A Third-Generation Longjing Tea Maker
I grew up beside the tea wok in Dongmuwu Village. Longjing was never an abstract tradition in my family: it was the rhythm of spring, the smell of freshly fired leaves and the work that continued after dark.
Family knowledge, practical work and a responsibility to explain both honestly
I am Jason Jin, a Longjing tea maker from Dongmuwu Village in Hangzhou's Xihu District. I began learning tea making in 2011 and take part in spreading fresh leaves, pan-firing, sorting, tasting and packing. My father began making tea when he was sixteen, and I grew up with this work as part of family life.
Before focusing on tea, I worked in overseas marketing for about a decade. That experience showed me how easily the language of origin and craft can become vague when Chinese tea travels abroad. FineTeaChina is my way of connecting first-hand work in Hangzhou with clear information for tea drinkers and professional buyers.
My earliest memories of tea are memories of my family working
In the 1990s, when I was about five, spring nights in Hangzhou could still feel cold. During tea season I would squat beside the tea wok and pick out older yellow leaves until I became too sleepy to continue. The heat of the firewood and the scent of freshly made Longjing are still among my clearest childhood memories.
I remember the calluses on my father's hands after he worked at the pan from afternoon until around midnight. I remember my mother's darkened fingertips after leaving before sunrise and returning after sunset from picking spring leaves. These details matter to me because they are what “tea heritage” looked like in daily life.
Tools changed—from firewood to electric heat, and from fully handmade work to different levels of machine assistance—but the need to watch, touch, smell and taste the leaf never disappeared.
Today I continue the same work with a commitment to transparency. Some batches are fully handmade; others are semi-handmade or machine-assisted. Our current production is approximately 10% fully handmade, 30% semi-handmade and 60% machine-assisted. I would rather explain the actual method than use “handmade” as a vague marketing word.
Where my experience comes from
Tea garden
Tea gardens are the working landscape behind every spring harvest. My family home and tea work are rooted in Dongmuwu Village.
Pan-firing
Heat, leaf moisture and hand pressure change continually. The maker responds to the leaf rather than following a timer alone.
Batch tasting
Every finished batch is brewed and tasted before release. Appearance is checked together with aroma, liquor, texture and brewed leaves.
Family learning and study beyond the family
My first education in Longjing came through my family. I later studied under Ms. Yang Yuehong, with her permission to publish this relationship. Mr. Yang Jichang is listed by the official China Intangible Cultural Heritage website as a national-level representative inheritor of “Green Tea Processing Techniques (West Lake Longjing).”