Evaluating Your Longjing (Dragon well) Green Tea
Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea is called "the most famous tea of China," but it may also be the most inconsistent, misunderstood, and faked tea out there. How can you tell good Longjing when you see it?
To answer this question, Zhuping and Andrew get technical and compare five different grades of Longjing (Dragon Well) green tea from the same farm and factory. With this comparison, they discuss the general attributes that make good quality Longjing according to Chinese industry standards.
Editor's notes:
In the video, we use cultivar and variety interchangeably. For accuracy's sake Longjing 43 is a Cultivar, not a variety, as it does not reproduce from seed.
We also use Heirloom, landrace, and 群体种 (qunti zhong) interchangeably to refer to the slower-growing local variety.
"qunti zhong" DOES NOT refer to one specific variety, but is simply a distinction from clonally propagated cultivars.
Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3 are sample number 3, 4, and 5 respectively. To minimize confusion, they are labeled as "First Grade," "Second Grade," and "Third Grade" in the video; although we often said the original name from the labels.
#2, Special Grade, is the Da Fo Longjing (Big Buddha Dragon Well) that we carry in our store.
Alternate spellings include Lung Ching (Wade-Giles romanization) and Dragonwell.
🍵 ⟹ INDEX ⟸ 🍵
00:00 Intro
00:24 What Is Longjing?
01:30 Cultivars
02:08 Comparing Cultivars
02:22 Qunti Zhong Pluckings
02:34 Zhuping talks about Longjing 43
02:52 Examining #1: "Ultra Grade"
03:20 Examining #2: "Special Grade"
03:40 The Five Grades In Your Sampler
04:25 Criteria For Dry Leaf
04:53 Examining #3: "First Grade"
05:38 Examining #4: "Second Grade"
06:09 Comparing #1 & #4
06:28 Examining #5: "Third Grade"
07:15 Examining #5 and Qunti Zhong
07:57 Close-Up: #2
08:11 Comparing #1 & #2
09:51 The Chinese Standard For Tea Evaluation
11:38 Criteria For Aroma And Taste
15:09 Tasting #1: "Ultra Grade"
16:01 Tasting #2: "Special Grade"
16:47 Tasting #3: "First Grade"
17:55 Tasting #4: "Second Grade"
18:54 Tasting #5: "Third Grade"
20:45 Looking At The Infused Leaf
21:01 Criteria For Infused Leaf
25:00 Final Thoughts: #1: "Ultra Grade"
25:59 Final Thoughts: #2: "Special Grade"
27:00 Final Thoughts: #3: "First Grade"
27:49 Final Thoughts: #4: "Second Grade"
28:32 Final Thoughts: #5: "Third Grade"
29:08 Closing Remarks
(Maps courtesy of mapchart.net)