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 season produce a leaf with an unusual, much-loved creamy character, often described as soybean, edamame or roasted chestnut over a thick sweetness. The variable that matters most is freshness and season, since the brief northern spring is when the best leaf is made.
Good Laoshan Green has thick, sturdy, slightly twisted deep-green leaves and that signature creamy, sweet bean-and-chestnut aroma that sets it apart from grassier southern greens. The cup should be full, smooth and lingering, with low astringency and a pronounced sweetness. Because the region's growing season is short and cold, spring tea is markedly better than later pickings, and current-year leaf is worth insisting on. Dull color, a thin watery cup or a flat hay-like smell point to old or late-harvest material. The bean-like creaminess is the tell that you have the real thing.
Laoshan sits on the Yellow Sea coast in Qingdao, Shandong, far north of China's traditional tea belt, and tea was only introduced to the area in the mid-20th century as part of a program to push cultivation northward. The cold maritime climate, long winters and mineral-rich conditions slow the plants and are credited with the leaf's thick, creamy sweetness. It is a pan-fired green; the same terroir also produces a well-regarded oxidized counterpart, Laoshan black.
Western: 80-85°C, 3 g per 200 ml, 2 minutes, 2-3 infusions; the sturdy northern leaf tolerates hotter water than a delicate spring green from the south. Gongfu: 85°C, 4 g per 120 ml, 20-30 seconds ascending, 4-5 infusions. The creamy sweetness comes through best when you do not scald it, so keep below boiling.
€15-40 (about $16-43) per 100 g for good spring Laoshan Green, with top early-spring lots reaching higher. Later-harvest material is cheaper but loses much of the prized creaminess.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Laoshan Black
The oxidized tea from the same Mount Lao terroir, carrying that creamy-sweet character into a black-tea register.
Longjing (Dragon Well)
The benchmark southern pan-fired green, a useful contrast in terroir and the more familiar chestnut-toast profile.
Bi Luo Chun
A delicate, downy southern green that throws Laoshan's thick northern body and bean-like sweetness into relief.
Laoshan is one of the northernmost tea regions in China, and tea only arrived there in the mid-20th century through a deliberate effort to grow it further north than it had traditionally survived; the cold that nearly rules tea out is exactly what gives Laoshan Green its distinctive soybean-cream sweetness.