Black Dragon Pearls

mmmmm this tea isn’t have bad. Either that, or I’ve lowered my expectation of Tealux slightly. Overall, depending on the pricing of these pearls compared to others, it might be worth carrying them as a back up staple in the cupboard. This is a decent black overall though. Not as malty or as robust as i’d like but not weak or astringent.

This is my 501st tasting note! That I noticed on accident yesterday. So that means I’ve tried almost 500 teas, since I usually don’t write tasting notes for a tea more than once. Also, to celebrate, I ordered a bunch of samples from zentealife.com’s sale. (Like I needed a reason.) I wanted to have a special tea for #501 so I went for these pearls. Zen’s phoenix pearls are one of my favorite, so I ordered a sample of these from Tealux hoping they would be similar.

The golden and black pearls here are bigger than Zen’s. These are about half an inch top to bottom and instructions say to steep three pearls at a time. I went with four since my sample had 13 and one of these steeps would have needed a fourth. I steeped for five minutes, but the pearls were completely unraveled and unrecognizable after three minutes. They unravel to leaves that are about half an inch long. The steep color looks like a beer and I absolutely love the flavor. It’s everything I love in a yunnan. Malty, dark chocolate, dry hay, and a bit of unreognizable fragrance, all combining into a super yum flavor. The second steep after six minutes was just as delicious. I kind of oversteeped the third cup at fifteen minutes, so that one was a little stingy… but I wanted to get the last of the flavor! To compare with Zen’s pearls, I don’t think these have quite as a deep dark flavor as Zen’s. This one is lighter, but the complexities are really nice. I wouldn’t mind keeping both of these teas in stock. If you order from either Tealux or Zen, anyone should try either one. I’d say they are the best each company has to offer, but maybe that is just my preference! So so good.

Pretty tasty black tea. It’s especially fun to brew this in a clear container, to watch the leaves unfurl.

Like most black teas, I’m drinking this with honey and “creamer”. The flavour is deep, but not extremely strong. I used 5g of tea in 12 oz water, which is pretty standard for me now that I have a scale.

It’s not bitter, not too astringent, and actually tastes pretty good without the additions. The second steep is also delicious, but I can’t be bothered to try a third – I’d rather move on to a different flavour profile.

I’m not sure that I’d go out of my way to keep this tea in my cupboard, but I’m definitely enjoying what I have, and if I do another order from Tealux this will make the re-order list. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine needing to order more tea for many, many months at this point.