Da Fo Long Jing (Big Buddha Dragon Well)

Thank you to cha dao (Now known as Alex_Allen) for this gift of tea!

I met Alex at the Rocky Mt. Tea Festival on Saturday!
He’s a very handsome and charming fellow!
(I know he’d hate me saying that but he can get back at me now that he knows how talkative and annoying I am in person!).

Alex walked right on up to me at the end of my Cooking with Tea class (which had 5 courses and was yum-o) and said “Are you Bonnie?” And he handed me this tea gift. (Here you’re supposed to say “Awe, wasn’t that nice.”)
Well, I had a tea gift for him too…so we were being true to our Steepster selves and didn’t shame all of you our online friends.

We took an Oolong class together. I’ll talk about that when I do an Oolong tea review.

So, this was quite a big gift! Alex has no idea that before leaving Boulder, I stopped at Peppercorn (kitchen goods) and bought two 6oz tumblers just to prepare this tea (wanted it to be special).

Tea Time
The dry leaves were very pretty as though someone had pressed prescious blades of tea in the pages of an enormous book between waxed paper.
Vibrant greens in varigated shades, most unbroken, two leaves and often a pale bud.
When I stuck my nose into the bag there was a salty buttered spinach smell. Made me hungry.

The first 2 minute steep was so pretty. The green leaves glistening and swirling in my glass. Pale yellow green color and slightly sweet bean scented.
If you could catch the color and drink it…this would be what I tasted. The lightest bean and a vaporous sweetness.
No astringency or dryness at all.

For the second steep the leaves became larger and turned green with yellow.
I played lazily with the leaves, swirling them around, up and down until I was ready to strain them into the second tumbler.
I could have gone longer I’m sure… because this tea doesn’t become astringent.

At the sipping, I was pleased at the sweetness. There was a floral scent that was not present before. At first I thought of vanilla and jasmine but then changed my mind and thought of more of honeysuckle. (You have to consider these things for awhile)
Even though the tea was juicy and sweeter than before, there was a dryness under the tongue yet still no bitterness or astringenty on the finish.
The light sweet bean flavor was the only vegital taste. The mouthfeel not thin but also not buttery.
I wanted to see what would happen when the tea cooled.

After a few minutes, while the tea was still warm, I took a sip and discovered that the tea had become very silky. I thought there might be a transition to buttery as I’ve experienced before but this was very smooth, not thick at all and delightfully silky!

I can see why Alex loves this tea! It’s very forgiving if you mess up the steep time. Silky smooth when cooled and not astringent. Lightly fragrant and sweet.

Thank you Alex…it was a pleasure to meet you!

This is by far my favorite green tea, other than Seven Cups’ Shi Feng Long Jing, which is a bit out of my price range to have on a daily basis. Da Fo Long Jing has evenly shaped dry tea leaves, indicating the masterful processing that it went through. The wet leaves reveal very few broken leaves with a picking standard of one bud to two young tender leaves. I have let the first steeping sit for as long as ten minutes, and it did not even get bitter! I could drink this tea straight out of the glass with the leaves steeping right in there and not have a problem. The flavor is intensely nutty and sweet, and the leaves yield at least five good steepings. This tea is truly the work of a master

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. In total, I bought 340 g of green tea, which in hindsight is a lot of green tea. I seriously overestimated how much green tea I would be able and willing to drink, which is why this little experiment is still ongoing. For Part 2 of this three-part extravaganza, I bought four Longjings from Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups.

Tea bush: Longjing #43
Location: Xinchang County, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang
Picking date: March 21, 2024
Price/g: US$1.04

As part of this project, I wanted to compare the heirloom Longjing variety with the more prolific Longjing No. 43, which is supposed to have a nuttier, less complex flavour profile. Seven Cups sells both of these teas. For the comparison session, I steeped 2.4 g of all four teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent, not to say bitter, steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma of these long, beautiful, mainly unbroken leaves is of chestnuts, butter, roasted grains, green beans, and spinach. The first steeps give me candied chestnuts, hazelnuts, roasted grains, green beans, and asparagus, with some woody bitterness. Did I mention these steeps are potent? Later steeps feature more candied chestnuts, along with beans, other veggies, and slightly bitter roast, with the final steeps being roasty, nutty, buttery, and vegetal.

Bowl style, the first few steeps have notes of roast, chestnut, hazelnut, grain, butter, asparagus, spinach, and faint florals. The tea has a strong vegetal backbone balanced by smooth, nutty, roasty flavours and no bitterness or astringency. The next few steeps give me green beans and a wonderfully round, nutty, buttery, roasted grain profile. The final steeps have notes of butter, nuts, green beans, and lettuce.

If you bowl steep this tea, it will reward you with a nicely roasted, sweet, nutty profile with pleasant beany notes and no bitterness to speak of. The flavours are well integrated enough that it’s hard to pick them apart, and there are absolutely no off notes. Overleafing this tea will yield less pleasant results. This Longjing is well made and deceptively simple.

Lovely green tea. Bright, vegetal/grassy. Slightly astringent, but very fresh tasting. Perfect cup to wake you up in the morning.