Longjing

Longjing green tea

synonym

Longjing (famous Chinese tea) generally refers to Longjing tea (green tea produced in the West Lake area of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province)

Longjing tea, a specialty of Zhejiang Province, is a national geographic indication product of China.

Super Longjing tea is flat, smooth and straight, with light green color, fresh fragrance, fresh and mellow taste, and tender bottom leaves.

In 2001, the State Administration of quality supervision officially approved "Longjing tea" as the product of geographical indication protection.

In May 2020, it will be included in the first batch of "Zhejiang cultural imprint" list.

Product features

Longjing tea is famous for its green color, beautiful shape, fragrant and mellow taste. Its unique "light and far" and "fragrant and clear" charm and extraordinary quality are unique among many teas, ranking first among China's top ten famous teas.

Longjing tea picking has three characteristics: early, tender and diligent. Tea growers often say, "tea is an hour of grass, early pick three days is a treasure, late pick three days into grass." Longjing tea is also famous for its tender picking. The tenderness and evenness of fresh leaves form the basis of the quality of Longjing tea. Diligence refers to picking in batches of large and small ones, and picking in about 30 batches throughout the year.

There are ten traditional methods of stir frying Longjing tea: toss, shake, set, fan, stir, throw, grasp, push, button and press. Different quality tea has different methods of stir frying. Due to the differences of ecological conditions and frying technology, there are five categories of Longjing in West Lake, namely "Lion", "dragon", "cloud", "tiger" and "plum".

Super Longjing tea is flat, smooth and straight, with light green color, fresh fragrance, fresh and mellow taste, and tender bottom leaves.

Among the spring teas, the special grade Xihu Longjing and Zhejiang Longjing are flat and smooth in appearance, with sharp edges of seedlings, tender green buds longer than leaves, no hairy on the body surface, bright green (yellow) soup color, light or tender chestnut fragrance, but some teas have high fire fragrance, fresh or mellow taste, and tender green leaves at the bottom. With the decline of the grade, the appearance and color of other grades of Longjing tea changed from light green to blue green to dark green, the body of tea changed from small to large, and the tea strips changed from smooth to rough; the fragrance changed from tender to thick, and the fourth grade tea began to have rough taste; the bottom of leaf changed from tender bud to double leaf, and the color changed from light yellow to green to yellowish brown. The color of Longjing tea in summer and autumn is dark green or dark green. The body of the tea is large, and there is no hair on the body surface. The soup color is yellow and bright, with fragrance but rough. The taste is thick and slightly astringent, and the leaf bottom is yellow and bright. The overall quality of Longjing tea is much worse than that of spring tea of the same level. At present, the machine-made Longjing tea is stir fried by multi-function machine, and also by the combination of machine and manual assistance. The appearance of machine-made Longjing tea is mostly rod-shaped flat, incomplete and dark green. Under the same conditions, the overall quality of machine-made Longjing tea is worse than that of hand fried tea.

Zhejiang Longjing tea is divided into special grade and grade 1-5, a total of 6 grades.

Group species

Group species is the earliest variety of Longjing tea, and it is also the best tea quality at present. Now people often say that Xihu Longjing tea on Shifeng mountain is this variety. Generally speaking, the picking time of group species is later than other species, about Qingming. The planting area of this variety is limited to the West Lake area.

Longjing 43

Longjing 43 is a clonal national variety bred from Longjing population by Tea Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Shrub type, middle leaf type, semi open, densely branched. In Qingdao, the period of one bud and one leaf is in the middle and last ten days of April. The dry samples of one bud and two leaves contain about 3.7% amino acids, 18.5% tea polyphenols, 12.1% catechins and 4.0% caffeine. It is suitable for making flat famous green tea such as quetongue, Longjing and Yuye.

Features: the flavor and concentration are suitable, long lasting, Longjing 43 is generally suitable for stir fried green version, soup color is clear, green and bright.

Pingyang tezao

Middle leaf type, shrub type, very early species. The mining period of famous tea in Qingdao is in the middle and last ten days of April, with high germination density and strong sprouting ability. Characteristics: high aroma is its remarkable feature. The tea collected in the same period is better in appearance, but slightly light in taste.

Zhenong 117

The high quality, high yield and early-growing clonal variety, which was selected and bred by Zhejiang University for both red and green use, was identified by Zhejiang provincial level in 2002 and listed as a key variety in Zhejiang Province. It has strong tenderness, suitable for flat and needle tea, strong bud and green color. It has the advantages of early germination time, early mining time in early May, strong sprouting ability, strong stress resistance, especially cold resistance, high lasting aroma and strong fresh taste.

Zhenong 139

Zhejiang University selected and bred high-quality, high-yield and early-growing clonal varieties of tea. In 2002, it passed the provincial appraisal of Zhejiang Province and was listed as the key popularized variety in Zhejiang Province. It is suitable for producing high-quality green tea. It has the characteristics of high and lasting aroma, mellow taste, and storage resistance. The yield per unit area is 27% higher than that of Fuding Dabai tea. Green leaves and high yield. The advantages are good tenderness and cold resistance, while the disadvantages are weak disease resistance.

Wuniuzao

This variety matures the fastest, and generally begins to germinate as soon as the beginning of spring. It can be picked in early March of Gregorian calendar. Because the appearance of Wuniuzao is similar to Xihu Longjing, its output is also very large.

historical origin

Before Sui and Tang Dynasties, Hangzhou tea culture was in the rising stage. During the Three Kingdoms and two Jin Dynasties, the economy and culture on both sides of Qiantang River gradually developed, Lingyin Temple was built, Buddhism, Taoism and other religious activities gradually prevailed, the famous mountains and rivers of West Lake were gradually developed, and tea was planted and spread with the establishment of Taoist temples. After the opening of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, Hangzhou became a famous city of great wealth in the southeast due to its convenient land and water transportation. At this time, tea was widely cultivated in Hangzhou.

 

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Longjing tea area had initially formed a scale. At that time, Xianglin tea from Tianzhu Xianglin cave in Lingyin, Baiyun tea from Baiyun peak in upper Tianzhu and Baoyun tea from Baoyun mountain in Geling were listed as tribute products. In the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a record that "all the tea in hangjun was inferior to that produced in Longjing, but before the rain, the sprouts were taken with one flag and one shot, which was especially precious.".

 

In the Yuan Dynasty, Longjing tea began to have a good reputation. Yu Ji, a tea lover, wrote a tea drinking poem "you Longjing", in which "wandering on Longjing, clouds rise and clear". It is widely sung that "when you cook golden buds, you can't bear to gargle three times".

In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qianlong went to Jiangnan six times and Longjing four times. He wrote six Royal poems about Longjing tea, and personally granted "Eighteen royal tea trees", which promoted Longjing tea to the highest status.

After the Republic of China, Longjing tea gradually became the first famous tea in China.

 

Origin environment

Zhejiang has a subtropical monsoon climate with distinct seasons, moderate annual temperature, more light, abundant rainfall, humid air, synchronous seasonal changes of rain and heat, various climate resources and various meteorological disasters. The annual average temperature is 15-18 ℃. January and July are the lowest and the highest months, respectively. May and June are the concentrated rainfall periods. The extreme maximum temperature is 44.1 ℃, the extreme minimum temperature is - 17.4 ℃; the average annual rainfall in Zhejiang Province is 980-2000mm, and the average annual sunshine hours is 1710-2100 hours.

 

The terrain inclines from the southwest to the Northeast in a ladder shape. The southwest is dominated by mountains, the middle is dominated by hills, and the northeast is a low and flat alluvial plain. It can be roughly divided into six terrain areas: Northern Zhejiang plain, Western Zhejiang hills, eastern Zhejiang hills, central Jinqu basin, southern Zhejiang mountains, southeast coastal plain and coastal islands.

Production situation

Hangzhou has a long history of tea planting, tea making and tea business. It is rich in tea base, tea varieties, tea and other resources. It has strong tea production technology, processing technology and scientific and technological force. Tea plants are planted in three cities, two counties and four districts. There are also a few tea plantations in Jianggan and Gongshu districts. There are 538000 mu tea gardens in Hangzhou. In 2012, the total output of tea was 19600 tons, and the total output value of tea was 2.283 billion yuan.

 

In 2013, Longjing tea produced 23000 tons with an output value of 3.68 billion yuan.

 

In 2015, the output of Longjing tea was 25000 tons.

 

Product honor

In 2009, Longjing tea was awarded the title of "Zhejiang Province special honor famous tea national gift tea".

 

geographical indication

According to the provisions on the protection of products of geographical origin (Order No. 6 of the former State Administration of quality and technical supervision), the General Administration of the people's Republic of China has organized and passed the examination of the application for the protection of the geographical origin of Longjing tea, and approved the formal implementation of the protection of the geographical origin of Longjing tea since 2001.

 

Scope of regional protection

According to the history and current situation of Longjing tea, 12 counties (cities and districts) in Hangzhou, including Xihu District, Yuhang District, Lin'an City, Fuyang City, Xiaoshan District, Tonglu County, Chun'an County, Jiande City, Shaoxing County, Zhuji City, Shengzhou City and Xinchang County, are determined to sell Longjing tea, as well as some Longjing tea products in 4 counties, including Pan'an County, Dongyang City and Tiantai County, which are adjacent to Shaoxing in Shangyu City It is a protected area. Longjing tea production is divided into three areas: Longjing tea West Lake area, Longjing tea Hangzhou area and Longjing tea Shaoxing area.

 

Quality technology

Chinese PinYin : Long Jing