The most celebrated of all China's 'Famous Ten' Tribute teas comes from the misty Shifeng hills that surround the beautiful West Lake in Zhejiang. This is the highest grade and is produced by hand to give it a beautiful shape, emerald colour, divine fragrance and sweetish taste. Lions Peak Lung Ching or Dragon Well is the most revered tea in all of China, achieving fame when Qing Dynasty Emperor, Qian Long drank it at the Wugong Temple. He enjoyed it so much that he gave the title ‘Imperial Tea’ to the eighteen bushes growing outside the Temple. The tea we have is grown next to this now historical monument. Most of the small crop of 500kgs a year is supplied to the government and given as a gift to high grade officials. It is looked upon by Chinese people as the best gift that can be given. In order for us to obtain this, the rarest and finest Lung Ching we contracted to buy 5 kilograms last year. We then had to wait patiently until it was picked on March 31st of this year. Our contact visited the farmers every day for a week, observing the young buds growing to perfection and ensuring us the finest chop. It took each picker a whole day to carefully pluck just one pound of leaves and takes between 70 to 80,000 leaf and bud sets to make just 1kg. It is then produced by hand through more than 10 special processes in a hot wok. It is given its unique flat shape by being delicately pressed against the sides of the wok. After being tested by Tea Masters in China the sample was sent for our own approval and then the tea was flown to us arriving on April 11. Our customers will be the only people in the U.K to try this tea as we are told that no one else imports this very special grade. I like to enjoy this tea whilst imagining the view from Shifeng Peak where you can see a beautiful picture of fertile green filelds, flowing streams, dense trees, green bamboos dancing on the breeze and patches of tea gardens with clouds lingering around them. Xi Hu is now a protected area. Only the leaves picked within the designated 168 sq km of Xi Hu area can be considered as Xi Hu Long Jing. To ensure its authenticity, we will provide a coded anti-fake label issued by Hang Zhou's Quality Control Department (for 100 grams and above only).