Chinese Longjing Loose Leaf Green Tea

Picked in the early Spring before the first rains, Long Jing is the taste of spring, the first green tips of the year.

Sourced from the banks of the West Lake of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. The small farm is owned and run by the Lin family and they can only craft very limited harvests of Longjing. They farm organically without using any pesticides or herbicides, and the land is rich in wild flowers, butterflies and birds.

In the Qing dynasty Longjing was awarded the title of "Imperial" tea (Gong Cha).  There are many stories about how the tea came to be so beloved; the best is about an Emperor hiding the leaves up his sleeves....

He was watching the pickers moving beautifully through the bushes and had been so entranced that he followed their movements and picked his own tea. At this moment a messenger brought him news that his mother was gravely ill and he slipped the fresh leaves up his silken sleeve.  On returning to his mother he found the leaves pressed flat like a feather. He infused them for his ailing parent, and of course, she immediately returned to full health so the tea was suitably venerated.