Hefeng Maojian

Tea: Hefeng Maojian Cultivar: Dragonwell #43 Harvest: Pre-rains, Guyu, April 2025 Region: Hefeng County, Western Hubei Producer: Loushuiyuan Tujia Cooperative Tasting notes: steamed and buttered vegetables, broccoli, asparagus, pine sap Maojian is a style of baked Chinese green tea characterized by its needle shape. The leaves are pressed, rolled and pulled by hand on a perforated metal table venting warm air. This pulls the flavor out from the leaves and give it the final hair-tip shape. The aroma on the leaves is thick and savory, though still intensely vegetal. The tea brews up very quickly to a light gold hue, and has the aroma of steamed and buttered vegetables redolent of asparagus and broccoli. The mouthfeel is thick with a deep huigan and pleasant bitterness when brewed at strength. This tea embodies much of the stronger, more robust attributes of baked Chinese green tea. The Loushuiyuan Cooperative is primarially comprised of local Tujia minority formers and laborers in the mountainous, remote Hefeng county of rural Hubei. The cooperative consists of a few hundred Mu (0.33 acre) of tea gardens scattered throughout the terraced and plateaued mountains of the Luoshui river valley. The Loushuiyuan Cooperative is also the site of our WWOOF farm and volunteer project. Brewing recommendation: We recommend drinking this tea 'grandpa style,' as loose leaves in a tall glass; it is easy, simple, and elegant. This is the way almost everyone drinks green tea in China, from office workers to farmers, all in unspoken solidarity. Read more about how to brew green tea Grandpa Style.