Xinyang Maojian, also known as Yu Mao Feng, is a famous speciality of Henan Province. It is slender, round, smooth, and straight and featured with lots of Pekoe, high fragrance, rich flavour, and green soup. As early as Tang Dynasty, Tea Sage Lu Yu's book described in Tea Sutra that Xinyang as one of 8 nationwide tea production areas. Su Dongpo, a great writer of Song Dynasty, praised that "Tea from Xinyang tops Huainan area." The spring tea of Xinyang Maojian generally begins to be picked after Tomb-weeping Day and is widely harvested before Grain Rain. It lasts 40 days. The autumn buds germinate in August and September. Then the tea is called autumn tea of Maojian. There is an old saying in the folks that " spring tea is bitter, summer tea is astrictivem, autumn tea picked in White Dew is best to drink".
Recognizing
Real Xinyang Maojian: liquid is green or yellow green, and bright with thick aroma and fresh, mellow and sweet taste. Stems are round, and there is small serrated margin on the edge of leaves. Leaves are thick and bright green.
Fake Xinyang Maojian: liquid is dark green and dim with no tea aroma, bitter taste, and odor flavor. The leaf stems are mostly square with non-serrated leaf margin. The leaves are dark green, thin and bright.
Tea ceremony
Water temperature: boiling water of 80 ℃ is appropriate. The mountain spring water is best.
Tea sets: glassware will do.
Amount of tea: the best ratio of tea and water is 1:50.
Brewing method: Middle-putting brewing method is mostly adopted for high-quality Maojian.
Storage
Tea is easy to absob odor, so Maojian is stored in a special tea caddy and kept clean , sanitary and odor-free.
Chungu save folks.
It is said that a long time ago there was no tea in Xinyang. The locals, oppressed by local officials, had got "fatigue fever". Lots of people died.
A girl called Chungu decided to seek a kind of precious tree to cure the villagers. Chungu walked for 81 days, and then found seeds of the tea tree which can treat the illness. Soon, the tea tree grew up and cured them. From then on, many people plantted tea trees. Thus tea gardens and tea hills come into being.