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Is Longjing tea better before Ming Dynasty or before rain? The difference between Ming Qian tea and Yuqian tea is more expensive.

Published: 2026-04-01 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/04/01, What is spring tea? There are 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar, starting with the Beginning of Spring every year. Each solar term lasts 15 days and is named according to the seasonal change of climate. The name of the fifth solar term is Qingming Festival, which is commonly known as Tomb sweeping Festival or Ching Ming Festival. The Ming Dynasty before the Ming Dynasty refers to the Qingming Festival and the former refers to the Qingming Festival, so the tea before the Ming Dynasty basically refers to the tea harvested before the Qingming Festival. Before Ching Ming Festival, due to the general temperature

What is spring tea?

There are 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar, starting with the Beginning of Spring every year. Each solar term lasts 15 days and is named according to the seasonal change of climate. The name of the fifth solar term is Qingming Festival, which is commonly known as "Tomb sweeping Festival" or "Ching Ming Festival".

"Ming" before the Ming Dynasty refers to the Qingming Festival, and "Qian" refers to the Qingming Festival, so the tea before the Ming Dynasty basically refers to the tea harvested before the Qingming Festival. Before Ching Ming Festival, due to the generally low temperature, the growth rate of new tea buds was slow, and the yield that reached the standard harvest level was very limited.

Tea culture experts say that in the tea areas of southern China, under the condition of low temperature in early spring, the growth rate of tea trees is slow. After a long winter, the nutrients in the tea body are fully accumulated, and the quality of tea is the best.

The taste of Mingqian tea is mellow because the content of amino acids in tea is higher than that in evening tea, while the content of polyphenols in bitter tea is relatively low. Moreover, Mingqian tea, which uses the least pesticides, especially early spring tea, is the best quality green tea of the year. This is why the early production of high-quality leaf tea is especially favored by tea fans. Some people say that tea before Ming Dynasty is as expensive as gold.

The "rain" before the rain refers to Grain Rain, the sixth solar term second only to the Qingming Festival. As we now know, "Qian" means "before", so Yuqian tea was produced before Grain Rain and after the Qingming Festival, and the quality of this tea is just before Ming Dynasty.

Even ordinary-grade Mingqian tea is more expensive than special-grade pre-rain tea. Although it is not delicate before the rain, due to the warming climate of Grain Rain, the leaf buds grow faster and accumulate more minerals. Pre-rain tea usually has the characteristics of strong taste, freshness and long-lasting brewing.

Many people generally believe that Mingqian tea was harvested and produced before Ching Ming Festival. In fact, Mingqian tea is the name given to the different stages of spring tea according to the real solar terms (climate of a certain period). The main categories of Ming Qian tea include green tea and a few black tea. Tieguanyin, Dahongpao, Pu'er and other pre-Ming tea do not exist.

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