Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea Sorry, this tea is temporarily out of stock.
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As one of Top Ten Famous Chinese Teas, West Lake Dragon Well Tea is named after its producing place, Longjing tea-producing area in West Lake District, Hangzhou. As to tea lovers, pre-ming tea is of the best quality. Teavivre carefully selects and provides this one from Longjing Village, Shifeng Mountain for tea lovers who is keen on Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea. Centered on Shifeng Mountain, the first-grade protection zones for the sourceland of West Lake Dragon Well Tea are also including Hugong Temple(胡公庙), Longjing Village(龙井村), Qipan Mountain(棋盘山), Shangtianzhu(上天竺) and so on. Deserving to be mentioned, the most famous Dragon Well Tea is produced in Longjing Village. As Longjing tea lovers say, “The most famous tea in the world is Longjing tea, while the first-grade Longjing tea is produced in Shifeng Mountain”.

Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea is not only with a fragrant aroma, but also has several typical features as follow.

• Shape: straight
• Color of dried tea: emerald green
• Taste: sweet and mellow
• Fragrance: fresh
• Color of beverage: green
• Tea leaves: delicate and tender

Brief Health Info

Second only to white teas, green teas such as TeaVivre's XiHu Long Jing, have high levels of antioxidants and other natural chemicals that reputedly help reduce the incidence of cancer, promote good skin tone and help reduce the affects of aging. Also high in vitamin C, fluoride and calcium, they also promote healthy teeth and bones.
Dragon Well Tea can help you get refreshed and keep up your spirit. It also can enhance thinking, remove fatigue and improve work efficiency.
The polyphenols in Dragon Well Tea can be against and kill the bacteria.
Dragon Well Tea contains fluorine, which can combine with calcium in teeth to proof acid and prevent the growth of caries.

For more information on the health benefits of Green teas, take a look at our article on Green Tea Health benefit.

Where is Our Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea Produced?

Shifeng Mountain is the first-grade protection zone for the source land of West Lake Dragon Well Tea in Zhejiang. It is warm and humid in climate, and has superior natural environment. The average annual temperature is 16.1℃; the average degree of humidity is above 80 percent and the average annual rainfall is around 1500mm. Shifeng Mountain is composed by white sandy soil and loess, in which the trace elements are very appropriate for the form of tea leaves’ fine quality.

What is pre-ming?

Tomb-Sweeping Day is one out of twenty four solar terms in Chinese lunar calendar, which is between 4th and 6th, April.
As a higher grade of West Lake Dragon Well Tea, the pre-ming tea is made from the tender buds and leaves picked before Tomb-Sweeping Day.
In the south of the Yangtze River tea-producing area, tea trees can fully absorb and accumulate nutrients during long winter. Furthermore, due to the low temperature between Vernal Equinox Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day, tea trees grow slow and the quality of buds is quite good. Compared with teas produced in later period, the content of Amino acids in pre-ming tea is higher, while the content of tea polyphenols is lower. When brewing this Dragon Well tea, It tastes fragrant and mellow. Therefore, tea lovers are very much fond of the high-grade teas picked before Tomb-Sweeping Day.

About Dragon Well Tea leaves

Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea grows from dragon well long-leaf tea tree, a kind of shrub. It lives in tea-producing areas in south and north of Yangtze River. Pre-Ming Dragon is a new kind of green tea which is bred by The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute of Tea. The institute aims to make this kind of tea early sprouting, of high quality, hardy and having the ability to resist pest and diseases.
And this new kind of green tea was approved by The National Tea Tree Thoroughbred Authorized Committee in 1994. Dragon Well Tea from that kind of tea trees is straight and upright, flat, smooth, emerald green and slightly yellow and has lasting aroma and fresh taste (The fresh leaves of spring tea have 4.1 percent Amino acids and 18.6 percent tea polyphenols). The spring tea sprouts early. It usually sprouts in the middle of March. In the end of March, every leaf has a bud. The buds and leaves are of strong cold and drought resistance.

In order to ensure the quality, pre-ming tea should be strictly picked under such standards as follow. It should be picked gently and carefully from the side of leaves instead of from top to bottom. Once one piece of leaves is picked, it should be put into tea basket immediately. It is said that if leaves stay in hand for a time, the warmth will turn the green ones into red ones. This kind of Superfine Pre-Ming Dragon Well Long Jing Tea we choose is picked between 25th, March and 1st, April. The best time for picking is between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A skillful tea-picking worker at most can pick 100g fresh buds per hour.

History

The reputation of Shifeng Dragon Well Tea is closely related with Emperor Qianlong. He once visited the south of Yangtze River six times, during which he investigated the quality of tea leaves four times. He enjoyed tasting tea, writing poets and learning to pick tea leaves. However, one day, when he was picking tea buds, the trusted follower reported that his mother was in poor health. Once heard of this news, he was so anxious that he immediately put the handful of tea buds into pocket and traveled day and night to return to the capital. His sudden appearance and greeting really surprised his mother so that she turned into a good mood. She realized that a fragrant aroma was blowing on her face and at once asked what it was. Emperor Qianlong carefully smelled and found that a stream of fragrant aroma came from his pocket. He touched his pocket at will and the handful of tea buds from Hugong Temple, Longjing Village, Hangzhou had been dried and gave out a kind of rich fragrance. Therefore, he ordered attendants to brew it. After drinking three cups, his mother became pleasant and refreshing. For this reason, he entitled the eighteen tea trees before Hugong Temple under Shifeng Mountain as “royal tea tree”.