Tea provided by Teavivre for review
Looking back over my previous review last year and trying this tea again has
helped develop my opinion on this tea. I’ve tasted 4 different grades of Dragon Well from Teavivre and each them have pros and cons.
The first steep of this tea brought back a sense of familiarity to my taste buds. It’s light, vegetal, buttery and has the typical Dragon Well flavour that I find charming.
Sipping through the second to fifth steeps it remained consistent in flavour. It’s not as well blended on my palate as the Nonpareil version, but the flavour is far from boring or unpleasant. If I were to steep this again I would stop on the fourth, it had a really good flavour and the fifth (while enjoyable) was a bit too watery tasting for me.
The Superfine Dragon Well tea is more subtle and polished on my palate than the premium version. But it doesn’t even compare to the nonpareil version which I found to be most well balanced and refined in taste. When deciding on which type of Dragon Well I’d like to drink or serve, it helps to consider the situation and your budget. If I wanted to impress a guest (with a good palate) or reward myself I’d love to indulge with the nonpareil version. However for a more ordinary situation such as serving tea to someone that just “kinda likes it”, the Superfine Dragon Well offers enough heavy flavour to please people that do not like subtle teas.
Tonight I was able to compare the Superfine and Nonpareil version side by side. Next time I hope to drink some of my own personal Premium Dragon Well with my other sample of this Superfine version to taste how they compare.
Steep time: rinse, 20s, 40s, 70s, 120s, 150s
