If you’ve ever been handed a cup of green tea and thought, ‘this is nice, but what the fuss is about?’ You’re not alone.
Sometimes, it’s not just the tea — it’s how you experience it.
Xi Hu Long Jing, or West Lake Dragon Well, is one of those teas. This tea is considered by many in China to be the king of green teas. And like most things that earn that kind of reputation, the story behind it matters just as much as what’s in the cup.
The Story of Xi Hu
Xi Hu — West Lake — is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Hangzhou, China, long known for producing some of the country’s most celebrated green tea. For centuries, the area surrounding the lake has produced a green tea so prized that it was historically reserved for the imperial court. Today, it remains one of the most closely protected tea-growing regions in the world.
What makes Xi Hu Long Jing distinct isn’t just one thing. It’s a combination shaped by both nature and craft: microclimate around the lake, the mineral-rich soil, the generations of skill poured into how the leaves are hand-roasted in a wok, and the particular cultivar of tea plant that grows here and nowhere else quite the same way.
The result is a tea with a flavour profile unlike most green teas you might have tried: a natural chestnut sweetness, a long clean finish, a faint grass-and-umami quality that lingers in the best possible way. It’s gentle, but complex. Simple to drink, but endlessly interesting to think about.
The Core vs The Edges
Here’s something even many tea lovers don’t know: within Xi Hu itself, there is an official ‘Core Region’ — a tightly defined area of roughly 168 square kilometres — and within that, there is an even smaller inner core. Tea from the outer areas, even within Xi Hu, is considerably easier to obtain. Tea from the innermost heart of the region tends to feel noticeably different.
We have been fortunate this season to source from exactly that innermost area. We’ll share more about how that came to be —but for now, the important thing to know is: not all Xi Hu Long Jing is created equal, and provenance matters more here than perhaps any other tea we know.
How to Experience It
You don’t need to be a tea expert to appreciate Xi Hu Long Jing. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to slow down for a cup. That’s what our tea tastings and workshops at Golden Seed are designed to offer — a guided, unhurried way to experience what this tea is actually about, with someone there to walk you through it.
This April, we’re sharing something we’re really excited about. You’re very welcome to come experience it with us.
Join us for a tea tasting or experience workshop this April — chance to slow down over a cup and feel what makes this tea so special. Sessions are kept small.
