Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea

Thanks to the lovely Cameron B for sharing this tea with me!

Method: 4 balls, 6 oz, 200 degrees, 5 min, banko houhin (Eeeeee!!!!)

Aroma: smells a little malty and roasty. I catch a little hint of cocoa, too.

Flavor: I think it’s pretty solid. It has a nice weight, and a mild malty taste. It only has a bare hint of bitterness, and a slight astringent finish. The flavor lingers nicely. I think this would be a great candidate for a little maple booster, but I didn’t try that yet.

I ended up doing two steeps blended into one mug because the leaves really sucked up a lot of water. Both were 5 minutes long. To sum up – I wouldn’t kick this one out of bed. LOL

I slept in this morning, and now I feel a little groggy and out of my element. I’ve got a lot of stuff/chores to do, and ‘cos I feel so bleh, it’s gonna be hard to get going.

So to make myself feel better I decided chocolate was the way to go. Chocolate tea, that is. YUM! Malty, chocolatey deliciousness.

Thanks for the sample, Dexter!

Hello everyone, I hope you’re all having good weekends! I decided to do gong fu with this tea today because I felt like I wasn’t getting the full potential when I tasted it western-style. I mostly used TeaVivre’s parameters, but adjusted the amount of water to 4 ounces and then used 4 grams of tea, which turned out to be 4 pearls. I also used 200 degree water instead of boiling.

The method: 4g tea per 4oz water, 200 degrees, 10s rinse/30/50/70/90/120s

Rinse (10s): very light, woody, golden raisins (the pearls puffed up but held their shape)

Steep 1 (30s): strong bitter cocoa with some woodiness, burnt sugar (the pearls fell apart completely!)

Steep 2 (50s): very earthy in a mineral sense (licking a rock comes to mind), bitter cocoa

Steep 3 (70s): mellower earthiness, autumn leaves, dark but not bitter cocoa

Steep 4 (90s): very similar to steep 2, earthy and highly mineral

Steep 5 (120s): similar to steep 3, mellow earth with autumn leaves, buttered toast!

So, I was not a big fan of those highly earthy and mineral steeps… In fact, I didn’t finish either of them. Just blegh. My favorites were the first and last steeps, which suggests to me that maybe I should try this again with shorter steeps? Or maybe I’ll just stick to western-style with this one.

Any suggestions for a gong fu method that won’t bring out so much earthy/mineral flavor would be greatly appreciated! I only have enough of this left for one more cup or session… So I want to get it right! :P

I also noticed that there’s a tad bit of water left in the bottom after I drain the leaves. I’m assuming this is okay, since I don’t see how I would get all of it without dumping into a strainer. Would love to be corrected if I’m wrong!

I keep wanting to call this Black Pearls. It has a nice chocolate scent (that could also be my kitchen, as I just made cakes). The flavour is a bit towards the mildly sweet hot cocoa side. Not overly strong, just delicious.

This is my first shot at little balls of tea! What happy things they appear to be…like gum balls but all black! I am charmed. Since my western brewing tea ware of choice is 16 oz, I just unceremoniously dumped all the balls in the wee sample packet into the pot and steeped for 8 minutes….half way between the 5-10 minute recommendation. Well! Those wee tea balls sure opened into some larger leaves! Unexpected! (Kind of reminds me of those little gelatin capsules that had the sponges shaped like animals smooshed inside them and you let them float in the bathtub til they became sponges…) The dry smell of the leaf was chocolatey and tea-y. Wet….well, they just kind of smelled like wet leaves to me! Not quite sure why, but wet hot leaves and a touch of hot wet earth. Once in the cup, I found that the tea’s aroma had that chocolate note I detected in the dry leaf/balls, a bit of hot wet earth and just a smidgen of malt. Less malt than I was expecting by looking at the reviews, actually! The flavor profile has the chocolate and warm wet earth notes and adds a bit of a raisin middle note to it. There’s not much of a top note to this tea, so I would say that this is a deep-flavored tea for days when you need “grounding”…. something that helps you settle into the middle of your problems and start to relax to truly come up with solutions… It’s that kind of tea…oh, it’s also something they would probably enjoy in the Shire. Take your pick of the mental pictures provided above and have a cup! (I know which one you will probably choose, my precious!)

A sample from Miss B, I’d been wanting to try this one based on all the reviews!

I have never had any tea in pearl form before, so it was pretty neat to watch them unfurl. Times like this I wish I had a clear glass teapot!

I was expecting more chocolate from this tea, I found it tasty, different from other black teas I’ve tried. I didn’t notice any cocoa notes and no fruity notes, but I found it to be mildly earthy in a pleasant way, not like a pu’erh. I have no idea what leather tastes like but that actually might be a description that makes sense, since I can’t quite put my finger on anything else.

I used three pearls and have three left to try again!

Thanks Bonny!

My dwindling stock continues to provide a fantastic, cocoa infused cup of calm that is delicious. Steeping 6 good sized pearls with boiling water at 2, 2.5 and 3 minutes yields three enjoyable experiences with some variation in presence of the cocoa taste. Enjoying my last cups of the harvest of 2013. What a great tea.

I have removed all sense of rationing these magic pearls as my order is in and soon to ship. I will leave my rating where previously set and await the new harvest.

As the shipment of the new harvest approaches I hope that the 2015 harvest rises to, or dare I say exceeds, the quality of the harvest of 2013. Hope springs eternal :)

Got this as a sample in my last Teavivre order. A fifteen second rinse made the leaves open up and release a heady, dark chocolatey fragrance. I used 4 pearls with about 10 oz of water just under boiling for 2 minutes. “Slight” flavor of chocolate…ha! The predominant flavor to me is chocolate/cocoa. It’s rich, malty and juicy, with a thick lingering sweetness. It’s not a heavy tea by any means. It’s very light on the tongue, but the flavors that stay after sipping are full and rich. Delicious…not overly complex, but very satisfying to me. I could use it as a comfort tea. I’m sad that I only have a sample of this left. (: I’d like to spend more time with this, maybe gong fu brew it over a day.

These were my first dragon pearls and I was very excited to try them out. I used 6 pearls for 16 oz of water and steeped them for 5 minutes which I felt was long but that is what the site instructed. Luckily, the end result is neither bitter nor astringent. Instead, it is a smooth and slightly malty cup with notes of chocolate and Earth. I have another 6 pearls and when I brew those up, I might try a shorter steep time to see how that impacts the flavor as I am hoping to tone down the earth quality a bit and highlight the chocolate. Milk/sweetener might also do the trick but this cup I have chosen to drink straight and I am enjoying it nonetheless. Thank you Dexter for sharing these with me. It has been a fun experience for my first time with dragon pearls :).

I had a sample of this once — I remembered that I liked it, but totally mis-remembered what it tasted like. This may be the most complex tea I’ve ever tasted. I used 4 balls and steeped 4 minutes — though 3 might have been enough, as it turned out quite strong. Most noticeable is the sharp tang of molasses. There actually is something in the flavor that reminds me of leather, as unlikely as this sounds. Also a hint of chocolate-raisin. I’m just hitting the highlights here. It makes me think of lapsang souchong, but it’s not actually a smoky tea, I think the correlation is just that they’re both so strong and multi-layered. It really is a difficult tea to describe. It’s good though, and definitely an experience.