HOT BREWING INSTRUCTIONS: Bring filtered or freshly drawn cold water to a rolling boil. Place 1 slightly heaping teaspoon of loose tea for each 7-9oz / 200-260ml of fluid volume in the teapot. Pour the boiling water into the teapot. Cover and let steep for 3-7 minutes according to taste (the longer the steeping time the stronger the tea).

Tea History: Lung Ching Tea – also known as Dragonwell is produced by hand through a 10-part process. The side of West Lake in Zhejiang Province grows the tea used to produce Dragonwell. Dragonwell is distinguished by its beautiful shape, emerald colour, scented smell and tending sweet floral character.

In the People’s Republic of China, mists and fog often compensate of insufficient rainfall, at the same time cloaking the gardens in secrecy. Here tea is produced according to ancient time-tested methods and workers perform all tasks by hand, just like their ancestors. The tea leaves that become Dragonwell (a.k.a. Lung Ching) are plucked before the Clear Light Festival or, at the least before the spring rains have fallen. The choicest come from a part of the mountain called Lion’s Peak, where plucking takes place before each tender shoot has more than one leaf.

Legend has it that in 250 AD a Taoist monk affirmed that there must be a dragon lurking in a certain spring not far from Hangchow. The monk implored the well dragon to come to the rescue of the poor farmers suffering a crippling drought. Instantly, the clouds came rushing in from every side and poured forth a timely rain. One account of this, an old temple adjoining the spring is known as Dragon’s Well Monastery, and this tea derives its name from the same legend.