Beside the renowned West Lake, a trip to Hangzhou will not be complete without visiting its tea plantation.

That afternoon, we left Hangzhou city centre to its Southwest hinterland - Mei-jia-wu tea village. Our journey passed through a scenic countryside, winding roads and a tunnel. This tunnel apparently was built not too long ago and according to our guide was nicknamed 'Mahathir tunnel' (yes, to honour Mr Mahathir Mohammed, Malaysia's famous 4th Prime Minister). It was said that this idea of constructing the tunnel came about when the ex-premier visited this place and suggested a shorter way from Hangzhou town to its fame tea plantation. By having this tunnel, journey was shortened from 2-hour to just half an hour, cutting through one of the mountain.

In the tour bus, our local guide Xiao Qi continued to 'infuse' us more facts about the Longjing tea. Longjing or LungChing is considered the most superior variant of green tea. This tea has a long history whereby Emperor Kangxi of Qing Dynasty has given his endorsement as the imperial tea and has since earned status as national tea of China!

According to Wikipedia, the name Longjing which literally means 'dragon well' originated from a well that contains relatively dense water, and after rain the lighter rainwater floating on its surface sometimes exhibits a sinuous and twisting boundary with the well water, which is supposed to resemble the movement of a traditional Chinese dragon. The best quality of Longjing is harvested during Spring, from 20 March to 20 April, typically before the Qingming or 'Tomb Sweeping Day' festival. The earlier the harvest, the more tender the tea shoots, hence the higher its quality. These early crops are normally hand-picked by experienced workers and carefully roasted using a method called pan fired (not fried).

As we arrived at Meijiawu tea plantation, the temperature was blazing hot! We got down from our tour bus and spotted a worker busy stirring tea leaves bare-handed. Mind you, he is no ordinary person, he is a master who has developed sets of skills, among others - the ability to feel the wok temperature just right for the tea leaves. This explains why he is bare-handed!

After watching sifu demonstrating 'pan-roasting' tea leaves, we were invited to savour Meijiawu's very own variant of Longjing tea. We were ushered into one of the guest room and seated in U-shape table. Right away, a gentleman walked in and he introduced himself as the manager of this tea-plantation who has been working there for 8 years. He shared with us a lot of the technical knowledge about Longjing tea - such as how the tea leaves are picked and processed, health benefit of Longjing tea and how best to brew and preserve the tea.

As we were listening to him, a lady was serving us with Longjing tea. She was not just serving, she was demonstrating to us the arts of pouring tea. If you ever watched a local in Malaysia making the Malaysian-style pulled-milk-tea (teh tarik), you would have some idea of what I am trying to describe here (it was such a pity that I didn't capture this on a video).

How does the Longjing tea taste, you might ask? Longjing tea taste subtle, some says it produces a delicious chest nutty aroma described as high and lasting. To me, it tastes like the seaweed, especially during the very first round when it is brewed (sounds weird?). Well, to those of you who have tasted Longjing, I invite your feedback on this site.

Now talking about its price - before the trip, we had no idea about how expensive Longjing tea is! Depending on the harvest time, the price can range between RMB 500 and 3600 per 500 gram! We bought a few cans of the recommended Longjing tea and spent close to one thousand yuan (about 150 US dollars)! Phew! The Chinese really know how to pull the tourists purse string!

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)