Green Tea sipdown!
With the comparing of the Jasmine teas and now this, this is definitely more caffeine than I need today, but I’m having a nice, leisurely lunch and have been enjoying re-rating green teas that I haven’t had for a long time. I’m a lot better in picking up subtleties in green tea than I was a couple years back and I’m curious to see how my opinion has changed now that I have a better trained palate :).
I remember initially purchasing this tea simply because the leaves were so gorgeous. They are whole, pressed flat and oblong and I could tell care was taken in harvesting this tea.
The smell of the leaves is grassy, and the brewed liquid is a light yellow and quite nice. The flavour is smooth and a little grassy and buttery (although not as buttery as say, gyokuro). Regardless this tea is very nice. My original rating 2 years ago was an 85 and it stands. This is a great mid-range priced straight tea (actually, if you go on DAVID’s website, select “straight green tea” and price low to high it’s exactly in the middle). Gyokuro is better than dragonwell but it’s double the price (this tea is a little under $10/50grams, gyokuro is nearly $20/50grams) and the thing about gyokuro for me is that I believe with a tea that good you should sit down and enjoy it, not mindlessly guzzle at work. With Dragonwell I wouldn’t feel bad bringing it to work and “mindlessly guzzling it” but it’s also nice enough to sit and enjoy leisurely. It’s the best of both worlds.
This tea may become a staple for me. I would really like to compare it to Japanese sencha since that tea is a mid-range priced tea as well, but I have over 40(!) teas in my collection so it will be a while till I do so :)
Flavors: Butter, Grass