Location: Fuzhou, Minhou County, Xiangqian Township.
Producer: Lvming Factory
Harvest: April 2025 (Tea); August 2025 (Jasmine)
Tasting Notes: Jasmine, Butter, Alfalfa, Hay.
This is a tea that lovers of jasmine, green tea, and white tea can all appreciate. It has the strong, sweet, stable perfumed floral aroma that one would expect to find in a well made jasmine tea. It also has the cooling crispness of a green tea, that can be felt from the first to last infusion. It finally has the same delicate and creamy notes down-heavy cultivars in Fuding provide to early pick white teas.
Fuzhou is one of the original homes of jasmine tea. The Lvming factory does it a little different than how it is now done in Sichuan and other areas. As has been true for generations, the final product is visibly yellowed from the four rounds of piling & baking it has undergone over several weeks. In each round, workers stack, flip, and mix dry finished green tea with fresh jasmine flowers. The green tea had been picked and produced in Fuzhou using Fuding Dahao cultivar bushes, then shipped up to Fuding, especially Dianxia Township, in the Summer to be steamed, rolled, and sunned dry agauin by rural women who have been undertaking this work for decades. The jasmine fresh flowers are picked in Fuzhou in afternoons of July & August, when the temperatures are hottest and the greatest quantity of freshly opened flowers is available. For each round of piling/baking, fresh picked jasmine flowers most be procured. Unlike in other production regions, flowers from the last round of piling do not usually make into the bag with the final product here.
This tea can be enjoyed grandpa-style, cold brewed, or even in a Gaiwan as some do in Fuzhou and Beijing.
The tea is great. It has a really intense nutty flavor and somewhat soft texture. It handles grandpa brewing with boiling water and general inattentiveness well. I wanted to try Longjing this year, and started with the heirloom variety. This one is actually cheaper than some offerings, not coming from the direct Lion's Peak/Shifeng area. However, I honestly think the Guyu Longjing offering is a much better value, especially in any bulk. The difference in quality is not comparable to the 4x difference in price. Still worth it if you love green tea or get very excited for the qingming tea season.
I like it. I can drink it every now and then but this kind of puerh usually gives me an uncomfortable sensation on the tongue if I drink it often. Simple, nothing fancy, on par with the standard puerh from the region for me.
