Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea

Got this as a sample from Teavivre several months ago. Thanks, Angel!

Anyway, I’m not terribly experienced with green teas in general— so far, I know that I really enjoy long jing and bi luo chun, but I’ve admittedly done little else in the exploration of green teas.

I’m presently drinking this grandpa style after a random flash steep with my infuser (I changed my mind and decided to go grandpa style right after).

For the flash steep (a large splash of room temperature with 208F water, so I’d guess somewhere around 170F) : Sweet, creamy/buttery, refreshing. Not at all vegetal.

Grandpa style (probably closer to 180F this time): Vegetal, simultaneously savoury and sweet. Somewhat nutty. Light but pleasant astringency.

Overall, I really like it. Light but flavourful and not too subtle. Quite refreshing. I’m very tempted to get more but good grief my tea box is overflowing.

Brewed tea and wet leaf smells strongly of chestnut.
Flavour is nutty but dilute. I will try to use more leaf next time and infuse for a bit longer

One of the biggest and main reasons as to why I haven’t shut the door totally on green tea is because one of the first teas my dad brought home from China for me was a green tea and I was absolutely in love with it!
The writing was only in Mandarin on the package, so I still have no idea what it is. I just remember what it looks like. And it looks really really similar to Dragon Well.
These leaves are a bit rougher and thinner than the green tea I loved. So It might have been a different kind of dragonwell or…a tea very similar to this one.
Haven’t figured it out. xD
But!
Even if this isn’t the tea I loved, this tea sure is good!
It tastes like spinach (which I love!), and it’s actually kinda roasty. I kinda actually…dare I say this…
I actually like this tea.
GREEN tea.
Really surprised by this one. A green tea that it’s Genmaicha that I actually like. :O Well, there’s a first for everything. But my quest for the tea I used to drink must continue.
I will enjoy the rest of this sample though. (:
Albertocanfly, you should be proud of me drinking green tea!

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 29

Gongfu cha time!

Okay, this tea probably wasn’t the best choice for the gongfu treatment as the flavor didn’t change all that much between steeps, but I still really enjoyed the ritual of it all, and it was fucking freezing today so I was craving some cozy green tea goodness!

This was also my first time using my new mini tea tray and double-walled glass cha hai. I very much enjoyed them both, aesthetically and functionally!

The dry leaves were beautiful and had a sweet, soft aroma of alfalfa hay, freshly cut grass, and bean sprouts. I started with a 5s rinse, which I tasted (of course). It was so delicious and full of flavor that I adjusted my planned steep times to start shorter and increase more slowly.

As I said, the flavor here didn’t change a whole lot during the session. The first couple of steeps were very smooth with a strong vegetal spinach note and a lovely creamy, roasty nuttiness reminiscent of cashews. There was also a soft grain note that melded seamlessly with the nuts.

I followed TeaVivre’s directions and started at 185°, but once I started to find some bitterness in the second and third steeps, I reduced the temperature to my usual 175° and had better results. There were some light apricot and floral notes that showed up in the middle steeps and stayed until the end. Otherwise, the flavor remained somewhat vegetal with a nice combination of sweet and savory notes and a strong nutty presence.

As the flavor began to fade, I found the vegetal notes lightened first, which left me with a delicious sweet and nutty infusion that I practically gulped down.

I really do love long jing. I’m sure in the future, it would make more sense to steep it Western-style, but I have no regrets! :)

4g – 120ml – 175/185°F – 5/10/20/20/30/40/60s

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

27/28 sipdowns

I’m cheating a little on this one because the other half is going to my friend who is so awesome about bringing tea over the borders for me. Since she’ll be bringing me 3 little teas, i figured i should make room for those by giving her a few more teas to try. I’m not sure if i prefer this one or the other dragonwell from teavivre that i tried recently. What i’m sure if, is that i’d never drink this fast enough for it to stay fresh. I will likely look in to buying sampler though in future to be able to have a few of these around. sooooo tasty and green and delicious (don’t look at me teafairy!)

This was part of my qiveaway sampler. It smells very vegetal. The flavour reminds me of vegetable broth. Might be good with soup.

Thank you to Angel & Teavivre for this sample!
4G + test tube steeper (5 – 6oz) @ 185F X 30/60/90/120seconds
Rich & green, with butter & chestnut. Each successive steep became a little greener, a little thicker, with a slight growing bitterness, but not in a bad way.
A lovely Dragon well!

My teeeeeeeeaaaaaaa haaaaaaassssssss arriiiiiiiiived! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Thank you Angel for these generous samples! All greens, and I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just picked one and went with it.

The smell of green tea usually bothers me. It always smells vegetal and I honestly don’t like that smell much. The scent was stronger steeping than it was dry, but I reminded myself that the scent doesn’t always mean that it will taste that way—and it didn’t!

I’m sipping it now as I type, actually, to ensure the flavours and feelings stay in my head. It does have a touch of the vegetal taste, but not the way the scent suggested. It is sweet and floral, and has a nutty taste—not too strong, and not bitter in any way. There is also a buttery mouth feel, and, since I added cream, it has a creamy taste and I love it.

It’s very light and yummy, and I’m really enjoying this. I have one more cupful in my teapot, so I’m off to finish this!

Second Cup Update

For my second cup I used less sugar and cream, and I just wanted to note that the nutty flavour is much more apparent now. I still love it, which surprises me, because “earthy” flavours usually are not my favourite. This tea is so good, it makes me so happy!

Thank you for Angel at Teavivre for the generous sample!

Dry: I was excited to be able to see Dragon Well again. It has been a while and this is a tea that I generally enjoy. The dry leaf smells notably savory (almost brothy before it is even brewed) with a hint of sweet. The flattened green leaves look like the bud and the leaves pushed together during the drying process.

Steeped: I used a lot of tea for this because I know I generally enjoy Long Jing so the liquor is clear and yellow-olive, though I imagine it would be lighter and more sunshine-y for someone brewing less at a time. The steeped aroma is almost like a vegetable broth, losing the sweet leaf note, but keeping the savory goodness.

Taste: This tastes pretty magical for Dragon Well lovers, though I would watch the steep time. The label says 1-6 minutes so I went with 4.5 (Western style), but I think 3 might have been better. It is the tiniest bit bitter at the end of each sip, which is unfortunate and I know is preventable. I will brew this again at a lower steep time and see how much more magical it can be. :) Anyhoo, it is buttery, savory, reminds me of buttered boiled green vegetables with a tiny hint of sweet and bitter. It is thoroughly enjoyable as it is, but I know I can do better. Love me some Dragon Well and it is a good start to the day before we hit the mountain bike trails.

I have not really gotten a grip on all of the various Long JIngs available chez Teavivre. This one, the Premium, I brewed up today and am now scratching my head at my last review. Maybe I was having a bad tea day? That happens, of course… It’s also possible that I underleafed or underheated.

Today’s batch was nutty and slightly sweet and very appealing and smooth. It’s time to increase my rating. In order to adjudicate all of these fine Long Jing offerings, I probably need to just break down and order a full bag of each, so that I can do some serious steep-offs chez sherapop.

N’est-ce pas??!!!!!