China Matters explores the secrets of the 'Queen of Chinese Green Tea'
SocietyAround mid to late March each year, farmers in
southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou are
busy picking tea leaves. The Longjing tea, a precious Chinese green tea
specially grown in Hangzhou, needs to
be collected within one to two weeks to maintain its tender nature.
Named after its birthplace,
Longjing Village, the renowned green tea has around 1,200 years' history. The
very finest tea shoots are traditionally picked and processed in spring before
the Qingming Festival in early April.
Longjing tea is distinguished among Chinese green teas in taste and
fame, thus dubbed the "Queen of Chinese green tea." The harvested tea
leaves will go through 10 hours of processing, including ventilating, drying,
screening and frying.
To maintain the quality and production, as well as preserving the traditional processing techniques, Hangzhou has issued a regulation to protect the Longjing tea planting area and standardize the industry. Hangzhou also holds celebrations for the Longjing tea each year.
In this video, British
journalist Josh Arslan heads to Hangzhou to experience the core process of
tea production and look for the secrets of producing the time-honored green
tea.
In Longjing Village, Josh
meets a father-son duo engaged in tea production. From them, he learns the
picking and frying techniques of fine Longjing tea. The video is filmed and
produced by China Matters.
Contact:
Zhong Lei
+8610-68996566
ervinz@cnmatters.com