Premium Green Tea: Single-Origin Chinese & Japanese Teas

Why Single-Origin Green Tea Is a Different Category Entirely

Most green tea - even premium green tea sold at specialty retailers - is blended. Multiple farms, multiple harvests, multiple regions combined to produce a consistent product that hits a price point and a flavor profile every season. That consistency is a virtue for commodity tea. It's a liability for anyone trying to understand what green tea actually is.

Single-origin green tea from a named farm and a specific harvest is something else. The flavor is the expression of a specific place - the altitude, soil, microclimate, and cultivar of that one farm - in that one spring's growing conditions. A Shi Feng Long Jing from the Shi Feng peak above West Lake doesn't taste like Long Jing from the wider Hangzhou region. A Shincha Gyokuro from Oota's shade houses in Kagoshima doesn't taste like generic Japanese Gyokuro. The difference is specific, traceable, and irreproducible from any other source.

That's what Masters Teas carries. Here's a guide to the 11 green teas in the collection.

Chinese Green Teas

Shi Feng Long Jing - Guo Ya Ling's Dragon Well

Long Jing (龍井), or Dragon Well, is China's most famous green tea and one of the most replicated names in the global tea market. Most Long Jing sold worldwide is produced in the broader Hangzhou region or elsewhere in Zhejiang province under the name - genuine Shi Feng Long Jing from the Shi Feng (Lion Peak) area above West Lake is produced in quantities small enough that most of what's sold as "premium Long Jing" simply isn't. Guo Ya Ling's Shi Feng Long Jing - crisp, delicately nutty, with a hint of sweet grass and apricot blossoms - is the real thing, sourced from the specific terroir that defined the category.

Yu Qian Anji Bai Cha - Yu Feng's Anji White Tea

Anji Bai Cha (安吉白茶) is one of the most misunderstood teas in the Chinese green tea canon - despite its name (bai cha means white tea), it is a green tea, named for the white-leafed cultivar that produces a pale, almost translucent young leaf. Yu Feng's Yu Qian (pre-Grain Rain, the most prized early spring harvest window) Anji Bai Cha delivers a silky texture with notes of delicate almond, macadamia, and young pea pod - a flavor profile of rare elegance that results from the cultivar's unusual amino acid composition, which produces a naturally sweeter and less astringent cup than conventional green tea.

Tai Lake Pi Luo Chun - Wang Li Zhen's Snail Spring

Pi Luo Chun (碧螺春), or Snail Spring Green, is named for the tightly rolled, spiral-shaped leaves that unfurl dramatically during steeping. Wang Li Zhen's version from Dongting Mountain above Tai Lake captures the tea's characteristic light and crisp floral notes with hints of sweet pea flowers - a fresh, high-altitude character shaped by the lake's influence on the mountain microclimate. One of the most visually beautiful green teas to brew in a glass vessel, where the unfurling leaves and pale green liquor are worth watching.

Tai Ping Hou Kui - Liang Yu Ming's Monkey King

Tai Ping Hou Kui (太平猴魁), or Monkey Chief, is distinguished by its unusually large flat leaves - the longest of any premium Chinese green tea - pressed into straight, flat forms that produce a distinctive sweetgrass and lily-of-the-valley floral character with a savory finish. Liang Yu Ming's version comes from the Hou Keng area of Anhui province, the only area where authentic Tai Ping Hou Kui is produced. A tea of significant rarity and considerable complexity, best suited to slow, attentive brewing.

Gu Zhu Zi Sun - Purple Bamboo Shoots

Gu Zhu Zi Sun (顧渚紫筍), or Purple Bamboo Shoots, is one of China's historically significant teas - records of its production as a tribute tea date to the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). The stalky style that characterizes Zi Sun yields a medium-light yellow cup with complexity well beyond what its modest appearance suggests: layered, slightly mineral, and distinctly different from the more widely known Zhejiang greens. A tea for the collector interested in the historical depth of Chinese green tea culture.

Song Luo Green Tea - Wu Li Xia's Mountain Tea

Song Luo (松蘿) from Wu Li Xia's farm in Anhui province is a twisted-leaf style green tea with a complex cup that rewards patience. The twisted processing style - different from the pan-fired flat styles of Long Jing or the rolled styles of Pi Luo Chun - produces a tea that opens slowly across multiple steepings, soothing the palate with each successive pour. A contemplative tea for experienced drinkers who appreciate complexity over immediate impact.

Yun Wu - Zhao Bi Yun's Cloud Mist Tea

Yun Wu (雲霧茶), or Cloud Mist Tea, refers to the high-altitude growing conditions - teas grown in the persistent cloud cover of mountain elevations above 1000m develop slower, more complex flavor profiles than valley-grown teas of the same cultivar. Zhao Bi Yun's Yun Wu offers a layered cup with fruity notes and a very light smokiness that reflects its mountain character. A green tea that reads differently from the Zhejiang canon - broader, slightly wilder, and more individual.

Mist View Green - Nepal High-Grown

The outlier in the collection - a high-grown green tea from Nepal rather than China or Japan. Himalayan-grown teas develop distinctive characteristics from high altitude, strong UV exposure, and the unique soil composition of the region: the Mist View Green offers a delightful, clean cup with the mountain freshness that defines the best Himalayan teas. For anyone who has explored Chinese and Japanese green teas extensively, a quality Nepali green tea represents a genuinely different expression of the category.

Japanese Green Teas

Shincha Gyokuro - Oota's Shade-Grown First Harvest

Shincha (新茶, first tea) Gyokuro (玉露) is the most prized category in Japanese green tea - the spring's first harvest of shade-grown Gyokuro, available for only a few weeks per year. Oota's Shincha Gyokuro from his shade houses in Kagoshima is a balanced cup with floral and umami notes - the shade-growing process (covering the plants for 20–30 days before harvest) forces the production of L-theanine and other amino acids at the expense of catechins, producing a naturally sweet, deeply savory cup with almost no bitterness. One of the most demanding teas in the collection to brew correctly - and one of the most rewarding when done right.

Shincha Sencha - Katahira's First Harvest Sencha

Katahira's Shincha Sencha is the fresh, accessible end of the Japanese green tea collection - a light, layered cup with nutty umami and delicate apricot notes that captures the particular freshness of the spring's first sencha harvest. Shincha sencha is lower in catechins and higher in amino acids than later-season sencha, which produces a naturally sweeter and more complex cup than the same farmer's autumn harvest would. Available for a short window each spring - one of the teas worth ordering promptly when it arrives.

Shincha Genmaicha - Katahira's First Harvest with Roasted Rice

Genmaicha (玄米茶) combines green tea with roasted brown rice - a style that originated as a way to extend expensive tea with a cheaper ingredient and became a beloved tea category in its own right. Katahira's Shincha Genmaicha uses a shincha sencha base, making it a more elevated version than standard genmaicha: the fresh spring tea character is preserved alongside the toasty, candied nut, and light vegetal spring green notes of the genmaicha combination. The most approachable Japanese green tea in the collection for anyone new to Japanese tea styles.

How to Brew Premium Single-Origin Green Tea

Temperature precision is non-negotiable for the teas in this collection. Boiling water damages delicate green tea - the results range from merely flat to actively bitter depending on the tea. Every tea on this page benefits from water at 160–175°F (71–79°C), with Japanese teas - particularly Gyokuro - benefiting from the lower end of that range (150–160°F / 65–71°C).

Gongfu Method (Chinese Green Teas)

• Vessel: gaiwan or small glass vessel
• Leaf ratio: 3–5g per 100ml
• Temperature: 160–175°F (71–79°C)
• First steep: 20–30 seconds
• Subsequent steeps: add 10–15 seconds per steep
• Expected steeps: 4–6 for most Chinese green teas

Japanese Method

• Vessel: kyusu (Japanese side-handle teapot) or ceramic teapot
• Leaf ratio: 4–5g per 150ml
• Temperature: Sencha 160–170°F (71–77°C) | Gyokuro 140–150°F (60–66°C)
• First steep: 45–60 seconds for sencha, 90–120 seconds for gyokuro
• Expected steeps: 3–4 for sencha, 2–3 for gyokuro

Green Tea Origins at Masters Teas

The collection spans three distinct green tea producing regions - each with its own terroir, processing tradition, and flavor identity:

• Zhejiang, China - Long Jing, Pi Luo Chun, Anji Bai Cha, and Tai Ping Hou Kui represent the most celebrated green tea province in China, where the majority of China's most famous green teas originate.
• Anhui, China - Song Luo and Gu Zhu Zi Sun from Anhui represent a different green tea tradition - less famous internationally but historically significant and producing complex, distinctive cups.
• Japan - Shincha Gyokuro, Shincha Sencha, and Shincha Genmaicha from Katahira's and Oota's farms represent Japan's spring harvest tradition - the freshest, most amino acid-rich teas of the Japanese growing year.
• Nepal - The Mist View Green represents the emerging Himalayan green tea tradition, distinct from both Chinese and Japanese styles.

Shop Premium Single-Origin Green Tea Online

Browse all 11 premium single-origin green teas above - Chinese Long Jing, Pi Luo Chun, Anji Bai Cha, and rare historical styles alongside Japanese shincha and Himalayan high-grown teas, all sourced directly from named farmers. Free shipping on qualifying orders. Buy premium green tea online and have it delivered within one business day.