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• Just Arrived: Fresh 2024 Laoshan Green Teas ~ while supplies last! • Dragonwell is here! The first fresh tea of 2024 ~ Only a few pounds left Get started for as little as $5 - check out tea samplers at a special discount! 🌟 Free Tea Sample in Every order! | Free shipping for orders $45+ 📦 • New arrival: tea tools, clever storage + more to complete your tea set ✨

1st Picking Shi Feng Dragonwell

1st Picking Shi Feng Dragonwell

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This tea is available to Special Order. 
Estimate arrival time is between 4 and 8 weeks from your order.

Crafted by Mrs. Li

Li Xiaoping is an award-winning, respected community leader growing true Dragonwell in the tiny coveted Shi Feng (Lion’s Peak) micro-region with over fifty years experience.
 
Her tea is fed by volcanic mountain springs, shaded by bamboo and evergreens, and grown using organic techniques, hand-picked and hand finished on a wok.
 
    • DATE OF PICKINGMarch 2024
    • Longjing VillageZhejiang Province
    • ELEVATION300 meters
    • Longjing QuntiTea Varietal

    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.

  • true
    80
    sweet mint, rosemary
    true
    70
    osmanthus
    true
    90
    banana, papaya, melon
    true
    65
    star anise
    true
    70
    black sesame, whipped cream
    true
    velvety, mouth-watering

    Tasting Profile

    • vegetal - sweet mint, rosemary
    • floral - osmanthus
    • fruit - banana, papaya, melon
    • spice - star anise
    • savory - black sesame, whipped cream
    • texture - velvety, mouth-watering

  • 'Shi Feng actually cultivates two distinct varietals of tea. The first is called Longjing Qunti, which is referred to by locals as lao shu, or old tree varietal. This is the classic and original Dragonwell, the same kind of tea tasted and recognized by Emperor Qianlong that propelled the region to fame.'

Li Xiaoping also recommends:

  1. 2024 Shi Feng Longjing #43
    2024 Shi Feng Longjing #43
    Dragonwell varietal #43 has been carefully bred and selected in the last fifty years as a new tea well suited to Shi Feng’s terroir. It buds earlier and in colder weather than classic Longjing Qunti varietal and yields yellower plumper buds that make for gorgeous steeping in glassware. While classic Dragonwell is all about rocky mineral texture, the new #43 is a crisp, bright focused experience centered around stronger flavor and aroma and more pronounced sweetness. Mrs. Li’s #43 varietal is true Shi Feng Dragonwell, growing on one of the highest slopes of the tiny microclimate that Emperor Qianlong declared as one of the best in the world for tea. The soil is full of quartz and white sand while the water comes from natural mountain springs, yielding a flavor that simply can’t be matched outside of Shi Feng itself.
  2. 2024 Shi Feng Dragonwell
    2024 Shi Feng 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.
  3. 2024 Shifeng Semi-Wild Dragonwell
    2024 Shifeng Semi-Wild Dragonwell
    This limited offering from Li Xiaoping can only be picked in years where the weather is cool and temperate and the rain is very light. At the very top of the peak of Shi Feng, there is a grove of trees that have been allowed to grow undisturbed to preserve a natural habitat for birds and increase biodiversity. Among the trees, the Li family has tea plants that have not been cut back and trimmed every year like the lower slope plants. Because these semi-wild Dragonwell bushes are not tended, they require perfect weather to yield the right flavor. Li Xiaoping was able to pick these bushes again this year and offered us the majority of her tiny yield in the interest of cultural exchange and sharing a unique side of Shi Feng’s terroir not often seen. The flavor is rich, bold and complex, sharing the lingering sweetness an aromatic subtlety of early harvest Dragonwell with the big flavor of later harvests. The tea benefits from Shi Feng’s unique quartz-heavy white sand soil and mountain spring water, as well as the cool protected microclimate that the mountains form.
  • 4
    6-8
    175
    20 seconds
    10
    5
    6
    175
    10 seconds
    2
    4
    12
    room temp
    8 hours

    Steeping Instructions

    Western

    4 g.6-8
    oz.    use 175° watersteep 20 secondsresteep many times
    add 10 sec. each infusion

    Gongfu

    5 g.6 ozuse 175° watersteep 10 seconds
    add 2 sec. per steeping    enjoy many steepings

    Iced/Cold

    4 g.12
    oz.    use room temp. waterrefrigerate overnight
    8 hours    add ice & enjoy

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