Golden Dragon

Earthy….not as dark as other Pu-Erhs I have had but decent enough to be a daily Pu-Erh.

Needing a kick in the pants after locking my keys in the office at work, watching movie on the computer, and not leaving till 4:30 in the morning. I really like this Pu-Erh. It’s got the nice earthiness that I love about Pu-Erh. Found it at the Asian market for 3 bucks…can’t beat.

Nice pale yellow liquor with a wonderfully floral taste. But not too floral. Just right. Wish it was offered organic somewhere as I’ve been in an Oolong state of mind recently. I liked the third infusion the best and can probably get another three more I think!

Background: osmanthus is to Shanghai, where I was born, what lilacs are to Paris (except that it blooms in early autumn). It’s used to flavour a number of traditional regional dishes and desserts. Osmanthus tea isn’t really one of them – it’s not a tea-growing area, although it’s a city of oolong-drinkers by and large – but the scent triggers abject nostalgia. A cup of this to me as madeleines to Proust. Plus it just smells really freaking nice.

Dried osmanthus blossoms (little curled up yellow bits) have less staying power than jasmine. They lose their scent if shelved too long. This makes buying osmanthus tea, which I do whenever possible, a frustrating exercise. Ready blends were hard to find in Shanghai itself the last time I was there in ‘06. Then again, in ’06 it was hard to find osmanthus tea in Canada, and thankfully that’s no longer the case.

This Golden Dragon stuff is the cheapest, most generic option – $5/canister in the South Shore Asian grocery, iirc – and it’s definitely been shelved too long. Did no favours to the green tea itself, either; this ain’t gunpowder, which I’m convinced could actually be entombed for centuries and still taste fine when the archaeologists unearth it (not that this describes one or two pantry experiences I’ve had or anything). A long hard steep and/or multiple applications of hot water unlocks the osmanthus scent, though, and that’s really all I’m looking for. Still, a domain in which you tend to get your money’s worth.

(The classic method of preserving osmanthus isn’t drying at all, but candying in sugar syrup. Why don’t I get a jar of that from Chinatown and dump a teaspoonful in when I brew regular green or oolong? Reasonable question. The cultural injunction against sugaring Chinese teas is too strong, I guess. Ping me on Steepster if you try it.)

Incidentally – and the fact that I’m stretching the defined bounds of the software right now suggests that this is functionality Steepster’s social networking gurus ought to consider, perhaps with a nice Google Map as accompaniment – the best cup of osmanthus tea I’ve found in Montreal to date is the Brûlerie Saint-Denis near Côte-des-Neiges metro station, under the Renaud-Bray, which has a massive selection of loose leafs. I don’t know what company they source from.

Actually a pretty good jasmine scented green tea. I picked this up at the small local Asian market for like 4 bucks (for 1/2 lb), so I certainly can’t complain considering the price. It doesn’t have an over the top jasmine scent, but it does have a nice floral quality. I might try to steep for a little longer next time, or at least try another steep at about 3 minutes next. Even though the water was pretty hot it doesn’t taste burnt or bitter either which is nice (it’s not too finicky).

I just got a lovely box from teaplz full of some fun teas. I have no idea why I decided to start with this one – I suppose I’m feeling brave enough to give teaplz’s ‘Dragonhell’ a try!

The leaves… are not so pretty. Broken and sort of old and sad looking. Poor little leaves.

Pouring the tea into the cup, the smell is kind of nice. Nutty and not bitter. The taste is weird. The first sip I was thinking “Hey, that’s not so bad.” And then I finished the sip and there was this… weird taste just expanded in my mouth. Saltiness maybe? Or a nutty bitterness?

As the tea cools a bit, there is a slight hint of sweetness and then that nutty bitterness that was showing up after the sip shows up in the middle of the sip. Though honestly, it tastes a bit better when I take larger sips. There’s a bit of sweetness to it. It’s more of a taunt though, not a substantial sweetness. Just a hint of “I could be better, see, but this is what you get.” Maybe a really low temp will make this one happy.

Overall, the tea isn’t horrible but it doesn’t have that much redeeming social value. It’s just sort of meh.

DRAGONHELL. (Time to play some obligatory Dragonforce to get you in the mood for the epicness of the following review, and just cause it sounds cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9_U-RBSuk)

I have heard terrifying things about Dragonwell. Salty water. Bitter. Astringent. BLECH.

I was joking around the other day about this particular tea, and apparently the universe was listening to me, because it dumped it in my lap! One of my sister’s friends gave this to her for Christmas, and my sister shoved it onto me. A 4.3 oz tin of Dragonwell of unknown origins. Probably from Chinatown, since the entire package is almost all in Chinese. No steeping parameters, no… nothing. Just pure terror.

So I bit the bullet and tried this, expecting a really bad tea experience. Before I dive into all the awesome tea in my house, I might as well have something mediocre, right? This tin was actually a lot less ghetto than I thought it would be. It’s double-lidded! Yay!

I asked some informed people, and did 2 tsps per cup (I made some for my boyfriend as well). I used the awesome digital thermometer that takgoti sent me (!!!) and waited for the water to drop down to 160. The dry leaf on this smells, as the boyfriend said, “Like all green tea – like a fish tank.” This amused me, but only made me more worried for what I was about to try. He only made it worse when he said, “It’s drink or die time!”

The resulting brew is a pale infusion, a gentle yellow. I took the first sip… and you know what? It really wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. Not salty at all. More like the second steep of a gunpowder. I guess this is Chinese green tea! It’s not really sweet at all… a bit briny, but nothing awful and tongue-curling. I found it pretty easy to sip on as I set up the Roku I bought for my parents.

Really not terrifying as it could have been! I’m pleasantly surprised, actually. I mean, this is definitely not something that I’d want to drink all the time. At all. It’s very…. blah, in a lot of ways. But it’s way better than bagged green tea, and it was drinkable. I finished my cup.

Picked this up in Chinatown— an absolutely delicious oolong!

Good midday tea – very flowery and distinct.

This is a tin of tea that I got from a local oriental market. This one isn’t as good as the SpecialTeas Fine Ti Kuan Yin, but I think it’s cheaper, and I can get it locally.

I brewed this in a 14 oz Yixing pot, 2 heaping tsp for 2 steeps – 2 min and 3 min. Water just off boiling (200ish). If I go more than 2 with this one it really falls off quickly, hence the relatively long second steep time.