Short answer: pre-Qingming (Mingqian) Longjing is picked before about April 5 and is mostly tiny buds. It tastes lighter and sweeter, with a silky body and almost no bitterness. Post-Qingming (Yuqian) Longjing is picked from April 5 to about April 20, has a bud plus an open leaf, and tastes fuller, nuttier and a little more astringent for noticeably less money. Brew Mingqian cooler, around 75°C, and Yuqian at 80°C.
The 30 second answer
Same hills, same tea, two weeks apart.
Pick Mingqian for sweetness and finesse. Pick Yuqian for flavor per dollar and everyday drinking.
Side by side: what actually changes
Both harvests come from the same bushes. What changes is how far the shoot has grown when it is picked, and that one fact drives everything below.
PRE-QINGMING · MINGQIAN
Delicate and sweet
Leaf: small, flat, uniform, mostly single buds with fine down
Taste: gentle, sweet, soft chestnut, long sweet aftertaste
Body: thick and silky, very little bitterness
Sweet cornOrchidLight chestnutPOST-QINGMING · YUQIAN
Fuller and nuttier
Leaf: longer, bud plus one open leaf, less down, greener
Taste: stronger toasted chestnut, more vegetal, a light astringent edge
Body: medium, brisk, more forgiving of hotter water than Mingqian
Roasted chestnutFresh beansToasted grainRead the spent leaves: the easiest way to tell
Dry leaves can be sorted and polished. Wet leaves cannot hide. After brewing, tip the leaves onto a white plate and look at how far each shoot had grown. Tea people call this the ye di, the bottom of the leaf.
How to brew each harvest
Most guides give one set of numbers for all Longjing. That works for Yuqian, but it can flatten a Mingqian and overdo a late picking. These are our starting points, adjusted from the standard numbers in our Dragon Well brewing guide.
Gaiwan: 5 g per 100 ml, first pour 10 seconds
Why: tender buds scald easily, and cooler water keeps the sweetness in front
Gaiwan: 5 g per 100 ml, first pour 10 to 15 seconds
Why: the open leaf needs a little more heat to release its nutty depth
Gaiwan: 5 g per 100 ml, first pour 8 to 10 seconds
Why: bigger leaves give up bitterness faster, so cut the time rather than the heat
In every case, refill the glass when a third of the tea is left. If a cup turns bitter, drop the temperature by 5 degrees before you blame the leaf.
What the research says about picking date
Tea drinkers have long described early spring green tea as the sweetest of the year. Lab work now points the same way. A 2023 study in Frontiers in Nutrition compared one green tea picked at Qingming with the same tea picked 15 days later at Grain Rain.
Higher relative levels of amino acids and soluble sugars. Tasters noted freshness, a sweet aftertaste and mild bitterness.
Several catechins, the compounds behind bitterness and astringency, were higher. Tasters noted a stronger flavor and more bitterness.
Source: Xiao, Yong, Xie and Zhou, "The molecular mechanisms of quality difference for Alpine Qingming green tea and Guyu green tea by integrating multi-omics", Frontiers in Nutrition, 2023. The study used a green tea from Hubei, not Longjing, so read it as a general pattern for spring green tea rather than a Longjing measurement. It describes taste chemistry only and makes no health claim.
Find your side of the calendar
Brew one $2.99 packet twice, once at 75°C and once at 80°C.
If you prefer the cooler, softer cup, you will likely love Mingqian and it is worth paying for. If the hotter, nuttier cup wins, Yuqian gives you more of what you like for less. Still unsure whether green tea is your tea at all? Our AI tea advisor on tastea.ai asks a few questions about what you already drink and points you to the right leaf.
Try West Lake Dragon Well from $2.99Which one should you buy?
You drink tea plain and slowly
You want a special gift or a first taste of the best
You notice subtle sweetness more than strength
You drink green tea every day
You like a bolder, nuttier cup
You brew in a mug at work and want room for error
"Mingqian" is priced like everyday tea
No harvest date or year appears at all
The leaf on the plate is long and open
One more label term: some shops sell sheqian tea, picked even earlier, often from early budding cultivars such as Longjing 43, which buds several days before the older Qunti bushes. Early is not automatically better. Many drinkers find Qunti richer and more mineral. For the wider checklist on fakes, see how to tell real West Lake Longjing.
Quick questions
Is Yuqian a lower quality tea?
It is a lower price grade, not a bad tea. A well made Yuqian from good hills often beats a poorly made Mingqian. Processing and origin matter as much as the date.
Which one lasts for more infusions?
Sources disagree, and in practice leaf quality and your ratio decide it. Expect roughly 3 to 4 good rounds in a glass from either harvest.
Does Mingqian fade faster after opening?
All Longjing loses aroma once opened. Keep it sealed, dark and cool, and enjoy it within a few months. The delicate notes of Mingqian are simply the first to go.
Why two weeks change so much
Qingming is one of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese calendar and falls around April 4 or 5. Before it, the hills around West Lake are still cool, the bushes grow slowly, and each bud has time to store sugars and amino acids. The saying goes that Mingqian tea is as precious as gold, partly for its taste and partly because there is so little of it: pickers can only take the first buds, by hand, in a window of a couple of weeks.
After Qingming the weather warms and the rains of Grain Rain, the next solar term around April 20, arrive. Shoots stretch, leaves open, and the tea gains strength and loses a little finesse. Neither is wrong. They are two moments of the same spring, and a good tea drinker learns to enjoy both.
Taste it for yourself
Spring only comes once a year. Longjing lets you taste two parts of it.
Wei Zhen
