3 brewing methods for Lung Jing tea

In his latest Lung Jing book, Teaparker mentions 3 ways to brew this tea (page 66-69). They come as a good complement to the advice I gave last year in this article, which stirred some controversy among my readership.

The subject of the controversy was the use of just boiled water to brew this green tea (instead of temperatures ranging from 60 to 70 degrees Celcius, as suggested by most tea shops.)

Teaparker continues to advocate the use of water that has reached boiling, but suggests different methods depending on the quality of your leaves. All the methods use 5 grams for a 200 cc ceramic teaware (gaiwan or tea taster):

1. First fill the teaware with hot water, then add the tea leaves little by little, almost leave by leave. This method is best for low to medium quality longjing.

2. Fill the teaware with 1/3 hot water, slowly add the tea leaves, then add the rest of the water. This method is best for medium quality leaves.

3. First put the dry leaves in the teaware, then slowly add the hot water indirectly by first touching the walls of the teawar. This is best for high quality leaves.

The difference in the 3 methods is essentially the temperature of the water, as it will have had time to cool down in the first 2 methods. What is common is the use of water that has boiled and the use of porcelain. Many Mainland Chinese recommend to use transparant glass to better see the leaves. However, Teaparker notes that glass doesn't handle high temperatures as well as porcelain. He makes his point using the experments we made last year. He even included 2 pictures he took that day, which feature my tea quilt! (the one from my mom, which you can see in the background of that picture.)