Tough tea leaves, even after steeping?
Over the last few years that I have been enjoying good tea I have purchased from multiple online shops. Most of the time I have had good experiences. However, I am a bit confused about this one thing in particular.
I have noticed that most of the teas I have bought from Dragon Tea House have tough leaves, even after having steeped them multiple times. They are hydrated, but if I were to pull the leaf apart, it almost snaps rather than rips. This seems to go for a lot of the teas that I have have bought from them; from green to oolong to puerh. From most other shops from which I have bought tea, the tea leaves become soft as if it were a fresh leaf that has been boiled.
Can anyone tell me why this might be? And if anything, what does it say of the tea’s quality? Or does it maybe simply have to do with the method of preserving their tea leaves before sending them out to customers?
Please share your thoughts :).
PS, I am trying to berate Dragon Tea House. In fact, I quite like their teas and they used to be my go-to tea vendor. However, I have only noticed these tough leaves when ordering from their shop.
You didn’t say what type of tea this is. I find that roasted oolong and aged wet stored puerh leaves have that quality you are describing. Depending on the tea, I might do a boil of the leaves for five minutes on the stove after they don’t seem to be giving anymore from regular infusions. The result is a stronger and deeper flavored brew, with notes that didn’t appear via gong fu.
Well, cooked puerh, but even green tea. For example, I recently ordered An Ji Bai Pian green tea and its pretty tough compared to dragon well from a different tea vendor. I also ordered Dragon Well from them before, and it was tough also. As well as Da Hong Pao. I can steep any of these teas multiple times, and they open up, but they seem to remain tough.
I can’t say I’ve noticed this and I do sometimes order from Dragon Tea House. I got an order from them a couple of weeks ago, mostly ripe puerh. I have not brewed any of the tea yet but will keep an eye out for it. I actually do like Dragon Tea House. The thing about them though is they sell a variety of quality levels from low to high. If you don’t know what you are doing with Dragoon Tea House you can end up with some bad tea.
I sent a message to Dragon Tea House asking them about the toughness of the leaves, and they replied saying something along the lines of:
“We are very sorry, we have heard about this from some other customers as well. We did not control tea quality well, leading to some lower grade tea coming in stock.
Wait for 1-2 months before you make another order. By then we will have solved the issue. We will also remove a lot of lower grade tea to improve customer satisfaction”.
So that’s good news :).
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