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 needles. The best-known pine-needle green is Anhua Songzhen from Hunan, a needle-shaped style developed in the mid-twentieth century. The variable that matters most is the shaping and the tenderness of the leaf, since this is a craft style judged heavily on its uniform, straight form.
Look for straight, thin, even needles of a glossy dark green, tightly and uniformly made, with a fresh, clean, lightly toasty-vegetal aroma. The whole appeal of a pine-needle green is the precision of the shaping, so broken, bent, or unevenly sized leaf is a sign of lower grade or careless work. The liquor should be clear and bright, the taste fresh and mellow rather than harsh. As with other Chinese greens, favor current-year spring material in sealed, light-proof packaging. Because pine-needle shaping is used by more than one producer, confirm the origin and grade rather than buying on the shape alone.
The reference pine-needle green is Anhua Songzhen from Anhua county in Hunan, an area otherwise far more famous for dark tea (heicha); the needle-shaped green is a distinct, comparatively modern craft style. The defining work is in the shaping: tender spring leaf is fired and rolled into straight, slender needles. Other Chinese greens are also shaped into needles or spikes, so pine-needle describes a form as much as a single fixed origin. Local small-leaf material and careful hand-finishing of the top grades are what produce the uniform, glossy needles the style is judged on.
Western: 80-85°C, 3 g per 200 ml, 1.5-2 minutes, 2-3 infusions; a tall glass is traditional so you can watch the needles stand and sink. Gongfu: 80°C, 4 g per 120 ml in a gaiwan, 20-30 seconds for the first steep and ascending, 3-4 infusions. Keep the first steep short and the water off the boil, as with most tender Chinese greens.
€10-30 (about $11-32) per 100 g for everyday grades; €40-65 (about $43-70) per 100 g for fine, uniformly shaped spring lots.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Pine-needle is a shaping style, not a flavor: the straight, slender form is achieved by hand-firing and rolling tender leaf into needles, and the most celebrated example, Anhua Songzhen, comes from a Hunan county that is otherwise a heartland for dark (heicha) tea.
The steps overlap in practice; this is a reading order, not a set of separate stages.
Zhu Ye Qing (Bamboo Tips)
Another shape-driven Sichuan green made from tender buds, formed into flat, slender bamboo-leaf needles rather than round pine needles.
Xin Yang Mao Jian
A famous Henan green also prized for fine, tippy, needle-like leaf, though twistier and fuzzier than a straight pine-needle style.
Bi Luo Chun
The opposite shaping choice from similarly tender leaf: tightly curled fuzzy spirals instead of straight needles.
Longjing (Dragon Well)
The benchmark flat-fired Chinese green, useful for tasting how shaping and firing style change the same basic green-tea raw material.