This early spring tea is all about a fine and subtle sweetness, and a long, drawn out aftertaste and crisp texture. Cool spring weather produces a small harvest of truly sweet tea. This is Mrs. Li’s first picking of the season, carefully hand-finished by her husband, Shui Huamin. Her true original cultivar Dragonwell (Longjing Qunti) grows on the mountain slopes of Shi Feng and draws in sweet mountain spring water.

For the second year, Li Xiaoping has set aside her beautifully-crisp textural masterpiece that is Shi Feng Dragonwell and scents it with fresh osmanthus blossoms. Her incredible plot sits on a quartz-laden rocky hillside in the tiny Shi Feng microclimate, where sweet mountain spring water, designated national treasure protection from development, and misty mornings yield sweet clean nuanced green tea that sets the standard for all green tea in China. With such famous and in demand tea, it is remarkable that Li Xiaoping is still incentivized to do such bold experiments like this osmanthus scenting, but we're so happy she did! The results are spectacular, and perfectly balanced. The osmanthus notes are light, accentuating the natural sweet juicy qualities of the Dragonwell.

This famous tea is grown using beyond organic green tea cultivation techniques for rich sweet flavor, incredible texture and notes of bamboo and jasmine. Situated on a perfectly-shaded mountainside, Li Xiaoping’s Dragonwell benefits from Shi Feng’s unique climate, rocky quartz soil and sweet mountain springs. Her craft captures a rare example of true Dragonwell- deep minerality, persistent sweetness and complex aromatics.

For the fifth year in a row, Li Xiaoping is sharing her new Dragonwell Black Tea! She uses the same delicate early buds as her famous green tea, hand-picked from the slopes of Shi Feng, raised on sweet mountain spring water and covered in high elevation mist to protect against sunlight. After light twisting and rolling, this sweet, rich and distinctly mineral-laden tea is then set out in bamboo baskets and loosely covered for ten to fifteen hours and allowed to oxidize in the afternoon heat. This oxidation process brings out savory malty flavors in Li Xiaoping’s Dragonwell that show the unique texture of the region in a completely different light.