You searched for how to brew West Lake Dragon Well, so here is the answer before anything else. Use water at 80°C (175°F), never boiling. Use about 3 grams of leaves for a 250 ml glass or mug. Steep for 2 to 3 minutes, and drink the tea while leaving a third of the water in the glass so your next refill still has flavor. Good leaves will give you 3 to 4 infusions. Everything below explains why these numbers work and how to fix a brew that went wrong.
Quick Reference: Dragon Well Brewing Parameters
| Method | Leaf Amount | Water Temperature | First Steep | Infusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass (recommended) | 3 g per 250 ml | 80°C / 175°F | 2 to 3 minutes | 3 to 4 |
| Gaiwan (gongfu) | 5 g per 100 ml | 80°C / 175°F | 10 to 15 seconds | 4 to 5 |
| Single sachet in a mug | 1 sachet per 300 ml | 80°C / 175°F | 2 minutes | 2 to 3 |
| Cold brew | 5 g per 500 ml | Cold filtered water | 4 to 6 hours in the fridge | 1 |
No thermometer? Boil your water, take the kettle off the heat, and wait about 3 minutes with the lid open. That brings most kettles down to roughly 80°C. You can also pour the boiling water into an empty cup first and then over the leaves, which drops the temperature by close to 10 degrees on its own.
Why the Water Temperature Matters More Than Anything Else
Dragon Well (Longjing) is a pan fired green tea made from tender spring buds and young leaves. Boiling water scalds those leaves and pulls out too much catechin and caffeine at once, which is exactly what makes a green tea taste bitter and harsh. At 80°C the leaves release their sweetness, their signature chestnut aroma, and their fresh vegetal notes without the burn. If you remember only one thing from this guide, remember this: if your Dragon Well tastes bitter, your water was almost certainly too hot.
The Glass Method: How Dragon Well Is Brewed in Hangzhou
In Hangzhou teahouses, Dragon Well is traditionally brewed in a tall clear glass rather than a teapot. This is not just for show. The flat, sword shaped leaves stand and dance as they unfurl, and watching them sink is part of the experience. Here is the full sequence.
- Warm the glass. Swirl a little hot water in the empty glass and pour it out. A warm glass keeps your brewing temperature stable.
- Add the leaves first. Put about 3 grams (roughly two teaspoons of the flat leaves) into the glass. Adding leaves before water is called the bottom pouring method, and it suits Dragon Well because the compact leaves need direct contact with water to open.
- Wake the leaves. Pour in just enough 80°C water to cover the leaves, about a third of the glass. Gently swirl for 10 to 15 seconds. You will smell the chestnut aroma rise immediately.
- Fill and steep. Top the glass up to about two thirds full and wait 2 to 3 minutes. The liquor should turn a pale yellow green.
- Drink and refill. When a third of the tea remains, refill with hot water. This keeps the strength consistent across infusions instead of giving you one strong cup and two watery ones.
The Gaiwan Method for More Control
A gaiwan gives you shorter, more concentrated steeps and lets you taste how the flavor changes from infusion to infusion. Use 5 grams of leaves in a standard 100 to 120 ml gaiwan with 80°C water. Steep the first infusion for only 10 to 15 seconds and pour everything out into your cup. Add about 10 seconds for each following infusion. A quality spring Dragon Well will stay sweet and aromatic for 4 to 5 rounds this way. There is no need to rinse or wash good Dragon Well before brewing, since the first steep carries some of the best aroma.
Brewing a Single Sachet at Your Desk
Most brewing guides assume you own a scale and a gaiwan. Most people are brewing at a desk with a mug. If you are using a pre measured sachet, like the single packages we sell of our West Lake Dragon Well, the rules simplify to three: water off the boil for 3 minutes before pouring, 2 minutes of steeping in a 300 ml mug, and take the sachet out rather than letting it sit. You can steep the same sachet a second and third time by adding a minute each round. The dose inside a sachet is already matched to a standard mug, which removes the most common beginner error of using too much leaf.
Troubleshooting: What Went Wrong With Your Brew
This is the section most guides skip, and it is the one that saves your tea.
- Bitter or harsh taste. Your water was too hot, or the leaves sat too long. Drop to 75 to 80°C and shorten the steep by a minute. Bitterness in Dragon Well is a brewing error far more often than a leaf quality problem.
- Flat or weak taste. Water was too cool, or too few leaves. Check that your water is at least 75°C and use a full 3 grams. Old leaves that have been open for months also lose their aroma, so keep Dragon Well sealed and away from light.
- Grassy, seaweed like taste. You may be steeping too long at too low a temperature. Try a shorter, slightly hotter steep at 80°C for 2 minutes.
- Second cup tastes like water. You drained the glass completely before refilling. Keep a third of the liquid in the glass when you top up, which is how Hangzhou locals stretch one serving of leaves across a whole morning.
- Cloudy liquor. Hard tap water with high mineral content dulls green tea and can turn it cloudy. Filtered or spring water makes a visible and tasteable difference for a delicate tea like this.
How Many Times Can You Steep Dragon Well?
Three to four infusions in a glass, four to five in a gaiwan. The second infusion is widely considered the best one, because the leaves have fully opened while the aroma is still at its peak. When the liquor loses its color and the sweetness fades, the leaves are done. Do not force a fifth watery steep out of tired leaves. Spent leaves are edible, and in Hangzhou they sometimes end up stir fried with shrimp in the classic dish longjing xiaren.
What You Are Actually Tasting: A Short Note on West Lake
Now that your cup is brewed, here is what is in it. Authentic West Lake Dragon Well comes from the hills around West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where morning mist off the water and mineral rich soil slow the growth of the tea bushes and concentrate their sweetness. The leaves are flattened by hand in hot woks, which is what creates the smooth, sword like shape and the toasted chestnut character no other green tea quite matches. Spring harvests picked before the Qingming festival in early April are the most prized, because the buds are at their most tender. This terroir is the reason the brewing rules above are gentle: you are handling one of China's most delicate famous teas, and it rewards the care.
Get the Leaves, Then Get Brewing
Parameters only matter if the leaf is worth brewing. Our West Lake Dragon Well starts at $2.99 for a single package, so you can test this entire guide for less than the price of a coffee. If you are new to Chinese tea and want to compare styles side by side, the Discovery Trio Tasting Set ($24.99) includes Dragon Well alongside our Da Hong Pao oolong and Ancient Black Tea, with a brewing card in the box that summarizes the parameters for all three. And if you are not sure which tea fits your taste at all, our AI tea guide on tastea.ai will ask you a few questions about what you normally drink and point you to the right leaf, or build a customized gift box around someone else's taste. Traditional tea shops make you guess. We would rather you get it right on the first cup.
By Wei Zhen
