Dragon Tea House

This tea is good but not great. It has a strong roasted barley flavor in the foreground and a sweet flavor in the background. The sweet flavor is hard to notice at first. I don’t notice any other flavors. It is not as good as the Da Hong Pao from Yunnan Sourcing but is good. Is is better than the other Da Hong Pao from Dragon Tea House that I reviewed the other day. The leaves of this tea are nice looking, large, curly, and wiry looking. It has a nice aroma.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 190 degree water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min.

This tea is not bad and not great. It falls into the category of teas I am not unhappy I bought, considering what I paid, but would probably not buy again. That being said there are several competing notes of flavor. One is sweet, not sure what to call it. Another is more of a savory note, I am also not sure what to call it. Its the third note I don’t like. It is also mildly sour. This is not prevalent but it is distracting. It is not a strong flavor. Next time I will brew this at 175 degrees and see what I get.

I brewed this once in a 18oz teapot with 190 degree water and 4 tsp leaf for 3 min.

I decided to try this again at 175 degrees with slightly less tea leaf. It has been a success. Gone is the incredible strong barley taste and gone is the bitterness. Now there is a mild roasted barley taste and a sweet aftertaste. Ironically, I think the directions on the package said to brew it with boiling water. I decided to try this one tonight also because I believe it to have less caffeine for two reasons. First, when I drank it last time I didn’t feel any caffeine kick. Second it has huge leaves, the biggest I have ever seen. I have read the large leafed tea has less caffeine then smaller leafed tea.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 175 degree water for 3 min.

This tea is very slightly bitter with a strong roasted barley flavor. It is a good basic Da Hong Pao tea. For the price I paid I was not expecting much, this is better than I expected.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 190 degree water and 4 tsp leaf for 3 min.

Thanks again for your sale, Ost! Eventually I’ll get a chance to try everything. :D I had this one RIGHT before the Lewis & Clark teabox arrived… otherwise I’ll be sampling from that until I mail it out!

Steep #1 // 1 1/2 tsp // 10 min after boiling // rinse // 2 min
This is a super dark green oolong… I haven’t seen many oolongs this dark! However, the color of the steeped tea is still very light, the mellowest yellow. The flavor isn’t dark or light. Neither sweet nor tough. It’s difficult to describe! I would say it is more savory, with hints of butter and salt. Not my favorite type of oolong but this is a good one of this type.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
I thought this one might be oversteeped but not at all, just a stronger flavor than the first steep without being astringent. More butter! I like this steep even more and the leaves could definitely keep going! I’ve been thinking about which type of oolongs are my favorite and I’d have to say the Wen Shan Bao Zhong and the Ti Kuan Yin.

I’m very picky about my jasmine teas and I find that most of them are overly perfumed for my tastes. This one however is nice and subtle and it’s quite natural. There’s a bit of sweetness underneath which might be from the green tea itself or from the jasmine, but whichever it is, it compliments the floral notes well.

Method: 6g, 6 oz, 200 degrees, rinse-rest-10-15, yixing gaiwan and Goldie

Aroma: More pronounced smoke, but not unpleasant. Stone fruits.

Flavor: I did my usual 10 second rinse and few minutes of rest, but the first two steeps are very weak. I’m going back in…

There’s the flavor! Maybe this one was just more compact and needed a longer rest or longer steeps to start! This is quite good, especially for $10 with shipping included. It’s not the world’s best pu’erh, but it has a nice smoothness with a little bite. Definitely not TOO bitter or astringent.

The beginning of the sip is a light smoke, then there’s some fruit. Then it fades off nicely, but it does have a lingering pleasant aftertaste and a nice scratch at the back of the throat.

Like I said, perhaps not the greatest, but I sure wouldn’t kick it out of bed!

I look forward to drinking this every morning! Very fine, green, and not clumpy at all. It tastes like a good, strong, “regular” green tea. I’ve made it thin, thick, and even with milk, and it’s good any which way. I’m going to try baking with it too.

This is a tasty ripe puerh with pronounced notes of either apricots or dates etc. I brewed this twice in a small tea steeping mug with 13g of tea and 10 oz water. It has a nice sweet flavor. Its not as complex as the Mandala Noble Mark cake but is quite tasty.

This tea is just bland without any great flavor. It is not really bad just not particularly good. It doesn’t have any astringency but has a little bitterness and a little sweetness.

Queued post, written May 25th 2014

Here’s another ancient thing that Fleurdelily shared with me. I’ve kept it for so long, partly because I was scared of it but mostly because I didn’t have the faintest clue what to do with it. It just had ‘yak butter’ written on it. I didn’t even know if it was actually freeze dried butter that I was supposed to use as an additive or if it was some kind of instant tea deal.

Luckily KittyLovesTea posted about this one recently, and looking at the picture I can see the pouches are identical to mine, so that’s what I’ve decided it must be. I asked her what I was supposed to do with it, and her reply has been sitting in my email for a while while I’ve been gathering courage and waiting for a good time to try it. I’m home alone this weekend, so here goes.

I’m still scared of it though, but it has to be tried. Otherwise I can’t empty the box. And if I can’t empty the box, I can’t get new stuff. Ever. This is the rule. New orders/swaps/whathaveyou require an empty box.

So I’ve made it up with Kitty’s instructions and am now staring sceptically at the cup.

It smells like puerh with butter in it. Which, I suppose, is what it is. The butter smells a bit… different from cow butter. A bit sort of wild. I can’t tell if that’s because of the puerh and its farm animal smell or if it’s something to do with yaks. Perhaps a combination? I find it quite off-putting to be honest. Cloying.

Okay, I’m doing it. I’m taking a sip (fully expecting something vile).

Oh! It’s salty! And buttery. LOTS of butter. FAR TOO MUCH butter! Oh ack! All I can taste is salt and butter. Flipping heck, but this is foul. I had to spit it out. At least I’m rid of it now.

I got this tea from DTH and I was suprise by the price (around 11€/ 100g)
At first when I open the package I saw the leaves rolls very small and tight. The smell from the package has nothing to do with “normal” Dong Ding oolong from Taiwan. It smells close to roasted Tie Kuan Yin with a merely scent of nuts, something that akes you feel strange if you have already tasted real Taiwanese Dong Ding !

When it comes to steeping, the tea doesnt develop any special flavour other then nuts and seaweed. The leaves doesnt develop much even after 2nd steeping + slight smell of dry and salted seaweed and a little bit smoky too. Nothing interesting at all.

I Dont even think this product comes from Taiwan and I surely wouldn’t recommend this tea not even to beginners.

Happy Canada Day!! After spending a day outside in the beautiful sunshine, came home to this cold brewed tea. Maybe it’s just the heat, but this is super refreshing! I love love love jasmine teas and I definitely don’t feel guilty putting a large teabag of this into iced tea since it was not too expensive. This is very lightly jasmine, mostly green tea. One of my favs hot, but turned out pretty good cold as well =)

My bravery has grown enough for me to try this unusual tea so after dinner here I am with a mug of pale beige liquid that smells like butter milk (sweet yet sour and creamy). It’s….unusual…I was never a butter milk fan, or a milk fan since I was allergic to it as a child. Mostly this tea is to say that I have tried it, after all I will just about try any tea (I say just about as anything gross like animal dropping tea is a definite no).

Ok so butter milk, which is funnily enough what this tea is. My first sip was not great, it’s very sweet, extremely creamy and full on buttery….all that and it’s rather watery and thin. My stomach turned a little. It’s not terrible by any means, just that I am not meant for this tea and it is not meant for me.

Sorry tea.

This is a very savory.
Hard to detect any sweetness as it is overwhelmed by the savoriness of this tea.
Reminds me of baked beans or something similar.

I’d imagine this tea to best be drunk during a meal.

The tea has tiny little balls of fur here and here, which I was told was an indication of a high quality tea. I was told that they form when the tea is pan fried, and the hairs from the tea naturally clump together into these tiny balls, also indicating that the leaves used were young as they have more hair than older leaves.
Still, this tea is not for me.

Oh Wild Bohea tea;
How I adore thee,
Whether tis hot or cold;
You taste like gold,
Pure and sweet;
You’re a real treat.

A short poem for this gem of a tea, for alas I have one serving left to admire. I think I shall keep it for after dinner so that my husband may admire it once more also.

I re-visited this one tonight to go with dinner, I made a sweet chilli vegetablenstir fry with rice and thought this light black would match it wonderfully. I was not wrong. Last night it was too subtle for me so I used a little more leaf this time and it was spot on. Adding that extra 2g gives it sooo much more caramel and chocolate flavours with a sweet malt background. The rating for this tea just went up and this is now one of my top black teas (at this moment in time).

Yesterday my wisdom tooth broke in half and fell out while I was eating soup, so I went to the dentist today and it turns out my tooth is much worse than I thought and I need an operation. Part of my gum needs to be cut out as well as the jaw bone sanded down before they can extract the tooth. Ten month wait minimum if I want to be gassed and knocked out or three months if I have it done awake and under heavy sedation. Two weeks to decide while I’m on anti biotics. I’m thinking of just going ahead and having it done without being put under, the quicker the better.

So as a treat I’m using my Chinese gaiwan set and trying this black tea. It smells beautiful in raw form, like chocolate and soft burnt wood. The leaves are large and curly but match it’s wonderful scent. I like a full leaf black.

First Steep – 1 minute –
Light in colour, scent and flavour. Very sweet, like raw sugar cane and caramel. A little malty in the after taste.

Second Steep – 2 minutes –
Still mild but still getting a pure sugar cane flavour. The after taste has increased however and now tastes like malt, wood and caramel mixed with chocolate.

Third Steep – 3 minutes –
Very similar to the first steep again, as sweet and pure in flavour too.

Next time I may try adding 7g instead of 5g to see how it comes out but I enjoyed the gentle caramel and sugar that this tea offers. It doesn’t taste black but it did stand out in a positive way. A good start so far but will experiment to get it perfect though honestly it’s not far off.

I received this is this month’s Hapa-tite tea swap from my paired swap-buddy KittyLovesTea thanks Kayleigh! I actually received the package probably a week ago, and have tried several of the teas included but have been too busy to review any. I also have to send mine off (sorry, Kayleigh) which should be done today. I mentioned in my last post that life is kinda hectic at the moment, and annoyingly it still is. I have to write 2000 words by Monday, and then another 2000 by the next day, as I totally forgot I’m going away for a week and won’t be back until the essay deadline! So yeah, panic mode. I’m making a little time to write this up, though, because A) I wanted to thank Kayleigh for my package (which was totally amazing – so many wishlist teas I can now tick off!! Thank you!!) and B) as it was a sipdown which I actually had yesterday, and I don’t want to leave it so long I forget what it was like.

When opening the package, this really intrigued me, as I’ve never seen anything like it before. For some reason I had it in my head that it would be sort of sour, or salty almost, so I decided to have it as my wake-up tea. This turned out to be a complete misjudgement, as the tea is in fact thick, with a little touch of sweetness, and very very buttery. A little too rich for my not-quite-awake-yet stomach, but my tastebuds sure did appreciate it. The dry mix smells sweet, which should have been my first clue, and the liquor, which I expected to come out a dark brown (I seriously have no idea where I got any of this from) actually came out at a creamy light browny yellow – pretty much like a standard British cuppa with a lot of milk added. I drank this plain, and it was sweet enough as is to not need sugar, and so thick that I think adding milk to it would be as bizarre a thing to do as adding it to a green tea.

Other than what I’ve already said, I can’t seem to find the words to explain the taste. It is so very unlike anything I’ve had before that the only thing which I can find to say is that it’s buttery, which goes without saying! The other flavours and notes are new to me, and I am very glad to have had the chance to try such an unusual yet tasty tea. Who knows – perhaps at some point in time I may find myself purchasing some of this. If I came across it in a shop, I would definitely be more likely to pick some up now I know what it’s like.

A very enjoyable, if surprising, cup. Thanks again, KittyLovesTea!

I’m drinking this at work tonight (trying to balance drinking older teas and samples, this one fits both categories). This is a tea that I received from KittyLovesTea eons ago. I have drank it before, and am a little surprised that I don’t have any tasting notes on it.
This is a really nice, light, bright, sheng with just a hint of citrus notes. It has all the usual earthiness of pu’erh, but it’s not as “sharp” as some shengs can be. I’m enjoying it tonight.
Thank you KittyLovesTea for sharing this interesting pu’erh with me.

Thank you Dag Wedin for this tea from the EU travelling tea box round one. It shall be my morning tea, as I have the day off due to everyone at my work being ill I’m going to be using my Gaiwan all day and treat myself to some of my favourite teas. Natural teas will always be favoured over flavoured blends in my house.

I shall be following this table:
Water : 3oz / 85ml – 176℉ / 80℃
Use 3 Grams Tea
4 steeps : rinse,20s,40s,80s,120s
Gaiwan
Rinsing time is around 5 seconds

The leaves are a nice medium green colour and are very reflective and shiny. Averaging a rough estimate of 4-5mm long these needles/points are nice and crisp to the touch. They have a beautiful sweet grass scent with some perfume present.

Steep One – 20 seconds
Pale yellow colour with gentle sweet grass scent. Flavour is light and buttery with sweet grass and flower notes and a touch of dry perfume in the after taste.

Steep Two – 40 Seconds
The sweetness has increased and is now heavily floral. The butter is still present as is the perfume. Reminds me of orchid or lily.

Steep Three – 80 Seconds
Not as sweet this time but still floral and with a touch of astringency. Rather dry and perfumed now but still mild overall.

Steep Four – 120 Seconds
Very light, even more so than the first steep. The only thing that remains is a gentle sweet lily that lingers nicely in the after taste.

Overall –
I will admit that while I adore green tea Long Jing just isn’t one of my favourites, it’s either too dry and perfumed or too astringent for my taste. Luckily this Long Jing really is nonpareil and it made for a very nice tea this morning. Sweet and floral throughout with only a little astringency and dryness to speak of. Definitely something I will be happy to drink more of.

Wow!
Read one of Terri:s reviews of a roasty oolong a while back and i´ve been itching for some wuyi gong -fu. Tonight i wathced the final episode of “How i met your mother”, it was… wait for it…. Legendary ;)

To accompany the show i brought out the wuyi heavy artillery and I was not dissapointed.

6g (half-full pot)120ml yixing pot, water from tetsubin.

20s +15 per steeping. clear roasty notes, but it doesnt take over there is some flowery notes as well. Very well balanced! And strong, the last steep i forgot and oversteeped by two minutes. This session got me teadrunk… :)

highly recommended.