Simple Loose Leaf describes this tea as being similar to gunpowder green tea, with its smokiness and sweetness, and that’s pretty close to the truth. I know gunpowder green mainly as the base for Moroccan Mint teas and as the kind of default green tea I’ve encountered in many dim-sum restaurants, so the flavour was very familiar to me.
The dry leaves were dark green, tightly-rolled little balls, and smelled kind of vegetal and smoky.

The brewed tea was a nice amber colour with a hint of green, and it was slightly smoky and generally unassuming. However, after drinking a lot of it at once, it did start to become slightly astringent. For me, this would be the perfect kind of tea to have in the morning when I’m too groggy to make any important decisions – a tea that’s no fuss and undemanding.

Given the name of the tea – Sleeping Dragon Green – it’s kind of obvious that I needed to find a fictional dragon to link it with. Smaug? No, completely out of character. Something from Game of Thrones? Nah, I did that last week. Another dragon from Tolkien’s lore, like Ancalagon the Black or Glaurung? No, no, no. Not in keeping with this tea at all.

But don’t worry, I did think of a dragon to compare this tea to – though you’ll have to read the full post to find out which one: http://christinavasilevski.com/2014/07/sunday-tea-books-sleeping-dragon-green

Note: I steeped this twice. Both steeps were similar in flavour and colour.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 24 OZ / 709 ML
Cameron B.

Hah, I love the Dealing With Dragons series! :D

Christina / BooksandTea

@Cameron: Heh! I liked reading the first book so much that I started on the second one this evening. Almost halfway through already!

@Marzipan: Ooh, that set is lovely. But I think I’ll just keep that in my mental cabinet, rather than my physical one – need to watch my wallet a bit.

Marzipan

I know, gorgeous but expensive.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Comments

Cameron B.

Hah, I love the Dealing With Dragons series! :D

Christina / BooksandTea

@Cameron: Heh! I liked reading the first book so much that I started on the second one this evening. Almost halfway through already!

@Marzipan: Ooh, that set is lovely. But I think I’ll just keep that in my mental cabinet, rather than my physical one – need to watch my wallet a bit.

Marzipan

I know, gorgeous but expensive.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

Updated March 2016:

I’m a writer and editor who’s fallen in love with loose-leaf tea. I’ve also set up a site for tea reviews at http://www.booksandtea.ca – an excellent excuse to keep on buying and trying new blends. There will always be more to discover!

In the meantime, since joining Steepster in January 2014, I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on my likes and dislikes

Likes: Raw/Sheng pu’erh, sobacha, fruit flavours, masala chais, jasmine, mint, citrus, ginger, Ceylons, Chinese blacks, rooibos.

Dislikes (or at least generally disinclined towards): Hibiscus, rosehip, chamomile, licorice, lavender, really vegetal green teas, shu/ripe pu’erh.

Things I generally decide on a case-by-case basis: Oolong, white teas.

Still need to do my research on: matcha

I rarely score teas anymore, but if I do, here’s the system I follow:

100-85: A winner!
84-70: Pretty good. This is a nice, everyday kind of tea.
69-60: Decent, but not up to snuff.
59-50: Not great. Better treated as an experiment.
49-0: I didn’t like this, and I’m going to avoid it in the future. Blech.

Location

Toronto, ON, Canada

Website

http://www.booksandtea.ca

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer