Chinese Green Tea: Longjing, Pan-Firing and 75–85 °C Water

Green tea (lü cha, 绿茶) is the oldest and most spring-like of Chinese teas. Freshly picked leaves are quickly heated in a dry wok to stop oxidation (sha qing, 杀青 - “killing the green”), so the tea keeps the colour, freshness and aroma of the living leaf. Japan steams its green tea. China pan-fires it, and that one step is why the two taste nothing alike: a toasted, nutty sweetness on the Chinese side, seaweed and broth on the Japanese.

Taste and character

Good green tea is freshness itself: young greens, nuts, flowers, spring mist over a river. The taste is light and clean, with a gentle sweetness and the faintest noble bitterness. The green base is also the best canvas for floral scents - jasmine tea is built on it.

In the Chinese tradition

In China green tea is the measure of all teas: Longjing from West Lake was presented to emperors, and the spring harvest picked before the Qingming festival is prized like the first wine of the year. In traditional thinking green tea is “cooling” - the tea of hot days, long work and longer conversations.

How to brew

The most delicate of teas: water at 75–85 °C - boiling water scorches the leaf and turns it bitter. Steep briefly, even right in a glass, watching the leaves unfurl: in China that is part of the pleasure.

Green is one of six categories in the Chinese system; the Chinese tea types guide walks through the other five.