Longjing

Longjing, commonly called Dragon Well tea in English, is one of China’s best-known green teas. Its pressed, flat shape — sometimes described as resembling a small nail or a straight blade — makes it especially useful for learning how processing changes leaf appearance: the tea does not grow flat, it is shaped that way during pan-firing.

The broad tea name and a specific origin claim are not interchangeable. China’s national standard for Longjing Tea, GB/T 18650, recognizes three separate production areas: Xihu (West Lake), Qiantang and Yuezhou. All three can legally be sold as “Longjing,” but Xihu Longjing is the narrowest and most reputation-heavy claim, with its own additional industry standard. A package labeled “Dragon Well” or even “West Lake” does not by itself establish that the tea came from the West Lake production area — traceability to a specific producer and batch is what actually supports the claim.

According to a traditional story, the Qing-dynasty Qianlong Emperor visited the Longjing tea region during his southern tours and, impressed by tea from bushes near Shifeng, granted them the status of “imperial tea.” Versions of this story are widely repeated in tea marketing, but ChinaTea101 treats it as folklore rather than documented history — it is a pleasant piece of cultural background, not evidence about the tea in your cup. The same caution applies to the common claim that Longjing is “the best of China’s ten famous teas”: this ranking is a marketing phrase with no single official source, not a verified classification.

A common beginner mistake is judging Longjing purely by how bright green or how perfectly flat the dry leaf looks. Grade, cultivar, harvest timing and how carefully the tea was pan-shaped all affect appearance, and none of them can be fully judged from a photo or a quick glance in a shop. The more reliable questions to ask a seller are about harvest date, which of the three GB/T 18650 production areas the tea is actually from, and whether the batch can be traced back to a specific producer.

Look · Dry leaf

Flat, smooth, straight leaves — sometimes described as "sword-like" or resembling a small nail — are the clearest visual starting point. Color varies by cultivar (Longjing Qunti, Longjing 43 and others), harvest and processing, so bright green alone is not a quality test.

Smell & taste

Typical aroma: nutty, vegetal, floral. Flavor tendencies: sweet, umami, vegetal. Body: light-medium. These vary by batch, storage and brewing.

Brew · A starting point

Try 3 g in 200 ml water at 80–85°C for 90–120 seconds. Fully decant before tasting.

Read the wet leaves

Tender material may open into buds and young leaves. For higher grades, infused leaves are expected to look even and intact, opening as tender whole buds rather than broken fragments. Evenness and integrity are useful observations, but wet leaves do not prove exact origin or grade.

Sources & review

Compiled by ChinaTea101's editors from Chinese national and industry tea standards and reference material, then fact-checked. Last reviewed 2026-09-25. How we check claims

• Standard GB/T 18650-2008 地理标志产品 龙井茶 — national standard registry entry — 全国标准信息公共服务平台 (National Public Service Platform for Standards Information, State Administration for Market Regulation). Independently confirms GB/T 18650-2008 (Geographical Indication Product — Longjing Tea), effective 2008-10-01, and the three protected production areas — Xihu (West Lake), Qiantang and Yuezhou — with Xihu treated as the narrowest, highest-reputation designation. View source ↗
• Government source 首个龙井茶国家标准样品在杭州发布 (First Longjing Tea national standard sample released in Hangzhou) — 杭州市人民政府 (Hangzhou Municipal People's Government). Municipal government confirmation that the GB/T 18650 national standard and its physical reference sample are actively maintained, corroborating the standard registry entry above. View source ↗
• Industry standard GH/T 1115-2015 西湖龙井茶 (West Lake Longjing tea (industry standard)) — National Public Service Platform for Standards Information (SAMR). Current standard; status checked on the national standards platform. View source ↗