West Lake Longjing Tea

West Lake lies in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities of China, enjoying a high fame since ancient times. It is, together with Suzhou of Jiangsu Province, regarded as the paradise under sky and heaven on earth. West Lake is the most celebrated scenic spot of Hangzhou. It makes a big contribution to bring Hangzhou its enormous fame and it is also why West Lake Longjing tea gets its name. Hangzhou is surrounded by mountains in three sides.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, Tianzhu Temple and Lingyin Temple in the West Lake area already made tea. Longjing was called Longhong in early times. In the Ming Dynasty, local people found a dragon shaped rock when digging a well, so the name of Longjing came into being (Jing means a well in Chinese). After its appearance, Longjing tea rose to fame quickly and soon became one of the fame teas.
Known for being fresh and tender, the best Longjing leaves should be picked and processed before Pure Brightness (a day around April 5th or 6th), called before-brightness tea. Leaves picked and processed after Pure Brightness and before Grain Rain were a little worse in quality, called before-rain tea. According to the various shapes of the leaves, people gave them different fancy names. The carefully selected leave shoots were Lotus Heart. One-shoot-one-piece leaves were Banner Spear. One-shoot-two-piece leaves were Sparrow Tongue. West Lake Longjing has always been known for four typical features-green in color, strong in fragrance, sweet in taste, and beautiful in shape. After being made, the leaves stretched out, straightened themselves and swam up and down in the water, displaying a lively picture. The tea was clear and clean, and left a pleasant and long aftertaste.
There is an interesting tale about West Lake Longjing. When Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty went to the south, he went to the West Lake district to have a drink of local Longjing tea. Seeing the skillfulness of the tea-picking girls, he couldn't help getting interested and started learning to pick. Just then, some attendants hurried along to announce that the Queen Mother was ill. Carelessly putting the newly picked leaves in his sleeve, Qianlong hurried back to Beijing. The Queen Mother had nothing serious, just a little indigestion, plus missing her son. With the son's coming back, the Queen Mother got half welt. She noticed that gusts of fragrance came out of Qianlong and asked why. Only then did the emperor remember the leaves in his sleeve. He took them out and made tea with them. The tea was sweet, strong and tasteful, curing the Queen Mother's ailment at once. Qianlong was so pleased with this that he gave orders that the 18 tea trees in front of Longjing Temple be named "Royal Tea," which made Longjing tea even more famous. Because the leaves that Qianlong took back to Beijing were pressed flat in his sleeve, the later leaves were all made into that shape.