MEI JIA WU TEA PLANTATION, HANGZHOU

 Have you ever thought about the process involved in bringing tea to your local grocery or health food store? I don't remember giving it a second thought. That's why I was completely fascinated the moment our motorcoach turned a curve along a narrow road and I saw the rows upon rows of tea plants on the low hillsides. There were women in coolie hats walking along the rows gathering leaves from the tea shrubs and putting them into white bags. This is what I learned about the processing of "Westlake Dragon Well" green tea.

"The process from plant to tea packaging is all performed at the Tea Plantation here and much of it is done by hand.  The tea is picked at certain months during the year and depending on the month of harvest, the quality is slightly different.  In the olden days the Emperor of China was given the best pick and no-one else in China was allowed to have the Emperor's Cut.  Spring is the tea picking season and Dragon Well produces teas in April and May.  

After the tea is picked, it is pan dried to step the fermentation process (the drying of the freshly picked leaves) - this step requires skill as the temperature is very important and must be maintained during the process will have the best results for the size, tenderness and volume of the leaves, so it is a very important part of the tea process.  In fact it takes 3 years to master the 10 hand movements to roasting the tea and even then only around 1 kilogram of this precious tea can be roasted per person per day.  The tea is graded into six levels.  The tea itself has a sweet taste with an aromatic floral flavor and is renowned for it's stunning emerald green color.

This tea contains a high level of caffeine as well as EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate) and theanine.  Although the high quality of this tea is soothing rather than stimulating, it is also great for weight loss.  Chinese people also drink the ta to improve their health.  Although lots of tea benefit from boiling water (e.g. black teas), green teas are usually more delicate.  Dragon Well tea is best when the water is around 75 degrees celsius, so let the water boil and leave it in the kettle until it cools to the desired temperature if you want to get it right!"

Enlarge to read

Tea drying process

Demonstrating benefits of green tea