Organic Nonpareil Ming Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea

First tea from the teabox!

Best dragonwell that I’ve had. Very mild with apricot, chestnut, and slight artichoke flavors. Most of the leaves appeared very young, and there where a few silvery buds as well. This is a sweet, gentle dragonwell nice for tea drinkers like myself who don’t like very vegetal greens.

Free sample from Teavivre. Thank you.

The bright green, flat leaves instantly tell me this is a Long Jing. The aroma of the dry leaf is grassy and pleasant like a spring meadow. Upon steeping, the aroma becomes savoury, as I would expect. It sets my taste buds tingling. The liquor is a lovely greenish yellow colour with a delicate savoury aroma. It is not as robust as others that I have tried, promising a delicate, more gentle experience. Sipping the tea I notice the nuttiness first and the warmth on my tongue. The aftertaste sparkles, for want of a better word. It is sweet and tingly. I think I prefer this to the other Long Jings that I have had. It is less ‘in ya face’ and has greater depth. The non-pareil label is definitely well-deserved.

Sipping on this extraordinary tea all morning, breathing in the heady aroma and looking forward to another cup…

Full review at http://ratetea.com/review/2790/

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

This is my first time trying a high-end/more expensive dragon well, so I chose to prepare it as Teavivre’s suggests.

First steep tasted very delicate, light, buttery, vegetal, sweet (with some cinnamon background) and crisp. I couldn’t detect any off-putting flavours.

Second through fifth steeps were consistent, with the flavour building up in my mouth at each sip. It weakened very gradually, which was enjoyable.

Overall, I had high expectations and this tea met them. Can’t say I’ve tried a lot of dragon well teas (or high end ones for that matter), but this one really pleased me. Definitely worth trying once.

As a side note, I really like the flavour so I went ahead and prepared my second sample “western style”. It’s still really good, but I prefer short steeps (plus I love watching the leaves in my gaiwan).

Steep parameters (Teavivre’s recommendations):

100ml gaiwan, 4g, 5 steeps (rinse,20s,40s,1m10s,2m,2m30s)
(spot on directions, it turned out wonderful)

Had this midday and WHOA 7g is waaaaaay too much leaf for 8oz of water, unless I’ve misunderstood the packaging/site directions somehow. I wondered when I was preparing it as it seemed like double or even beyond that in terms of leaf amount. Turned me jittery as all get out. It did taste nice, but I’m bummed I messed it up as it’s such a fancy dragonwell relatively speaking. Will compare it to the Premium this week hopefully. I have to admit often I’m secretly hoping not to be absolutely blown away by Teavivre’s teas because of the distance and all that (and the fact for some reason USPS requires me to pick Teavivre packages and only Teavivre packages up at the station without fail). Unfortunately sometimes it can’t be avoided (Milk Oolong!).

This is the second of two Dragonwell samples I was sent by Teavivre.

This one was a little sweeter then the first one I tried and seemed to have a more balanced flavor profile. The only negative thing I can think to say about this is that I wasn’t able to get as many steeps out of the leaves as I did with the other one. Though the steeps I did get were very good.

Beautiful 2013 spring samples courtesy of the preeminently generous Angel over at Teavivire. I was shocked at how many she sent me when I contacted her about the 2013 harvest. When I find a tea I like, I tend to buy significant quantity, so having this reference is truly appreciated. You rock Angel!

Well, let’s call this Part 1 of 3 in my Teavivre Long Jing Smackdown. All in all I was provided with samples of the Organic Long Jing, Premium and this Organic Nonpareil Ming Qian. I prepared them all in my variation of the Tall Glass Method, where I decant each infusion, leaving a root. Tasting notes on the other 2 teas can be found in my Tea Log:

http://steepster.com/markballou

I really wanted to be the first to post a review of this tea, but I didn’t want to rush, particularly because my findings were a little perplexing. Initially I sampled each of the teas separately, reserving some dry leaf to compare. I noticed that the leaf of all 3 teas was very well photographed on the website and representative of what I was sent. Kudos to Teavivre for providing great photo documentation that is not overly manipulated.

I was shocked that all three dry teas looked and smelled almost identical. I really expected to see something to differentiate them. I first tried the Premium, and without going into detail I again was surprised to find that there wasn’t a huge difference in the flavor profiles, aroma and color of the liquor in comparison to the Ming Qian and the Organic Long Jing. I thought I’d see vast differences, but either A) my palate isn’t refined enough to tell the difference, or B) these teas really aren’t significantly different.

To see if maybe my memory was failing me day to day, I decided to do a single sitting, side by side comparison. I’d spread the initial tastings out over 3 days as there was no way was I going to do 3 full servings in one day or I’d be bouncing off the walls. For my comparison I cut the tea by a 3rd the size of my usual servings and prepared them each the same way. For my finding on the other teas, see their respective tasting notes.

As for this tea, the highest price of the 3, I like it. It’s a good Long Jing. None of them were particularly chestnutty, as is often the descriptor for Long Jings, and this one I would say was the least. Most significant for me was that it had an overall more refined, smooth profile and a sweeter aroma. The mouthfeel was clean with a light, dry astringency on the periphery and a lingering subtle sweet aftertaste. I don’t have any food comparisons or vegetables that it reminds me of. No green beans here or spinach, just telltale Dragon Well. Sometimes you’ll see a mild smokiness or toasted element to Long Jings. Not so much for any of these. Though I DO get a little toasty note here, just more of a backdrop than center stage.

I got about 4 steeps out of each of these, steeps 2-4 with a root. The first about 1 min (30 swirled + 30 steeped), 2nd about 30 secs w/ the previous well-soaked root, the 3rd about 1-1.5 mins and the 4th I drank from the tall glass. The Ming Qian started falling apart, along with the Premium, tasting a bit vacant on the 4th steep, but remained quite drinkable. I could probably coax a 5th steep out of this but I’m not motivated. Yeah, motivated myself— 5th, not so much.

Is it worth paying premium for the Ming Qian? Maybe if you want to get stupid like me and go crazy with a comparison, really splitting hairs to see the minor differences between Teavivre’s offerings. But honestly, for my taste, I don’t see the need to spend the extra ducats.

Caffeine. After a side by side like this, all I can say is “Yes.” I’m pretty confident that I could depend on this tea to keep my inner fire burning late in the day and rub the cobwebs out of my eyes in the AM. As for now I’m certainly motivated to write all three tasting notes, one after the other while still fresh in my mind.

Thank you once again, Angel and TeaVivre, for another sample!

OK. I don’t want to beat a dead horse (or tea leaf) but green teas and I aren’t close. I’ll try them and any other variety of tea, but I’m a black tea kind of guy.

When I opened the sample package for this selection, a fairly strong grassy aroma burst forth. The leaves were full, bright green, and flat.

I steeped this rascal for two minutes at 175 degrees. The brewed aroma was again grassy and a touch sweet. The color was a fairly golden green (which became bright gold after 30 minutes of post-brewed heating).

I was pleasantly surprised by the moderately full taste of this tea. Sometimes green teas don’t contain enough flavor to completely register with my taste buds. This selection had a very recognizable grassy and sweet flavor. The taste was light and lively with an equally affable aftertaste.

I’m not ready to replace my stash of black teas with green blends, but I did find this variety quite pleasant to sip during the early afternoon. I’m sure I would also enjoy it during my days off from work when my brain doesn’t require as much kick-starting.

Longjing isn’t really my thing. I enjoy it on occasion, but I generally find it almost too savory for frequent drinking. Anyway, this one is fantastic. The aroma is very fresh, with strong, sweet, and slightly nutty characteristics. The dry leaves look to be of great quality: bright green, tons of fuzz, with a few pockets here and there sticking to the leaves. Almost entirely of buds, but there are some broken leaves and extraneous materials scattered throughout. All in all, though, very consistent.

I have found this particular version to be somewhat finicky to brew, though I particularly enjoyed it “grandpa style” (if anyone follows MarshalN), with minimal leaves, sipping from an open gaiwan, filling it back up with water once it gets a bit past halfway. Pretty much the traditional style, but I prefer it in a gaiwan instead of a glass. In this way, a clear, light-jade green liquor is produced that is crisp, light, and buttery, with the characteristic Longjing “chestnut” flavor. The aftertaste is sweet, fresh, and induces salivation.

Preparing it gong fu leads to too much umami flavors and an “overly green” taste (if that makes any sense), especially with too high a quantity of leaves. However, depth increases at least three-fold this way. This makes sense, but the level to which it increased was surprising to me. At any rate, this way or grandpa style both provided decent staying power throughout steeps. All in all I was impressed, and I am thankful for an opportunity to sample this tea.

I’m a little let down, because certainly teavivre has bragged enough about this tea. And it is alright. Is it the best? no. Does it taste like a pre-ming qian? no. Does it taste like a dragonwell? yes.

I guess what irritates me is the “Non pareil” label they have given the tea. I’ve certainly had better.

A nice salty sweetness, but really not as complex as it needs to be.