Longjing Tea
Note Profile
About
Longjing Tea is the pan-fired Chinese green tea sold in the West as Dragon Well. It smells of roasted chestnut over a soft vegetal base, with a toasted sweetness from the wok. It is nuttier and less grassy than a plain green tea, which is the whole reason perfumery names the variety rather than the category.
Scent Profile
Longjing tea smells of roasted chestnut first, a nutty note that marks it out from plainer green teas. Underneath sits a soft, spinach-like vegetal green base, more background than lead. A toasted sweetness from the wok runs through both, closer to sweet vegetation than to sugar. A faint hay-like, tannic body from the dried leaf rounds off the drydown.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
Longjing is made from Camellia sinensis leaves grown around West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. The leaves are hand-pressed flat and fired in a hot wok, which halts oxidation and builds the roasted note. That firing step, not the leaf, is what makes the chestnut character. Tea Guardian treats it as the mark of the genuine product, and Life is Better with Tea calls the chestnut aroma an easy way to authenticate legitimate Long Jing. There is no commercial Longjing extract for perfumery, so the note is built as an accord.
Usage in Perfumery
Used as a heart note where a tea accord needs to read as roasted and nutty rather than fresh and grassy. It sits with chestnut, sesame, milky notes and light woods. Perfumers reach for it when generic green tea would be too sharp and too aquatic.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Longjing Tea
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Longjing Tea appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.