Discussion on Long Jing (5b) - Long Jing and non-Longjing cultivars

Discussion on Long Jing (5a) is here. 

The brewing method used here is the same as used in discussion 4b. But only 1.3g tea leaves are used for each cup. In all the photos, Wu Niu Zao cultivar is on the left, and Jiu Keng group cultivar is on the right.

Dry leaves:

From wuniuzao

Wu Niu Zao:

From wuniuzao

Jiu Keng group cultivar:

From wuniuzao

One relatively distinguishable difference between the two cultivar is, most shoots of Wu Niu Zao are plucked from the very bottom of the shoot, and therefore they bear the leaf stalk sheath, usually in dark color. So some people would say Wu Niu Zao leaves have "black butts". This is generally because the leaf stalk of Wu Niu Zao is very short and it's hard to pluck the shoots without pulling off the leaf stalk sheath. But as seen from the pictures, leaf stalks of Long Jing shoots are quite short too, espeicallyin early spring. So it's inevitable that some Long Jing dry leaves also have "black butts". Usually if we already know a sample is Wu Niu Zao, it's easy for us to recognize the "black butts" feature to confirm the recognition. But this feature is not as useful in distinguishing unknown samples.



Brewed in cups:

From wuniuzao

From wuniuzao

Spent leaves:

From wuniuzao

Wu Niu Zao:

From wuniuzao

Jiu Keng Group cultivar:

From wuniuzao

Again, on spent leaves, the "black butts" feature of Wu Niu Zao is quite obvious. But meantime, as we can see, some Jiu Keng leaves have "black butts" too.

I guess a conclusion we can get from above pictures is, Wu Niu Zao and Long Jing cultivars can look quite similar from pictures. However, the "real" difference is at their tastes. Wu Niu Zao doesn't have the typical Long Jing flavor. Instead, to me, the tea tastes like sweet straw. Besides, the flavor becomes significantly weak from the 2nd infusion, and very weak at the 3rd infusion. In traditional style Long Jing brewing, usually people don't expect the tea to last more than three or four infusions (unless a lot of tea leaves are used and brewing style is modified). But those are three or four flavorful infusions. Generally speaking, the inner quality of Long Jing cultivars is much richer than that of Wu Niu Zao.

In recent years, what makes many people have negative feelings about Wu Niu Zao is, sometimes it's sold with a Long Jing label and this makes people feel deceived. Although it's not as flavorful as Long Jing, Wu Niu Zao is not a "bad" cultivar. As an early harvest tea, it can serve as a great treat in early spring. In Zhejiang, some green tea lovers would love to buy Wu Niu Zao to quench their thirst for new green tea in late February to mid-March. What's important to buyers is, they should be given correct information about what they get.