TeaHQ

Meijiawu

The largest single producing village inside the West Lake Longjing area, occupying a long valley west of the lake and accounting for far more planted ground than Shifeng does. Its tea is conventionally described as the greener, fresher, more vegetal reading of Longjing — less of the toasted note, more bean and fresh grass — which growers attribute to a cooler, damper valley and a slightly different firing habit. Because the village is easy to reach and sells directly to visitors, Meijiawu is also where most people who have bought Longjing at source have bought it.

梅家塢China50–350 metres

Protected designation

Meijiawu lies inside the West Lake Longjing protected area. The designation settles which gardens may use the name; it does not rank them.

A protected designation governs who may use the name, and in which jurisdictions. It is not a quality mark and it does not certify how any particular lot was made — it settles what the word on the packet is allowed to mean.

Elevation

Recorded at 50–350 metres.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

When it is picked

The West Lake calendar, in the largest of the core villages by planted area. Meijiawu picks a little earlier than Shifeng and rather more of it, which is why the village supplies much of what is legitimately sold as West Lake Longjing.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How production is organised

Household plots and family workshops with a heavy tourist and direct-sale trade, in a village where the tea is sold to the visitor as often as to the merchant.

How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

How the name is written

Also transliterated as mei jia wu, meijiawu. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.

Teas this region is known for

  • Longjing — Nutty and sweet with a soft body and very little grip. Where Japanese greens go marine and savoury, Longjing goes toasted and sweet — the clearest single illustration of what pan-firing does that steaming does not.

Other growing regions in China

The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.

Sources

  • TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ

This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.

How TeaHQ handles sources