Premium-grade Dragonwell (Xi Hu Long Jing)

Traveling Tea Box Tea!!!

I am feeling a little adventurous today so I thought I would try this one. There are no steeping directions on the package, so I did a little poking around and decided on a low temperature and short-ish steep.

The tea liquor smells exactly like asparagus! It tastes like asparagus too. Hmm. It’s not really doing it for me to tell you the truth. I’m more of a floral/fruit rather than a vegetal kinda gal. Sip sip sip….grimace grimace grimace! OK. I have determined that I think it’s nasty. I am throwing it down the sink!!!!

If anyone reading this loves vegetal greens and would like to take the remaining tea leaves off my hands (almost an ounce) I will be happy to mail it to you. PM me with your address :)

EDIT: I have a taker!!!!! Thank you!

Steep Information: Prepared as part of the Steepster meetup and tea tasting

This was a 2009 dragon well tea
The older the dragon well the more yellow the liquor
2010 would appear mostly clear as it would be so fresh and new

The tea appeared cloudy with particulate
It smelled nutty, it has a light body, The flavor was sweet

The tea should always have a bud and one to two leaves

To me the leaves appeared as if rolled into little toothpicks

The steeped leaves should always appear very green

Sorry my notes are so short and cryptic but it was a whirlwind tasting of so much information and flavor!

I am intentionally not rating these teas as I didn’t really have a chance to sit there and sip on them and think whether I would by them again, like to play with them more, although none were awful (1 leaf) or fabulous (4 leaves)

images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/05/radiance-tea-house-and-books-loose-leaf_05.html

I had this per BenC’s recommendation at Radiance Tea House, and it was amazing! It was harvested just a few weeks ago. It’s smoother, more delicate than other dragonwells I’ve had, and it gets sweeter over time. Expensive, yes ($20+ for a pot), but definitely worth a try. If you’re in NYC, head over to Radiance with a friend. You won’t regret it.