Chinese green
The largest and most varied green family: pan-firing is the dominant fix method, producing the dry chestnut, toasty, or lightly roasted character that separates Chinese greens from Japanese steamed styles. The range within this family is wider than most types: from Longjing's flat, low-profile prestige to the curly fuzziness of Biluochun, the jasmine-scented rolled Pearl, and the albino sweetness of Anji Bai Cha. Origin and harvest grade matter as much as type; the same village can produce radically different tea depending on the picker date and the producer.
Styles in this family
Longjing (Dragon Well)
Longjing is where Chinese green tea credibility begins and ends for a lot of collectors. The flat, pan-fired leaf, the sweet chestnut character, and the price…
Bi Luo Chun
Bi Luo Chun (green snail spring) is a famous Chinese green from the Dongting mountains by Lake Tai in Jiangsu, spiral-rolled into tiny downy curls. Its calling…
Gunpowder
Gunpowder (zhu cha, pearl tea) is Chinese green tea rolled into tight pellets that unfurl as they steep. The rolling protects the leaf, so gunpowder keeps and…
Mao Feng
Huangshan Mao Feng (fur peak) is a classic Chinese green from the Yellow Mountains of Anhui, made from a bud and one or two tender leaves with visible white…
Taiping Houkui
Taiping Houkui (monkey chief from Taiping) is one of the most visually striking green teas in the world: enormous flat, pressed leaves, usually two leaves…
Anji Bai Cha
Anji Bai Cha has a misleading name: bai cha means white tea, but this is a green, made from a natural light-leaf cultivar (Bai Ye No. 1) whose spring shoots…
Xin Yang Mao Jian
Xinyang Mao Jian (fur tip) is the famous green tea of Henan province, grown in the cool mountains around Xinyang in central China, well north of the classic…
Liu An Gua Pian (Melon Seed)
Lu An Gua Pian (also written Liu An, melon seed) is the only notable Chinese green made from single mature leaves alone, with no bud and no stem: each leaf is…
En Shi Yu Lu
En Shi Yu Lu (Enshi jade dew) is one of the very few steamed green teas still made in China, a country that otherwise overwhelmingly pan-fires its greens.…
Lu Shan Yun Wu
Lu Shan Yun Wu (Lushan cloud and mist) is a famous high-mountain green from Mount Lu in Jiangxi, named for the fog that shrouds its slopes for much of the year.…
Chun Mee
Chun Mee (precious eyebrows) is one of the two pillars of China's green-tea export trade, named for its tightly curved, eyebrow-shaped leaf. It is a pan-fired…
Zhu Ye Qing (Bamboo Tips)
Zhu Ye Qing means bamboo leaf green, and the tea is shaped to match: slender, flat, pointed buds that look like tiny bamboo leaves, grown on the sacred Buddhist…
Laoshan Green
Laoshan Green comes from Mount Lao on the Shandong coast near Qingdao, one of the northernmost places tea is grown in China. The cold winters and short growing…
Jasmine Green (Scented)
Jasmine-scented tea is one of the clearest demonstrations that the base material matters as much as the flower. The quality range runs from artificial jasmine…
Jasmine Dragon Pearls
Jasmine Dragon Pearls are hand-rolled balls of green tea, usually a bud-and-leaf green from Fujian or Guangxi, scented over several nights with fresh jasmine…
Meng Ding Xue Ya (Snow Buds, Sichuan)
Meng Ding Xue Ya is a bud-only green from Mengding Mountain in Sichuan, one of the oldest documented tea-growing sites in China and a tribute-tea source since…
Song Zhen (Pine Needle Green)
Song Zhen means pine needle, and the name describes the tea's defining trait: leaf rolled and dried straight, thin, and dark green so it looks like pine…