever tried precisely for striking the aspects balance it does.  I'm not even sure that actually relates to quality, that there could be plenty of stylistic difference beyond that one concern, just within a narrow range in this case.  I glanced around at some references about Longjing in writing this and one said a touch of vegetal nature of a specific kind identified the most sought types from the right region, and maybe that's exactly what I was tasting.


All in all it's a great tea, very fresh and positive, expressing a wonderful range of positive attributes.  It doesn't feel much like Spring here, being half-way through our Thai hot season, but it feels more like it for drinking this tea.

Testing a video addition, a Pikachu attack enactment, nothing to do with tea