Wow, can’t believe it’s been 2 months since I’ve posted here. That’s got to be my longest stretch ever. Part of it is life getting hectic over the past several weeks and another part is due to inertia and losing a bit of interest in Steepster. I’m still drinking tea and all but these days log my sessions in the MyTeaPal app. It’s so much easier to jot down and organize tasting notes this way than manually writing everything down in OneNote and then transferring to Steepster through a browser later.
I have to say this app is everything I had hoped Steepster would one day become. Despite the recent improvements, the site still feels stuck in 2011. I had DMed with the app creator on Instagram a while back about the possibility to linking MyTeaPal to Steepster. I guess it wasn’t technically feasible since MyTeaPal recently launched their own social network that allows tasting notes to be published and shared. It’ll be interesting to see how it grows over time and whether it can rival Steepster’s repository of tea reviews. I really hope that Adagio can take the site in a similar direction because outside of core users, it feels like Steepster is slipping into oblivion.
Anyhoo, I’ve mostly been sipping down the teas in my collection for the past couple of months to clear the cupboard for new spring teas. Amongst them, was this Dragonwell that had been sitting in cold storage for many months. Long jing is one of the greens that tends to do well in the fridge.
There was quite a bit of broken leaf but that could have due to how it was stored. Regardless, it still had a fresh aroma of chestnut, snap pea, and crisp vegetables. I used to grandpa steep it when it was fresh but it doesn’t do so well anymore when steeped this way. It’s strong with a flavor that leans savory and sometimes borders on astringent. However at this stage of the tea’s lifecycle, gongfu is where it’s at. It transforms the tea into a thick, delicious sweet dew with notes of pea, cucumber, and flowers. It fades rather quickly though to a stewed green bean taste.
Overall, I’m pleased with how well this tea has held up given the Covid related shipping delay last year and how long its sat in my fridge. My Chinese greens from Teavivre are again delayed this year (43 days and counting…grrr) but hey, at least I can be assured that my dragonwell tea won’t suffer as much from the loss of freshness.
Flavors: Chestnut, Cucumber, Flowers, Honey Dew, Peas
Preparation
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Welcome kind of back! Indeed life is getting hectic here as well (I wrote only 20 tasting notes back in May!) and moreover it gets more and more warm all around the globe, so I guess it means we will drink less hot teas and we would stay outside longer too, without a mood writing notes here.
But this tea sounds great and it is a little reminder I want to try a fresh dragonwell once, but I need to finish lots of other teas first to have even space for new tea!
@Martin Bednář thanks Martin and same story here. There are a lot of teas I want but my cupboard can’t justify it. Cold brewing helps me sipdown faster especially during these warmer months.
I am probably the only person in the world without a cell phone, but part of the appeal of Steepster for me is the FACT I don’t need a phone “app” to use it or have a bunch of social media accounts (which I also refuse to use) integrated in. I guess I’m just living happily in 2010 technology. :-)
Hear, hear! I don’t have a smartphone or a big social media presence either. I hope Steepster continues to thrive, even if it’s just a few core users.
My comment was directed more towards Steepster’s lack of functionality and stagnation. Although a companion app would be nice, what I’d like to see most are just some basic features and enhancements that have been requested by users for years. Simple things like being able to use decimals for tea weight, selecting exact temperatures with the slider instead of rounding, ability to add new flavor notes, etc.
It’s as if the site is frozen in time because nothing has been updated since launch. I too want to see Steepster thrive but some care and feeding is needed or it will continue to atrophy.
Welcome kind of back! Indeed life is getting hectic here as well (I wrote only 20 tasting notes back in May!) and moreover it gets more and more warm all around the globe, so I guess it means we will drink less hot teas and we would stay outside longer too, without a mood writing notes here.
But this tea sounds great and it is a little reminder I want to try a fresh dragonwell once, but I need to finish lots of other teas first to have even space for new tea!
@Martin Bednář thanks Martin and same story here. There are a lot of teas I want but my cupboard can’t justify it. Cold brewing helps me sipdown faster especially during these warmer months.
I am probably the only person in the world without a cell phone, but part of the appeal of Steepster for me is the FACT I don’t need a phone “app” to use it or have a bunch of social media accounts (which I also refuse to use) integrated in. I guess I’m just living happily in 2010 technology. :-)
Hear, hear! I don’t have a smartphone or a big social media presence either. I hope Steepster continues to thrive, even if it’s just a few core users.
My comment was directed more towards Steepster’s lack of functionality and stagnation. Although a companion app would be nice, what I’d like to see most are just some basic features and enhancements that have been requested by users for years. Simple things like being able to use decimals for tea weight, selecting exact temperatures with the slider instead of rounding, ability to add new flavor notes, etc.
It’s as if the site is frozen in time because nothing has been updated since launch. I too want to see Steepster thrive but some care and feeding is needed or it will continue to atrophy.