西湖龙井春茶 West Lake Longjing Spring Tea

As the footsteps of spring approach, the spring tea in Hangzhou West Lake Longjing Tea Garden has sprouted one after another. For the most anticipated freshness of spring, the tea villages in the West Lake Scenic Area in Hangzhou have been busy these days to prepare for the picking of spring tea.

On the 18th, West Lake Longjing tea was officially mined. The reporter saw in Wengjiashan Village, West Lake Street, Hangzhou City, that tea farmers have begun to pick West Lake Longjing Mingqian tea - Longjing 43 varieties. Wengjiashan, the first-class production area of West Lake Longjing, is the highest production area of West Lake Longjing tea. Every year, the total demand for Wengjiashan tea workers is around 1,400. Tea is scarce and precious in the spring before tomorrow. The high temperature in the past few days has accelerated the growth of tea leaves. Coupled with the impact of the epidemic, there has been a shortage of tea pickers in various tea villages.

Sun Bin, secretary of the general party branch of Wengjiashan Village, said: "In addition to the arrival of foreign tea pickers from Anhui, Hunan, Jiangxi and other places chartered to Hangzhou, we also solve the problem of labor shortage through mutual coordination between neighboring villages and mutual assistance of villagers."

In view of the current situation of epidemic prevention and control in Hangzhou, safety and health must be put first. On March 16, Meijiawu Village, Xihu Street, Xihu District, Hangzhou added a nucleic acid testing point for tea pickers, and the Xihu Street Health Service Center temporarily dispatched additional staff and testing equipment. Arrange on-duty forces to ensure an orderly inspection site. As of 22:00 on March 16, Xihu Street has completed a total of 4,828 nucleic acid tests for tea pickers.

How is the overall quality of West Lake Longjing tea this year? According to Shao Jinghua, chief agronomist of Hangzhou Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, from January to February this year, there were more rain and snow, which to a certain extent nourished the overwintering of tea trees and delayed the germination of tea buds. It is conducive to the germination and growth of tea trees. In recent years, Hangzhou has adopted a unified defense rule for the core production area of West Lake Longjing, reduced the use of pesticides, and guided tea farmers to replace chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers from rapeseed cakes, which improved the inherent quality of tea.

This year, together with the West Lake Longjing Tea, there is also the "Hangzhou West Lake Longjing Tea Protection and Management Regulations". For the first time, the regulations clearly put forward the management of the special marks for anti-counterfeiting and traceability of West Lake Longjing tea. As of March 17, tea farmers in all production areas of West Lake Longjing tea have received the first batch of special labels for 2022.