Moonlight White Tea and Snow Chrysanthemum Buds Dragon Ball

Tea type
Flowering White Blend
Ingredients
Chrysanthemum, White Tea Leaves
Flavors
Anise, Autumn Leaf Pile, Black Pepper, Butter, Cinnamon, Cream, Dill, Eucalyptus, Floral, Grass, Hay, Honeydew, Lemon Zest, Malt, Mineral, Oats, Orange Zest, Pine, Straw, Toast, Vanilla, Wheat, Flowers, Honey, Mint, Pepper, Spices
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Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 45 sec 8 g 84 oz / 2486 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This was another sipdown from August. It was also the first of the Yunnan Sourcing tea and flower dragon balls I tried. It set the bar pretty high for those that followed, although I can now safely...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “Gongfu Sipdown (614)! This tea was from my almost entirely snow chrysanthemum infused tea Yunnan Sourcing order, and I was really excited to try this one! I’m feeling SO exhausted right now as I...” Read full tasting note
  • “Like many other teas with chrysanthemum, these dragon balls have a honey-like sweetness accompanying the delicate white tea flavour. An additional peppery flavour makes for an interesting brew that...” Read full tasting note
    74

From Yunnan Sourcing

This is our first blended Dragon Ball tea! It’s made from Yunnan Large Leaf varietal tea in Jinggu. The tea was picked in Spring 2017, wilted slightly and then dried with warm wind tunneled through the tea until it is dry. The tea shares a somewhat similar look and taste with white tea when it is young but over time will develop into something closer to red tea (hongcha).

The Moonlight White “Yue Guang Bai” Tea is mixed with fresh Spring 2017 Snow Chrysanthemums which gives it a lovely honey and spice taste, which is never overpowering and blends harmoniously with the white tea to create something unique and delicious. It’s thick and expansive on the tongue, soothing to the throat and calming to the nervous system!

These Dragon Balls were made by my mother- in-law and father-in-law. They make them in their spare time. They use little pieces of cotton to compress them instead of saran wrap. Saran wrap compression is the most common method because it’s faster, but it causes off gassing into the tea since the tea must be steamed to soften and is very hot. We use cotton, which is safe.

Dragon balls are great because they are perfect single brewing servings, and because the leaves fare much better during transport and storage compared to loose leaf form, which tend to break apart causing the brewed tea to be overly astringent and/or bitter and detracts from overall look of the brewed leaves!

50% of the profits from the sales of these Dragon Balls will go directly to my father/mother-in-law. We will give them the money as a red packet during Chinese New Year, since they won’t accept money directly from my wife or I. Most likely they will put most of it in the bank for their retirement!

Each Dragon Ball is roughly 8 grams of tea (+/- 0.5 grams)

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

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3 Tasting Notes

86
1048 tasting notes

This was another sipdown from August. It was also the first of the Yunnan Sourcing tea and flower dragon balls I tried. It set the bar pretty high for those that followed, although I can now safely say that it was not my favorite of the bunch.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After the rinse, I steeped the entire 8-9 gram dragon ball in 160 ml of 185 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes, with the final infusion steeped in 205 F water.

Prior to the rinse, the dry dragon ball produced aromas of chrysanthemum, dill, hay, malt, and sugarcane. After the rinse, new aromas of wheat toast, cream, butter, vanilla, and grass appeared. The first infusion introduced aromas of orange zest and straw as well as a subtle eucalyptus scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of chrysanthemum, hay, dill, cream, butter, malt, and wheat toast that were backed by hints of straw, vanilla, orange zest, grass, and sugarcane. The subsequent infusions brought out aromas of autumn leaves, oats, lemon zest, and anise as well as a subtle pine scent. Stronger and more immediately noteworthy impressions of orange zest, sugarcane, straw, grass, and vanilla appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of anise, oats, lemon zest, minerals, and autumn leaves and hints of black pepper, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and pine. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, wheat toast, chrysanthemum, orange zest, malt, cream, hay, and butter that were complimented by a late, sugary honeydew note and hints of dill, vanilla, grass, straw, autumn leaves, pine, sugarcane, lemon zest, and anise.

This was a very interesting tea. Though the characteristics imparted by the chrysanthemum buds did occasionally overpower the base tea, there was still just enough strength from the base to keep things from coming unglued. The chrysanthemum buds and the moonlight white tea actually played off of one another quite well, as the tea neutralized some of the more vegetal impressions of the chrysanthemum buds, while the chrysanthemum buds softened and smoothed out some of the grainier, more savory notes of the white tea and injected some gently invigorating spiciness into the mix. Though I would have liked to see a little more balance, especially in the early infusions, this was still a successful blend of more or less complimentary components. Fans of both white teas and floral infusions would probably be satisfied with it.

Flavors: Anise, Anise, Autumn Leaf Pile, Autumn Leaf Pile, Black Pepper, Black Pepper, Butter, Butter, Cinnamon, Cinnamon, Cream, Cream, Dill, Dill, Eucalyptus, Eucalyptus, Floral, Floral, Grass, Grass, Hay, Hay, Honeydew, Honeydew, Lemon Zest, Lemon Zest, Malt, Malt, Mineral, Mineral, Oats, Oats, Orange Zest, Orange Zest, Pine, Pine, Straw, Straw, Toast, Toast, Vanilla, Vanilla, Wheat, Wheat

Preparation
8 g 160 OZ / 4731 ML

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15575 tasting notes

Gongfu Sipdown (614)!

This tea was from my almost entirely snow chrysanthemum infused tea Yunnan Sourcing order, and I was really excited to try this one! I’m feeling SO exhausted right now as I write these tasting notes though – I think I’ve done more than twenty today, and I am feeling TAPPED OUT. So, trust me when I say that this was super pleasant tasting and really quite nuanced, unique and incredible – I just don’t quite have the energy needed to nicely articulate that.

Around seventeen infusions though – I really wanted to get every last drop of flavour out of this tea! Here’s the short little blurb that I wrote on instagram what I posted the photo there last week: “Thick mouthfeel, + notes of hay, thyme, orange peels/zest, creamed honey, and floral undertones.” I want to add too, though, that later infusions were a lot more basil-y and minty as well, which was such a cool and delicious note to be observing in a tea like this.

Ultimately, it captured my favourite parts of the Snow Chrystanthemum black teas that I’ve tried – but amped up the herbaceous notes. Soooo good!

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BuR7_lgl_l1/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nve-mUpxmDA&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=33&t=0s

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74
54 tasting notes

Like many other teas with chrysanthemum, these dragon balls have a honey-like sweetness accompanying the delicate white tea flavour. An additional peppery flavour makes for an interesting brew that altogether reminds me of a spicy chamomile, perhaps with light notes of mint. Definitely an interesting tea. The liquor is a beautiful golden orange colour and coats the entire mouth and throat leaving me salivating.

Flavors: Flowers, Honey, Mint, Pepper, Spices

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 45 sec 8 OZ / 240 ML

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