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For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Longjing #43
Location: Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 21, 2024
Price/g: US$1.04

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the heirloom Longjing variety with the more prolific Longjing No. 43, which is supposed to have a nuttier, less complex flavour profile. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma of these long, beautiful, mainly unbroken leaves is of chestnuts, butter, roasted grains, green beans, and spinach. The first steeps give me candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, green beans, and asparagus, with some woody bitterness. Did I mention these steeps are potent? Later steeps feature more candied chestnuts, along with beans, other veggies, and slightly bitter roast, with the final steeps being roasty, nutty, buttery, and vegetal.

Bowl style, the first few steeps have notes of roast, chestnut, hazelnut, grain, butter, asparagus, spinach, and faint florals. The tea has a strong vegetal backbone balanced by smooth, nutty, roasty flavours and no bitterness or astringency. The next few steeps give me green beans and a wonderfully round, nutty, buttery, roasted grain profile. The final steeps have notes of butter, nuts, green beans, and lettuce.

If you bowl steep this tea, it will reward you with a nicely roasted, sweet, nutty profile with pleasant beany notes and no bitterness to speak of. The flavours are well integrated enough that it’s hard to pick them apart, and there are absolutely no off notes. Overleafing this tea will yield less pleasant results. This Longjing is well made and deceptively simple.