Mrs. Li's Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea

This is possibly one of the most beautiful teas in my collection, it’s beautiful ‘leaf and bud’ sets floating gracefully, gradually swelling and unfolding, and finally sinking to the bottom.

I brewed it per the Dragonwell style directions on the Verdant product page, and have been savoring it all morning, along with an occasional cup of the Laoshan black for contrast, which is still in my Gaiwan (who knows how many cups I’ve had of that by now). When I drink it this way, no matter how much I try to blow the tea across the top of the cup, I always end up with tea in my mouth. No problem, it gives me something to chew on and contemplate.

Sweet, savory, vegetal. I don’t drink it everyday, but probably should drink it more often, and I’ll be sad when it’s gone.

Finally, I feel like I have enough time to try this tea and do it justice! However, although I’d love to try the authentic dragonwell method, I simply can’t drink hot tea, and can only envision oversteeping occurring as a result of attempting it (although one day I think I’ll give it a shot, I just really don’t want to burn my tongue right now!), so I’m trying a western-brewing sort of thing. I measured out 3g of leaf, popped it into a brew basket, and went with a 1-minute infusion at 175F, hoping that it would work out.

I’m happy to report that I was quite successful – the tea has a light, sweet aroma and a rock sugar flavour much like the Tung Ting Vietnam oolong I just drank from DavidsTEA, however there are light seaweedy notes mixed in here, and additional vegetal notes… and so much more that my poor brain can’t seem to describe! Short version? This is delicious, and a perfect tea selection for this evening. The seaweedy notes I’m getting here are what differentiate this most in my mind from the Dragonwell-style Laoshans, which have the rock sugar sweetness but IMO much less complexity aside from that, with only the green beany sort of flavour. This tea is also so, so smooth.

Very impressed with this one, even though I didn’t brew it as recommended! Onto a second infusion shortly, as I know greens do not take well to sitting overnight prior to re-steeping (in my experience), and I really want to see how this one lasts!

ETA: Second infusion for 1:15 is lighter and less distinctive, but still quite tasty. The vegetal notes are a bit more in the background, and I almost feel like I’m getting a hint of a popcorn sort of flavour… air-popped, we’re not talking buttery here. Yum. Still smooth as anything. I think I’ll try for at least one more infusion (probably 2 minutes) before thiefing some of my roommate’s sesame oil and munching on the leaves…

I’ve had this tea for a while, I can’t remember how long it’s been. It smells so nutty and tastes so sweet and vegetal. I have definitely enjoyed this tea a lot and will consider getting some more if it becomes available (don’t see it on Verdant’s site anymore).

Mrs. Li’s Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea has arrived!

It seems like this tea present (more than purchase) will be arriving today (and the rest of this week) in households across North America and then around the World. ANTICIPATION!

I didn’t hesitate and went to the Verdant website, transferred all the information about the tea to Steepster so that we could review our Dragonwell together as it arrives.

Next, I read ‘How to Brew’ which I highly, HIGHLY recommend!

I chose the tumbler brewing method with 5oz. tea leaves, and luckily I had a gallon of Spring water left in the frig.
The quality of the water is very important with this particular tea.

With the tumbler method there was no straining of leaves, no timing of steepings and no worry. The process was very relaxed.

The leaves were jade green, very flat and had a fine white powder on them.

Following the brewing instructions carefully, I filled my tumbler and began blowing the leaves out of the way… sipping what looked like clear water.
That was fun.
I had to take off my glasses…the steam blinded me!

The sight of swirling green leaves and steam was beautiful.
Like the humid mist in the rain forest, I began to sip and think about green winged dragonflies, pure peridot colored leaves,
leaves swirling around like a school of fish.

I kept my eye on the level of the water in my tumbler and pushed the leaves away from my mouth by blowing on the leaves.
As the water level reached the lower third of the glass, I would fill it up again with water.
Blow on the leaves, sip, blow on the leaves, sip, pour in more water, blow on the leaves and sip.
That was all.

At times my technique of blowing leaves away and sipping had all the finesse of a whale sifting plankton. Some got caught in my mouth.

The flavor of the tea was savory soybean. This was the clearest, purest of pure flavors. No astringency, heat or bite. The sweetness was so subtle you hardly noticed.
The taste was soft but still rich and the mineral quality was like laying under a cool waterfall with the smell of wet granite and calcified rock.

As I continued pouring, the water turned pale green, and there was a bit of peppercorn heat.

My forehead became ‘tight’. Hum, I was aware that the tea was letting me know it’s potency. A well adorned object of beauty with hidden powers.

The last time I went swimming in the deep sea was 5 years ago in Kauai. The spot was off some enormous, jutting mountains (you might remember in ‘Lost’ or ‘Jurassic Park’) that go straight up and then straight down as jagged points back into the sea.
There in Kauai, the light penetrated the crystal water so deep that I watched small, flat, silver fish coming close to me then dart away. There was coral, giant marbled green rock…fern-like plants waving softly as though a gentle breeze was moving past them.

That is what I was thinking when I was drinking my tea. About the rocks, fish, sun and water, and the slow gentle movement of living things. I thought about me in the middle of it all floating.

When I finished my tea, I went to the cupboard, took down my small bottle of toasted sesame oil and put just a few drops on the tea leaves with a few grains of salt. (I could have added these to a salad but wanted to taste them as they were.)

They were delicious! Really, really good!

I can’t wait to hear the tasting adventures everyone else has with this tea. What fun, and what a pleasure to have this rare Dragonwell available to us.

This tea was elegant, refined and pure.

Thank you Mrs. Li for sharing your treasure with us!

Finally I have time to do the tasting this tea deserves! I had never had Dragonwell tea before, or even a Dragonwell-styled tea, so the appearance of the leaves was quite striking. They’re flat! As if they had been pressed. I prepared it Dragonwell style, with about 3g tea in the bottom of a glass mug, then adding 175˚ water and starting to drink as soon as it’s cool enough. That took a few minutes for me (I’m a wuss – I can’t drink 150˚ water :P) so the liquor was a lovely fragrant pale green by the time I tasted it, and in the meantime I got to enjoy the beauty of the leaves dancing in the water (they float, then some turn vertical and bob up and down a bit, and gradually most sink to the bottom, though several remain upright as if they might float again). It also has the slight haze you get from silver needle teas.

Anyway, once I could drink it this was quite flavorful. I’m not good at identifying green tea flavors, but this is definitely vegetal, some mineral, and a little spicy at times.

I’ve gone through about 16oz water now, and I like this better as it goes on. The flavor waxes and wanes as I add water and let it sit, but overall it gets fuller and sweeter.

Dragonwell is a tea I’ve only begun to appreciate lately, mostly because I’ve learned that you don’t need to steep it for very long. If steeped too strongly, it always develops that seaweed type taste I am not fond of, but if steeped for just a short time it develops into a buttery, grassy, tasty treat. So after going through this learning process, I’m very excited to try this particular dragonwell from Verdant. I set aside a little time after my run this morning to really spend some time with it.

Even with a 10 second steep I’m getting a little bit of seaweed in this, but it’s not overwhelming or too bright. In fact the flavor is darker than I expected- like the taste of fall grape vines (yes I actually chew on grape vines from the backyard sometimes). It is just slightly bitter, but again not unpleasantly so. There is definitely a buttery aspect to this which smooths out the dark veggies. It almost has a nutty quality to this flavor, somewhat like mashed chestnuts. The fruity, bright aftertaste reminds me of green grapes, like when you chew one, seeds and all. I never thought a green tea could remind me a vineyard, but this one does- It brings into my mind the image of a vineyard near the ocean. The taste of green grapes combined with the salty tang of sea air. Weird, but pleasant. I think I’ll have another cup! :-)

Having a few steeps of this in the gaiwan tonight, haven’t had it in a while! Enjoying the nutty green flavor tonight a lot! I have been lazy with tea notes today, had 2 other cups this afternoon but haven’t logged them yet. Haha, just relaxing today and have been watching Harry Potter. So yeah, See previous notes on this tea :)

I ordered this tea quite a while ago, but never got around to trying it because I didn’t have a scale to weigh the leaves and wasn’t confident on my ability to estimate. Then I finally brought my kitchen scale into work, but still I forgot that I had this tea and now could drink it, until just the other day. Well, I’m finally trying it now.

Let me start out by saying that I am attempting to follow the “dragowell style” steeping instructions on Verdant’s website. However, I am a little miffed that the instructions on Verdant’s site say nothing about the size of the “glass tumbler” used in this method. A medium sized gaiwan, I know what that means. There is not a standard size of a glass tumbler. :P

My cup is about 8oz I think, for anyone looking for the sizes people have used. Otherwise, I followed the instructions. Except for the fact that just about the entire batch of tea leaves is floating on the top of my in a thick layer (and my mug is a wide mouth!), making “blowing them out of the way” nearly impossible. I am definitely eating quite a few leaves, not exactly on purpose. Not to mention that in attempting to blow the leaves out of the way I am mostly succeeding in blowing water all over the place (the water moves, the tea leaves don’t!). This is not exactly an enjoyable way for me to drink a cup of tea.

With all the fussing and such, I couldn’t even concentrate on the tea. What I did taste was tasty, with a nice buttery-bakery flavor that I like in dragonwells. But this experience was not conducive to a review. I just don’t forsee myself brewing it this way again. Gaiwan/teapot it is, next time.

I bought a sample of this with my last Verdant order. I love green teas, but this is not my favorite. I feel like I should love it though! I wonder if I am steeping it wrong or something. It is a little bit too astringent or something for me. I do appreciate the vegetal and mineraly flavor and sweet smell. Also there is a richness I appreciate. Maybe I just steeped it too long…

Backlog:

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to try this tea as it is now sold out. This is one of the finest Dragon Well teas I’ve ever tried. No big surprise there, since Verdant Tea always seems to deliver some of the finest teas available! I can’t think of a time when they’ve ever disappointed me!

Sweet, creamy, nutty … delicious! I was surprised at how well I was able to distinguish the cashews in this tea. It really has a distinct cashew flavor. Slight grassy tones with hints of lima bean. A faint mineral taste as well. The creaminess took me by surprise as well, because I don’t ordinarily associate “creaminess” as a Dragon Well quality.

A really fine tea. Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/04/15/mrs-lis-shi-feng-dragonwell-green-tea-from-verdant-tea/