Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea

So tasty! This has everything that I love about Chinese green teas. The leaves are bright green and fuzzy and lovely. They also smell fabulously like sweet hay and nutty green aromas.

The taste is buttery sweet and sun warmed hay. There’s a savory mineraly finish. It all goes down super smooth and comforting. No astringency, bitterness or harshness at all. This is very good stuff.

Good gosh this tea just surprised me. I forgot my water, so it got too hot, then I forgot it again and it got quite cold. I steeped this for 2min. at 160F. You know what? It was amazing. The brew has only the slightest hint of yellow/light green. There are plenty of nutty, sweet notes and it is surprisingly wonderful at this temp. I really enjoy this one and I think that it is a must try for green tea lovers. thank you Teavivre for this sample!

To begin, I’m very new to green teas and my previous experiences have not been good so far. (I think I’m to blame for this, however, due to my tendency to make tea with too much gusto. And my long history of loving black teas.)

So anyway, I love the way the bright green, glossy leaves look. So long and flat, almost like preserved grass. As they brewed, the green became more vivid, as if the leaves were still alive. But the scent of it put me off a little… it was strong and reminded me of the ocean. And not in the sea breeze kind of way. But I gave it a chance anyway, as I feel like I’m in need of a green tea education.

I used 2 teaspoons for 8 ounces of water, brewed for 1:45 at 175 degrees. Any critiques you could offer about my preparation? The result was pale yellowy green and tasted much better than I expected. I feel like I understand what people say when they describe green teas as “buttery” now. It also has a sort of veggie flavor, like seaweed. I can’t really say I’m a fan, though. I believe these sorts of teas are going to have to be an acquired taste.

An excellent Dragon Well. Very fresh flavor. Breath-taking! So crisp and clean and vibrant.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a good Dragon Well (this has to be one of the very best I’ve ever tried) or even if someone might not be a fan of Dragon Well. I wasn’t a fan of Dragon Well at one point in my life but I can assure you that if someone had presented me with this tea, I would have gained an affection for it rather quickly. This is a remarkable Dragon Well.

I’ve been holding off trying this sample because I’ve just been a bit afraid of it. I don’t know why; maybe it’s the legend this tea has created for itself, high expectations that my yet-learning mouth doesn’t want to dash in its immature tasting abilities. Maybe the Southern Girl predeliction for sweet teas in which I am trying to re-educate myself.

I used half of the sample pack, and that worked out to be about 2tsp for 200ml. I followed Teavivre’s recommendation of 1, 2, and 3 minute steeps.
1st steep: The wet leaf smells of cooked and subtly sweet vegetables, kind of like zucchini, with some toasted notes. I like toasted notes. With this shortest steep, it’s the palest of mint greens in the cup, and it has a thick, broth-like feel in my mouth. One of the kids did something, or made some sort of noise that made me look quickly in that direction while I was lifting the cup to my mouth, and I ended up missing. As it rolled down it honestly felt like a milkshake, albeit a warm one, on my chin. Now that sounds like I’m a dribbler. I do not currently need someone on hand to mop me up. But my imagination tells me that’s what it feels like to dribble a warm milkshake. You can stop shaking your heads. It’s the truth. The taste is very much like the wet leaf scent. I’m liking this!
2nd steep: A little darker color in the cup, more a pale yellow-green. And the same flavors only stronger this time, but a light orchid flavor comes out as the cup cools. This is really very nice!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to the third steep. Evening came up with everything it brings for me to do. Next time I’ll make sure to get all the way through! Looking forward to it!

Another in my backlog of teas that I have been drinking but not logging…(going to be a long list) This one is probably one of the best Long Jings I’ve had – the best one being in a tea shop a couple years ago, and I’m not sure where they got it from. This isn’t too nutty or smoky, and it’s also not overly sweet.

Hurray, today I finally got a chance to sit down and properly appreciate this tea. I’ve made it a couple times but always ended up dashing or getting distracted and I never got to give it the chance it deserved. Today though, I was able to relax and sip as I watched my current favourite actor in an absolutely horrible movie. What better time to have a great cuppa?

This tea is SO delicious. As everyone else has said it has a great full bodied flavour and holds up to multiple steeps. I’ve never gotten four steeps from a tea before but this one was still going strong! I’m only sorry that by the fourth steep I was craving something different. Thank you so much to Angel from Teavivre for the extremely amazing sample of this tea. I love it and am glad to have enough to be able to experience it again and again!

Thanks again to Angel for sending me this sample. So out of the packaging I notice a smell of a field. Hay, alfalfa, grass like you are in the country. Not a bad thing considering that I am surrounded by farmland at my house. The leaves look like blades of grass too. Now I must admit that Chinese greens have not been my thing in the past. I tried one before and didn’t think it was too good. So with that I just a bit pensive trying it. I also shared it with a co-worker because I knew if I let it sit in the french press….ho boy welcome to bitterness city. It brewed up a pale liquor. My co-worker said it smelled like chicken broth. MMM I got that too maybe a little nutty, however I thought noodles. Insert Kung Fu Panda!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY12ELBQhQ4&feature=related I do believe I had the noodle dream! Personally I like teas that have more body to them. So drinking a chinese green or a white tea I feel like there is something missing. Very good though.

Nutty and Vegetal. I like that combo. This tea-taste offers that pairing of flavors and it’s very nice!

It feels quite light-weight on the tongue…a unique texture, I suppose. Relaxing, Soothing, Delish Cuppa! YUM!

Wow, this is a really green green tea!

It’s obviously a very high quality dragon well because I don’t even like this type of green tea, but I thought this was pretty tasty. Did I mention the cool, flat leaves? So cool!

My boyfriend appreciates authentic, grassy green teas more than me, so I gave him the cup to finish. He said, “I like it a lot! Just my style!” Which I knew it would be. :)

I’m afraid this tea is a little too green for me. But even that being said, I can still tell that it would be amazing to others. There’s not even a trace of bitterness. In fact, as soon as I tasted it, I forgot what bitterness tastes like. I can’t even imagine it while drinking this tea.

I’m giving it an 81 because it’s clearly a fantastic tea. It’s just not my tea. So, I don’t want to be responsible for dropping the average because my tongue can’t appreciate Chinese green tea awesomeness.

This is just pure, wonderful tea and the perfect tea to be my 100th tasting note!!! O_O