Famous Chinese Green Teas

My favorites are Lu Shan Yun Wu, Tai Ping Hou Kui and Zhu Ye Qing

Since green tea has the longest history, it's quite understandable that greens dominate the list..tho I am an avid Oolong drinker :)

sorry, wrong link; try this for the James Norwood Pratt Lu Shan video:

http://bit.ly/gK3oB

TeaSpring sells both of the teas you mentioned, and I am pleased with the quality of their Chinese greens. I buy in the spring, but it manages to stay fairly appealing throughout the year with the air squeezed out.

Lu shan Yun wu is out of stock. On the authenticity of West Lake area Long Jing, I gather there is a broad area of tea production with certain regions designated as "protected." I could swear I have seen a government seal affixed, but I dont see it on TeaSpring's packaging. Being China, the sticker isn't a rock solid guarantee of anything - but it tastes pretty good to me.

http://www.bamatea.com/cn/default.aspx

This seems to be the website for that company. From a quick glance, they do mostly oolongs, especially TGY (tie guanyin), which is usually a green oolong. You could check ebay for tea from this company, or just ask for suggestions for TGY from another American company. You might also like Baozhong oolong (pouchong) from Taiwan.

http://floatingleaves.com/ has good baozhong oolong, and many other companies also. You could also take pictures of your tea and post them, people might have more suggestions.

I couldn't find any products on their website which said tongzhou, do you see the characters 同州 or 通州 on the package?

3 teas I've tried: long jing, bi luo chun, liu an gua pian. The long jing was a royal gift from a friend who had bought it from the Wen family in Long Jing Village last year. Now the taste has faded, but the fragrance is still stunning -- nutty, toasted, fresh, rich, lingering in the cup with a citrus sweetness. This winter, I noticed small, pale green, oval balls of fluff in the dry tea. "Oh, no! insects?" Dissection revealed no, not insects, but hairs from the leaf shaped into regular little balls by the rolling process.

The same friend brewed a bi luo chun in a glass gaiwan, showing me how to keep the temperature low and the pouring careful. The curled leaf opened beautifully and the taste was one-molecule-at-a-time delicacy, but intense. More vegetal than long jing, yet finer at the same time.

Liu an gua pian -- a different friend was busy talking and let the water boil hotter than I thought good for a green, then let it sit in a large yixing for longer than I would have let it sit, but it came out fragrant and fantastic. I've heard, too, of a long jing brewed by a farmer at boiling, boiling water that also came out at its best, so what do I know.

Imperial Tea Court is in that category of vendor I trust because the buyer seems to know tea and select the teas personally -- I've had good experiences with their teas. Have others?

My favourite one is the Long Jin Shi Feng, maybe the most famous one! I usually drink it according to the Gong Fu Cha method, to appreciate the taste. I recently discovered an on-line shop that sells a very good quality of Long Jin: [mod edit: removed link]
They buy the tea directly from the growers in China: I can tell you feel the difference! Other Long Jin I tried before weren't so tasty.