Dragon Tea House

Not sure I’d say this is my favorite snaily yum, but it’s pretty good. Smells smokier dry than it actually is. It’s mostly a soft malt with some hay in the aftertaste and an overall sweetness. Pretty good all in all. Steeped Western as I find I don’t care as much for the snails done in gong fu steeps.

Another in the quest to replace Min River Tea’s JJM.

According to the website, this is from the originator that Chris suggested – Junde – the originators of JJM. So it should be pretty authentic at least. However… it’s still not Min River, sadly.

This is a good cup. A moderately malty, mildly chocolatey cup with some buttery mouthfeel when not using a metallic cup. :) In a silvered cup, it becomes very bright in feel and somewhat thinner. Still a good cup, though, and I do notice the coppery finish when using the silvered cup. I probably won’t keep this particular one around, but I may eventually try other variations from Dragon Teahouse to compare.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDbeQYVrqtL/

trying old teas and deciding if I should just chuck them out or not -

this is bland, a bit like the difference between instant and decent fresh ground coffee. Taste like shou but with no oomph

This tea is meant to be brewed at 190-193˚F. More fruity, richer notes like cherry and dark chocolate come out along with the roasty flavour. Still many broken pieces of leaf inside but at least the tea tastes good. Big improvement over my last tasting!

This actually looks, smells, and tastes pretty similar to Dachi’s Honeysuckle Oolong, even though that one is from Taiwan’s Ali Mountain and this Bai Hao is apparently from Xin Zhu County, Taiwan, China… wait a minute. Haha. They have the same twisted leaves that have several broken bits in it (though this one has more broken bits, the Dachi has better quality leaves). They both have the cocoa notes with a fruity, sweet finish on the tongue. The Honeysuckle Oolong is best brewed at 194˚F, this one best at 190˚F. I reckon they’re from pretty similar terroir and processed in similar ways. Now I’m craving a less sweet tea :)

Note: Next time, try brewing at 190˚F.

Leaves in the bag come with lots of broken little bits, like you would expect to see in a white peony but not in a high-grade oolong. I’m using 5g in a 5oz gaiwan. They suggest 5g in a teapot Western-style, at boiling for 2 – 3 min.

1st infusion: (212˚F, 40s)
Bitter, perhaps I steeped too long? Tastes minerally like a Wuyi rock oolong and has the same deep copper colour. Not what I expected from an “Oriental Beauty” tea. Those are produced in Taiwan, whereas this one is from China so I suppose it’s not going to be the best Dong Fang Mei Ren experience.

2nd infusion: (212˚F, 45s)
Still has that roasty minerally flavour, but lighter and I can taste a bit of underlying fruity flavour bordering on sweetness.

3rd infusion: (212˚F, 55s)
Flat, dull, astringent

UPDATE: Their website says to use less-than-boiling water so I’m going to try a second batch. 5g, 205˚F.

1st infusion: (205˚F, 30s)
Leaves smell burnt. Liquor does not taste burnt, but minerally, roasty and a bit astringent and flat. Still can’t get over the amount of broken bits of leaf that flow into the cup.

2nd infusion: (206˚F, 45s)
I’m running out of ways to say roasty, bitter chocolate, mineral and dull.

Verdict:
It’s not the worst, especially for fans of Wuyi rock oolongs, but it’s not Eastern / Oriental Beauty, certainly not Premium anything, and at $14 for 50g on Ebay, this tea was a total ripoff. Can get much better teas elsewhere like Teavivre and my local tea shops for the same price or cheaper. Guess the fact that Ebay doesn’t have customer reviews should have been a red flag for me.

3/14/16: Ok, I have tried this Western-style according to the instructions on the package 5g / 175˚F 12 oz / 2:30.

I have tried brewing this in a gaiwan at 2g / 176˚F / 30s / 45s and it came out like water with a cloudy suspension in it.

This tea is incredibly difficult to brew. I think out of the 5 times I have attempted to brew it, I only tasted tea one glorious time (I think ~ 2.5g / 176˚F?) but didn’t have time to do a second steeping.

At least a third of the packet has been wasted in mediocre steepings. I may try a few more times to reproduce that one good steeping, but would never buy this again.

Rating: 52

Update 3/31/16: Brewed it at 185˚C and at last some flavour has come out––a very delicate, savoury vegetable broth in the 1st infusion. I thought this tea was supposed to be on the sweeter, fruitier side so I’m a bit confused. Mellows out to a nice subtle everyday green tea flavour in 2nd and 3rd infusions. It’s decent but there are still too many bits of broken leaf to call this a high-quality tea.

Rating: 66

This is my first Bi Luo Chun, so I could be interpreting this all wrongly, but here’s my impression: The dry leaves are very hairy loose green spirals, look almost like hemp string, with white tips and a lot of tea “dust” or fannings. It smells really fragrant, though I wouldn’t call it sweet, it smells more like a vegetable grilled with flowers.

Frustratingly, there are no brewing instructions for gongfu style on the Dragon Tea House website or on the package. You can read the account of my attempts below. Perhaps this tea is only good enough for Western brewing (they recommend 2 – 3 minutes). For now I’ll just say I expected better from a “Supreme” label tea.

Rating: 52

3 – 4g of leaves, 5oz water, 176˚F
Verdict: I think I still overleafed.

1st infusion: (25s)
Fragrant aroma from leaves and liquor. Liquor tastes more clear and slight astringency, but less than from first attempt.

2nd infusion: (40s)
Astringent again. I probably need to use even less leaves.

5g of leaves, 4.5oz water, 176˚F
The leaves smell really fragrant, but the tea tastes disappointing. I probably am not brewing with the right amount of leaves or for the right length but the temperature seems correct.

1st infusion: (30s)
Tea smells really sweet, floral and longan notes. Tastes a little astringent though, and the liquor feels very thick and fibrous.

2nd infusion: (50s)
Fragrant vegetal aroma. But the taste is just more astringency.

3rd infusion: (70s)
Less astringency, but the flavour is gone. Surprisingly, the leaves still smell really sweet.

As far as gaiwans go, I don’t think this is very good but I got it because it was reasonably priced ($16.99 from Dragon Tea House on Ebay). They also had a $10.99 one but I decided to go with the slightly higher-range one haha.

First of all, the gaiwan dribbles down the sides when you pour liquid out, even if you pour swiftly and at a steep angle. I own two other gaiwans (a Jingdezhen porcelain from Red Blossom Tea Co., and a cheapo 100ml one from a travel set) and neither of them drip when you pour from them.

Secondly, the knob on the lid can be filled with hot liquid if you’re pouring too quickly, so the heat conducts through the thin glass and can burn your finger. My trick is that I use the nail of my index finger to hold that knob on the lid, while my thumb and middle finger hold either side of the gaiwan bowl. (The nail doesn’t feel the heat.)

This is supposed to be special heat-resistant glass, but it still gets pretty darned hot. I only brew my green teas and white teas in this. I wouldn’t use it with water above 190˚F. I just really wanted a glass gaiwan to observe some of the pretty teas in so this works for my whites and Dragon Wells, but I might still be open to purchasing another glass gaiwan if I found one that handled higher temperatures well so that I can see my rolled oolongs unfurl in the glass bowl at 200˚F or higher!

Decent brew that shows a mellowing from the last few years for sure. The only thing to note is that the mellowness is seperate from the mildness of the tea itself. The mellowing of this tea has led to a smoother upfront taste and less of a dry note at the end, but the strength overall can be seen in the color of the brew and aroma of the tea. It’s possible it comes from storage, however it is noticeable that it has lost some of that ‘umph’ that a good roasty DHP has.

i think that’s 3 for 3 on this tea. Not good. Christina saved this for me to try. it’s like…it’s flat. or something. the very very very start of the sip is chocolatey and gets your hope up, and then everything else that this tea brings is like a giant slap in the face, it’s so bad. like ick. the contradiction of that potential followed by awful disappointment is just no.

I’d been drinking this all week at work and while it’s a really good everyday black – I didn’t think it was anything special. (What I was drinking I bought Nov15)
And then there was a sample of it in the box that Sil sent to me. That’s what I’m drinking today. Not sure when she picked it up – but this is totally different than my package – or it’s totally different steeped at home vs work.
I just find it interesting that this is really good – nice and dark, malty, bready. Could be the love from a friend theory – it could be home vs work – it could be a different harvest. What ever it is – I’m very happy to be drinking this today. Thanks Sil for sharing. :)

So, I was about to start writing this, then glanced down to see what Ubacat’s review was going to be like, since she sent me this in a swap.

She didn’t like it. In fact, she positively hated it. That makes me feel a bit better, because when I had this tea this morning, I was unimpressed by it, even though I had 2 steeps. (ETA: Ubacat wrote her review just 7 hours ago! Imagine us having the same tea for the first time on the same day! Uba, we have such synchronicity!)

This is smoky, but it’s a very straightforward, bleh sort of smoke. Not nuanced or subtle. I detected notes of camphor in the brew, too, but otherwise it was a really dry and woody flavour.

Perhaps I’m spoiled because the first Lapsang Souchong tea I ever tried was Teavivre’s blend, and that’s still my favourite. Tell me, folks: did I ruin myself for all other LS teas by trying the Teavivre one first?

Sil expressed some interest in this, so I’m saving the rest to give her at the Toronto Tea Festival next week.

This tea was horrible. Over smoked and even though I could smell chocolate in the dry leaf I couldn’t pick it up in the brewed. I did a second brewing just to see if the chocolate notes would come out more and the smoked taste would die down. The smoked taste was lighter but still no chocolate.

I threw both cups out. I got plenty of tea in my cupboard without wasting time on a tea I don’t like.

I was intrigued by the thought of ground black tea, so I ordered it. I’ve been making it for lattes only and I love it. It’s quite easy to add something else for flavouring like rose water, but I like it just as well without. When I make a latte it has a nice smooth taste. I expected it to taste unusually strong, but it didn’t. I will order this tea again.

Playing catch-up in LP’s 2015 Aged Oolong Group Buy.

These were supposed to be mini tuo made out of Oolong. LP did mention that it was actually a black tea pressed. I noticed sharper malty flavours, like dian hong. I dont drink a lot of black, and certainly not gongfu. It wasnt up my street to be honest! I’m probably making it wrong or something – I treated it like I would gongfu Pu or gongfu Oo – flash steeps etc. I dont think its that kind of tea.

The aroma from the gaiwan was really nice though, and having something fun to get our teeth into is always a welcome addition.

I need to review it deeper but at the moment this is not worth buying more of it.

With 5gr and 90ºC water steeped for 15sec the brew is too weak, not much flavour. For 95ºC and 30sec it’s a bit bitter. Maybe a small sweet afetertaste.

What I don’t like about it is that I found 2 small green plastic threads.

I will let it age a bit before brewing it again.

Mine is not the premium version, it’s the normal:

I find it vegetal, with a floral aftertaste. It’s soft and sweet. I like it.

I use to brew it western style with:

2.5gr of leaves
1.5’ of infusion
85ºC water

A good everyday drinker.

Sipdown 2 of 2016! A sample. Received 2/2015 – Finished 1/2016.

I brewed this gongfu today and it definitely changed my impression of it for the better. It was really sweet and caramel like. There was a lot more depth to this tea than when I brewed it western. I really enjoyed this.

I received a sample of this from DonkeyTiera. Thank you!

I am not sure what to make of this tea II think I really under leafed it. It was slight bead/sugar taste to it. I will have to come back to this one and add more leaf.

I’m going to review it fast & dirty.

The sample that I get (50gr) smells smoky (not too much).

Boiling water 5sec — it’s smooth, sweet, with no bitterness and no smoky favour.

20sec with boiling water — there’s some sweetness, mid body, no smoke, no bitterness, really smooth.

I need to review it deeper with a long session, but at the moment I like it because of the lack of bitterness and smoke. A its price ($24 for 400gr) I think that’s a good deal for a daily drinker. ($0.06 per session).

I bought this cake a while ago but I haven’t taste it since till now.

The cake smells like grapes liquour. It has a dark brown colour and it’s not too pressed (I broke it with my hands)

The first brew was at 90-95ºC, 45sec — it has a really weak flavour, amber colour, really weak sweet flavour, mid body, mellow, smooth and not too sweet.

The second brew with lower temp (80ºC aprox and 1min) has the same flavour but maybe a little more sweet.

I don’t know if I have burned the leaves with more than 90ºC for the first brew or that bai mu dan is like this when ages…

I’m not going to buy it again. This 65 rating it’s due to the lack of ugly flavours, but in my opinion it’s too weak in flavour.

This is my first da hong pao. The cake is not hard to break down.

The wet leaves has a strong mix smell of tobacco, fruit and smoke.

The brew is quite dark for 4.35gr of leaves and 110ml with boiling water.

Now let’s go with the taste:

1- boiling water, 30sec: tobacco, fruit and sweet.

2- the same as the first brew, the only change is that the taste is not as strong as the first one.

3- 85ºC, 2min lighter flavour, the stronger flavour is the tobacco one.

I don’t like it much but because it seems that I don’t like dark oolongs like da hong pao, I prefer greener oolongs such as Nilgiri ones. So this is personal taste, not saying that this da hong pao is bad.