Dragon Lychee Pearls

I’m not really a fan of this one. It smells great, but the taste is nothing like lychee and it just makes for a confused tongue. The base is black tea and I think I’m more partial to greens and oolongs.

Thanks to Lindsay for this sample.

These beautiful little pearls are uniformly rolled balls of black tea, and quite possibly the best smelling lychee tea I’ve ever encountered. Both dry and steeped, they smell intensely sweet and juicy. The lychee fragrance is very authentic, bit I’m reminded more of those lychee canned juices, or lychee bubble tea, than of just the fresh fruit.

I steeped 8 pearls in 8oz of 93C water. I think for about three minutes, but I had a timer failure, so I’m not sure.

This is delicious. The lychee flavour isn’t quite as in your face as the scent, but I really like it. It’s sweet and juicy and has that whole mouth flavour that lychees have and that I often find missing in lychee flavoured teas. The black base is apparent, with hints of malt and cocoa, and quite well balanced with the lychee.

Definitely a winner among lychee flavoured teas, and one that I can see buying.

Oh man, now I wish I counted how many pearls I used for my cup! All I remember is measuring out a teaspoon, then adding one pearl, then removing a little one, to make 2.5g. It’s always fun to watch pearl teas unfurl as they steep, and this one expands into what seems like quite a lot of leaf! It has an amazing lychee smell as it steeps. The lychee flavour is quite strong – sweet and juicy and no weird artificial taste. I love lychees (though it has been years since I had a fresh one, boo) so perhaps it’s predictable that I would love this tea. The base tea is malty with a bit of cocoa. Very nice.

I’m not sure what it is about lychee flavoring on teas, but often it makes it smells…. cold? It’s certainly an odd property of the scent, and one that is much better diluted out over several infusions or in a pot rather than in a mug. Today I did two pearls in 16oz, and I did two infusions into a liter thermos. This helped diffuse the flavoring so you’re not overwhelmed with the lychee and can appreciate the black tea base more. I like it hot, but I kept leaving my desk and it was mostly cold when I managed to get back. I suppose the ‘coldness’ of the lychee flavoring also lends itself well to iced tea. It is the season, although my mom was telling me that it was miserly and raining all day in San Francisco, while at my work it was 77 while I was driving home and I told her I was melting.

I feel like next time I’m in the market I need to pick up some canned lychee. It’s been too long since I’ve had the fruit, and maybe I can put one or a few into a cup with this too.

Edit: it seems odd but I think since others have reviewed this tea, the form factor may have changed, because the pearls are maybe around a centimeter in diameter. I could be completely delusional to say that two pearls is equivalent to 1.5tsp/8oz, but it was quite enough tea to water in my opinion. The leaf certainly bloomed enough to make it look like a good 3-4 tsp in my infuser

I don’t know why I continue to buy flavored blacks. They always sound so good on the website, so I buy them and then they get here and sit around until I force myself to drink them. You’d think I would eventually learn…

Anyway, Cameron just reviewed this one so it inspired me to take out my bag and try to get rid of some more of it. Now, I’ve never actually had a lychee before, so my only knowledge of the fruit comes from tea. I find it a bit floral, quite sweet and juicy. Almost grape like, but not quite. Honestly, I feel it would be more at home with a green tea, but it’s nice here too. It’s a very refreshing flavor that reminds me of summer. In this tea the flavoring overpowers the base a bit, but it still manages to be quite lovely. I probably won’t rebuy, but I greatly enjoy it whenever I make myself brew some.

Another one from cookies! I’m excited to try this one, as I’ve heard good things about it from a few different people. I don’t have a ton of experience with lychee, but I really liked the Lychee Barley from Lupicia so I’m intent on trying more lychee-flavored teas! These pearls are about a centimeter in diameter, and they’re more loosely rolled than other pearls I’ve seen. Dry scent is strong, sweet lychee! I used eight pearls for my 8 ounces of water.

The steeped tea also smells strongly of lychee, but it’s not overwhelming. I can smell some cocoa notes as well. Wow, there is a lot of lychee going on here, and it’s very tasty. I would describe lychee as being sweet, juicy, floral, and slightly musky. The base tea has nice cocoa and malt flavors, and a touch of wood. Tasty!

This tea is lovely with good fruity lychee notes that persist through many steepings over cocoa, butter, honey and malt. It has immediately gone on my wish list!

The pearls are about the size of a medium large natural pearl on a pearl necklace. The dark leaves are fairly tightly wound and are very fragrant. I used 7 of them in 150 ml of boiling water.

Once brewed the lychee is strong in scent, very fruity, slightly raisiny and a bit perfumy. The tea underneath smells of cocoa and a bready malt note and butter.

1.2 min: The flavour is soft and creamy, the lychee is very fruity with a hint of dried raisiny fruit among the lychee, there is a good note of honey, and cocoa and butter in the base. The flavours blend well together. The colour is ranging towards oak.

2 min. The tea has a more balanced blend between the fruit and base tea scents. The cocoa is stronger and the lychee smells rich and voluptuous.
The balance is well met between the originally listed flavours as well, with the lychee remaining strong, the honey intensifying and the cocoa and butter notes remaining uunderneath, but are strengthened. A grainy malt note is also becoming apparent.

3 min honey, lychee, cocoa, malt, butter
Lychee is slightly perfumy, cocoa,butter, mmalt, mineral note , opens up to lychee honey and cocoa.

5 min: lychee and honey dominate scent. The base has thinned out and the flavour is of lychee, honey, cream and malt. This steep is a little more tart than the others.

If you enjoy lychee this tea is well worth trying. Thanks JustJames for the sample!

I must have forgotten to write about this in past tastings even though I just finished a bag. And not a sample bag either! I love these and I will miss them. I haven’t had a lot of lychee teas but this is a great one. With or without sugar, although I prefer with. I don’t like that I’m running out of a lot of favourites all at the same time because it means I must place a lot of different orders. Hard to do when one tries to adhere to a budget or allow only one order per month. Ha! How’s that for discipline?!?

These pearls are so good though. Great flavour, good base. A tea that makes you think about it even when you’re not with it. The pearls are also very cute to look at. Tiny, black aromatic marbles, not too small either. Perfect size! I don’t like stuff that looks like mouse droppings :)

grabbed this with the father’s day discount….. soooooooooo worth it! proper review will have to come later…. essay calling!!!! (48 hours from now i’m free for 5!) that didn’t used to be a big number….. somehow that changed?

LYCHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Good morning Steepster!

When I woke up earlier, I had a lychee craving. I happen to have some in the fridge. And I happen to have these delicious lychee pearls, so why not create a lychee feast?

This tea is very unusual. I personally don’t know any other lychee Dragon Pearls.

They are big and fragrant, but not soapy. The taste is so juicy, just like plump lychee. I get this lovely chocolaty smooth and malty Yunnan taste which makes this lychee tea so different than all others out there. I get none of that heavy perfumed lychee after taste you get in most black lychee flavoured teas.

It’s like drinking chocolate lychees. Not that I ever had any, but I’m sure there must exist some chocolate lychees somewhere. After having this tea, I can totally see their sweet floral taste work perfectly well with dark slightly bitter chocolate.

(And I just realized I wrote the word lychee way to many times in this review)

I other news, today I’m seasoning another one of my Yixing clay pots. Fun times!