Longjing, High Performance Truly Delivered

In a startling revelation, I realized today I have become my dad. Case in point: my dad was always sipping on hot loose leaf tea when I was a kid, and I could not understand how he liked that acerbic stuff. Apple juice; now that was my jam.

My, how times have changed.  These days I often find myself craving a strong cup of hot tea that my relatives have gifted me from China. Apple juice? Haven't touched the stuff in months and cannot remember the last time I purchased a bottle.

The stuff picture above is called Longjing (龙井), a variety of green tea literally called "Dragon Well" and renowned throughout China.  I really have not had a hankering for this stuff until recently--this in spite of drinking it on multiple trips to China.  When friends and I happened upon a quaint Chinese tea shop in Georgetown and decided to sit down, the fragrance of this tea had me swooning, and I had to have a canister after that.  To the uninitiated, this stuff is a completely different beast from Matcha, which, it bears remembering, comes from a completely different cultural context.

Shout out to Aunt Xin for getting this for me, even though she will never see this.