By far, Dragon Well Tea is the most famous green tea that has ever come out of China. If you find green tea uninteresting, it’s highly likely you have never tasted Dragon Well green tea before. That is how captivating this flattened feathered-shape tea that originates from Longjing (English translation: Dragon Well), a Chinese village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, is.
It’s no accident the concoction has earned the China Famous Tea title. What’s more, it was granted Gong Cha (Imperial Tea) by the KangXi emperor himself of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) centuries ago. With confidence, Chairman Mao treated President Nixon to a cup of Dragon Well tea in the latter’s 1972 visit to China.
But that it’s first among teas shouldn’t surprise you. Dragon Well (Lung Chung or Long-Gun in Chinese) is cultivated in select mountains where a perfect combination of shade, temperature, and moisture are met and processed with out-of-this-world precision. That only means one thing for you — more powerful tea polyphenols in each cup. For a healthier you.
Superior Process, Superior Green Tea
Right off the bat, know that not all Dragon Well green tea sold on the market today is authentic. Imitators abound. As a most prized tea, what separates real Longjing tea from the rest of the pack is the source and the far superior centuries-old processing.
First up, the source. You need the best conditions to come up with a top-grade genuine Dragon Well green tea. And that includes:
- Ideal annual precipitation: 2000 - 3000 mm
- Atmospheric relative humidity: 80% to 90%
- Ideal temperature: between 10℃ and 20℃
- A high amount of fog with no direct sunlight
Devoid of this right environment, your quest for a first-class flat-leaf green tea falls short. Small wonder Dragon Well flourished in the Longjing Village, a mountainous region encircling the West Lake of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.
But for any certified Hangzhou tea all that is just half the story. The other half is processing.
To boot, harvesting has to be perfect too. To catch the tea leaves at their sweetest, plucking has to be done just before the Qingming Festival in early April (end of spring). And only by hand, picking only the youngest choice tea shoots before the sun is at its brightest.
To curb the oxidation process, the leaves are pan-roasted with precision after being dried. No doubt it’s a meticulous process. But it’s a long-kept tradition that has produced the most sought-after green tea on the planet.
Ten Ren’s Dragon Well Tea: Green Tea at Its Finest
But all the attention to detail pays off big time.
Not only do you experience a mellow sweetness that doesn’t turn bitter with oversteeping with each cup, but also accommodate yourself to tons of health benefits — only a superior green tea can give.
Some of these health benefits are:
- Higher levels of theanine, ECGC (epigallocatechin gallate)
- Slow down aging
- Facilitate weight loss
- Prevent cancer
- Prevent heart disease
- Prevent tooth decay