The Story of Longjing Tea

Long long ago there was a small village in the Mount. Longjing, Hangzhou City. In the village lived a old lady, her only property was the eighteen old tea trees behind her small thatched cottage. She lived on the tea production of these trees. She was a very nice lady. Every summer she picked some tea leaves and made a big barrel of tea soup in front of her home, therefore all the passer-by can quench their thirsty with the free drink.

One day, a old man came to this small village. He was a treasure hunter. The old lady offered him a cup of tea, so he took a seat at road side and had a rest. Suddenly he was interested in an ancient-look stone mortar at the corner of the cottage. He recognized this mortar is a priceless treasure. He offered the old lady a big price to buy this mortar. But the lady said: "I have had this mortar for many years and it is useless to me. If you like it, just take it. It is free."

The treasure hunter was very happy, but he was not strong enough to carry this big stone mortar, so he left some silver to the lady and went away for some help hands. After they left, the old lady noticed that there was a lot of dirty dust in the mortar. She washed the mortar clean and buried all the dust under her old tea trees.

When the treasure hunter came back, he saw the clean stone mortar and became very disappointed. The real treasure was the dust inside! All the dust had been accumulating inside the mortar for decades and absorbed the quintessence of the heaven and the earth. Now all of these went to the old tea trees. The treasure hunter sighed and left.

Later the eighteen old tea trees became very flourishing and strong. The old lady picked the tea buds from the trees and found them become very aromatic and refreshing, better than any other tea leaves in the country. Soon the Longjing Tea became famous.

Many years later the great emperor Qian-Long travelled to Hangzhou. When he passed by the Longjing village, he saw many tea-picking girls inside the tea gardens. He was very interested and followed the farmer girls to pick tea buds. He just got a bunch of tea buds when the eunuch came and reported that the emperor's mother was sick in the Capital Beijing. The Emperor was sorry worries about the old empress and he put the tea buds in his pocket and rushed back to the capital.

The capital Beijing city was over a thousand miles away from Hangzhou. When the emperor went back to the forbidden city several days later, his mother was lying on the bed. Seeing her son coming back, the old empress was delighted, and she also smelt a very refreshing scent coming out of the emperor's pocket. Therefore they found the already dried tea buds inside the emperor's pocket. Qianlong ordered a pot of hot tea made with those tea bud and the old empress had a small sup. Immediately she felt much better. She only had too much greasy food and caused an upset stomach and swelling eyes. After a couple cups of Longjing tea, the old empress was fully recovered. The emperor Qianlong was very satisfied and amazed by the healing effect of the Longjing tea and he ordered the eighteen Longjing tea trees as the royal tea. From then on every year the tea buds would be sent to the forbidden city for the use of imperial family.