Voted best green tea in the Toronto Tea Festival, 2016 - our Dragonwell (Longjing 龍井茶);is a pesticide-free, wild grown green tea from the famous West Lake region of Zhejiang Province. This highly prized Chinese green tea is expertly crafted by hand. The Tea Master uses a large wok to pan-fire the leaves and with his fingers, he flattens the leaves against the side of the wok. This process creates a flat, blade-like appearance in the leaf and a complex nutty, toasted flavour profile. The name Dragonwell comes from a legendary well in the West Lake area that has incredibly dense water - as the well water mixes with the river and rain waters, the form of a Chinese dragon appears. Dragonwell is considered an Imperial tea and was granted as such in the 17th century when the Emperor's grandson visited the West Lake region. He was so impressed by the quality of tea that he granted the 18 tea bushes in the area Imperial status. These tea bushes are still alive to this day and their leaves are auctioned off annually for astronomical sums of money (more than gold per gram).