Dragonwell

Oh, hello my sweet. We’re reunited, I see. It’s good to have you. I’ve been lonely.

I’ve been playing around with the steeping time and proportions of this tea in the last three days, to find something to write about, today has the best results, but I think I shall try two minutes as well. This cup started off unexpectedly sweet, followed by some veg, then some rocky acidity (like tasting the soil), finished with nuttiness (though not as chestnut as I remember it being over the summer). Deeper in the cup there is indeed a bit of butterynes which is a lovely surprise, oh the roof of my mouth… I love this feeling. I have not gotten a good second steep from this and have not attempted a third, but will keep working with it, as I have plenty in my Forbidden Kingdom Collection and access as work.

Yesterday I finally put my two weeks notice in at work, though it may be three weeks as my manager asked as she left for evening if it was okay that she had put me on the next schedule, I was just like well… if you need me… she said she may adjust it. I will miss the free tea, the discount and my co-workers. I will not miss trying to push tea by the pound in over priced tins and feeling pressured to stalk my guests, thank you very much! She said I was welcome to come back in the fall, um no thanks, but maybe, just maybe for the holidays.

This tea was a gift from my well-meaning sister-in-law so I’m going to give it a try. I have NOT had good experience with Chinese greens in the past. Sure, there have been one or two that I’ve liked, but in general, not my favorite. In fact, some have been downright vile.

The dry leaf smells a bit minerally, but not grassy or seaweed-esque. After brewing the smell is a bit nutty – I think of the walnut type. Or perhaps it is the chestnut that is mentioned in the description, I’m not sure what chestnuts smell or taste like though so I am thinking walnut. After a short steep time, the color is a nice golden green with a bit of shimmer on the surface. Hey, this isn’t bad at all! The tea is a bit buttery, slightly sweet, and has a nutty flavor that again reminds me of walnuts. This makes me curious as to how many infusions this can go. I can see this being an everyday tea – it is easily drinkable and definitely enjoyable.

I just learned the basics of how to taste tea correctly and I must say that it has improved the taste of my tea! Dragonwell has a grassy flavor, but is very fine. It also has a light sweet aftertaste. I put it in a separate small cup (about a half cup) and let it steep and then slowly poured it out into a mug. This is the best it has tasted for me.

The local Teavana has Dragonwell back in stock and I, well, stocked up. It’s good to have this back in my cupboard. I’ve been drinking lots of it to make up for the lost time that I haven’t had it available.

In life, I’ve found someone new and I think that this is it this time. She drinks tea, but without the disguised snobbery about it that I do. Maybe she’ll bring some balance to me.

This was another gift from HarpLady, my big sis. I love the name. It conjures up images of a well guarded by dragons or some such. Just the thing for the imagination of an aspiring fantasy writer like me. My thoughts overflowed with images of water guarding, fire breathing reptiles as I measured a teaspoon of this variety into the tea strainer. When dry, it smelled grassy.

In the water, it gave off a green scent—Like. . .oh, I don’t know, maybe GREEN tea ? Yeah, that would be it. Seriously, though, it did smell very green and tea-y and also very plain. Not sure how happy I was about that. I’m partial to flavored teas. Still, it seemed only fair to give it a try.
It tasted…green. Very green-The essence of green tea, I suppose. A little astringent but just a touch, and not at all bitter to me. To my surprise, I rather liked it. I guess even an uncultured barbarian such as myself can learn to appreciate the subtler teas.
Actually, it did get a little bitter and a bit more astringent as it cooled, but not unpleasantly so. I’ve been told in retrospect that you have to watch the temperatures in some of these green teas as they can do that. My general approach is pretty basic— Boil the water, stick the tea in it, and set the timer for three minutes, so I may have to experiment with a subtler approach. But even with my course methods, this tea was not bad. I found it a nice change of pace.

P.S. My husband- the man who dumps tons of sugar in his tea, found this too bitter. It’s interesting how people’s tastes can differ.

Another from my swap with Michelle.

This is lovely! Almost… creamy? Kind of sweet and a very smooth, gentle nuttiness. No, not kind of sweet. There is a lovely sweetness in this, which becomes more obvious as the tea cools in my tea glass. A lovely first Dragonwell.

As stated in another review (Anji Duet) I have been a green tea drinker for some time. This has been one of the green teas of choice. It has a well balanced flavor, even when severely over-steeped (as in my old crude method of dropping leaves in the bottom of a cup, adding hot water and drinking at my leisure). This tea is ideal and an absolute staple in green tea, especially beginners because it is always delicious. It is good hot or cold, sweetened or unsweetened, during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd steeps and so on.

I’m not sure why I never logged this one. This was one of the first loose-leaf green teas I tried. I think I was just lazy. I did like this tea, though, and I’m sad to see it go. I was even sadder to not be able to finish the last of it, for I found mold on the leaves tonight despite the airtight tin it was in. :( I guess I had it for a little too long…

Anyway, this was a great sipping tea for the afternoon or early evening. It had a very interesting butternut squash note to it that I really liked. Rarely did it become bitter, and had nice light vegetal qualities to it. I alternated between gong fu and western styles and liked the respective results equally.

Too bad I can get only 2-3 infusions of this tea..it is pretty good, one of my second favorites so far!! Jasmine dragon phoenix pearls, I can make 5 infusions and enjoy it for a longer period of time without increasing my caffeine intake …..Mmmm Such a good tea !!!