The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea - Michael Harney [13]
To warm up we ducked into a cottage serving lunch. We dined on fish from the lake that had been poached in a lesser-grade tea, likely made from the same bushes. While we were given some of the tea to try when we first arrived, during lunch they gave us beer. The small island of Dongting can’t be more than fifteen square miles. Bi Lo Chun is produced in such tiny quantities, harvested only one or two times for the whole year, the locals don’t drink very much of it. Before my visit, I used to nag Marcus to secure more Bi Lo Chun for me. Now I’m grateful I can get the thirty-odd kilos a year that I do. Though it is one of China’s most popular green teas, its tiny production keeps it rare and exceptional.
LUNG CHING Dragon’s Well
Lung Ching is to Chinese green teas what French Champagne is to sparkling white wines: the standard against which all others are measured. One of China’s best and most well-known teas, Lung Ching comes fourth in this chapter because of its relative sweetness. With almost no tip, it has the classic Chinese green tea qualities of steamed bok choy and toasted nuts. The Lung Ching cultivar produces a tiny, almost undetectable bud. With far less of the sugariness that glazes the preceding teas, the tea fills the mouth with vegetal flavor. This is a confident, savory tea.
Though Xi Hu, or the West Lake, has been producing tea for centuries, Lung Ching became a tribute tea during the Qing dynasty. (Historically, emperors commanded favored teas as tributes. As in the case of Lung Ching, selection as a tribute tea meant financial success and enduring fame.) Lung Ching means “Dragon’s Well,” which refers to an old well halfway up a hill outside Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province, where the tea was originally grown.
Lung Ching still comes from the hills around the province’s capital city. Today, Hangzhou is one of the best cities in the world for tea. Once the capital of the southern Song dynasty, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it became a hub for Arab and Persian traders at the heart of China’s silk trade. Described by Marco Polo as one of the noblest cities in the world, Hangzhou remains one of China’s most cultured and sophisticated cities, much of its life centered around the lovely tea made on the far side of its West Lake.
In a city of just over one million, more than seven hundred teahouses cater to every taste. The salons serve Lung Ching along with pastries and simple snacks such as oranges and pumpkin seeds. Many Chinese state officials have country homes along the beautiful West Lake. The Chinese government officially lionized this famous tea by establishing a National Tea Museum in Hangzhou. The city is also home to a tea research institute and a prominent agricultural university boasting one of China’s best departments devoted to tea.
The demand for spring Lung Ching is so great that not all of the supply comes from the hills of Hangzhou. Prudence is required to secure the authentic spring leaves. True spring Lung Ching takes its light, slightly toasted flavor from being fixed and fired by hand in electrically heated woks. Expert tea makers press the leaves against the hot metal with their fingers. Through many deft motions, the workers flatten the leafsets of two leaves until they appear to be one flat, spear-like unit. This ancient method of fixing and firing the teas is performed in several stages, so the tea does not scorch but takes on the light toasted flavor of walnuts. The delicate, nutty result makes authentic Lung Ching well worth seeking out.
HUANGSHAN MAO FENG Yellow Mountain Downy Tip
This subdued, mature tea has the