Our Finest Dragonwell, 2024

$12.00

Product Details >

漢字極品雪前龍井	origin Pan'an County, Zhejiang	craft pan roasted	flavor notes green bean, butter, crisp
漢字極品雪前龍井	origin Pan'an County, Zhejiang
craft pan roasted	flavor notes green bean, butter, crisp

This is Our Finest Dragonwell. Each leaf was hand-gathered daily in small quantities beginning on March 18th from the first leaf buds of the year. Cultivated 4000 feet (1200m) above sea level at a remote tea garden in Zhejiang Province's Pan'an County, Our Finest Dragonwell is the purest expression of green tea that we offer.

Harvested prior to China's historical She Ri festival around March 20th, Our Finest Dragonwell is technically considered a sheqian or xueqian ("pre-snow") tea. Xueqian harvests like this are the rarest of all green teas, superior even to highly-revered (and more widely known) mingqian crops.

The family that crafted this tea has been working the land for three generations, using only organic farming methods. Pan-roasting is done in ultra-small batches, with each batch requiring nearly forty-five minutes to complete. Once roasted, the tea is meticulously re-sorted so that only the smallest leaf buds remain. Young leaf buds like this brew a smoother, rounder tea with more aromatics than mature leaves. Ultimately, it takes nearly five pounds of fresh tea buds to produce a single pound of finished tea; each pound contains nearly 30,000 individually hand picked buds. This extreme effort pays off in taste: Our Finest Dragonwell is viscous and supremely buttery, with a gorgeously crisp, sweet, and refined finish.

Due to late frost conditions through February, followed by abnormal heat toward the end of March, this year's harvest window was unusually short, making our 2024 crop extremely limited.

1g per 2oz at 140°F for 2m

Premium green tea is intentionally crafted with the youngest possible tea buds to capture the sweet, crisp taste of spring. As such, your brewing method should be gentle enough to preserve these delicate notes. The brewing suggestion above will help you brew a cup with brightness and a smooth finish, while limiting bitter or vegetal notes.

Learn the fundamentals of tea brewing and master your technique here.

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1g	per	2oz	at	140°F	for	2m