Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea

Random Teavivre Sample of the day!

Wheee! I accidentally ordered a sample of this in addition to the sample that comes in their black tea sample. Luckily though, I’m enjoying this one. SO much so that I was just kind of sipping on it this morning without thinking about the fact that this was a brand new tea! gasp the horror! :)

I can totally get behind this tea. It’s the first dragon pear i’ve had so it was fun getting to watch them unfurl as it stepped this morning. I’m sipping on this tea while munching on the last of my cardamon and orange shortbread…yes you heard that right. Visit shortbread.ca if you want to see what i’m talking about…sweet AND savoury shortbread! I am also digging their garlic and asiago….though not with tea :)

Ok on with the tea…. This tea is much more chocolatey than other blacks that i’ve had that I enjoy. I wish there was a bit more maltiness to it, but it’s also nice not to have that total malty taste up front for a change. It’s on the lighter side of blacks that i typically enjoy but it’s delicious nonetheless!

The more i drink this, the more i am really enjoying that this is a more “pure” black in that there’s just the dominante chocolate flavour coming through. So glad i got to try this and happy that I have a bunch more thanks to my order mistake lol

My Teavivre samples arrived today! This will be my third round of tasting from this generous company, and as usual, I am like a kid on Christmas. This tea was the one I was most excited about. I read everyone else’s reviews on it and it got me quite excited for my turn. I am in love with Teavivre’s black teas, and when I smelled the pearls, I knew it was not going to disappoint.

As far as preparation goes, I used two pearls in about 10 ounces of water with a steel infuser. It unrolled rather quickly into long, whole, pointed leaves much like their yunnans. I let it go for the whole two minutes because I was a little worried by how pale amber the tea was. But the scent of it as it cooled reassured me that it would be flavorful.

Maybe next time I will use three pearls, but this is still a delicious cup. Malty cocoa is the strongest flavor, I agree. It reminds me a bit of their bailin gongfu, but a little more astringent. Also, there is just the barest hint of smokiness that makes it very satisfying. It is by no means your average black tea, and I can’t wait to get through this cup so I can make another. It’s great.

Opening the package and viewing the contents is kind of like journeying to another world and trying to figure it out. The closest comparison I have experienced to these pearls is jasmine pearls but these are much larger. They look like miniature flowering tea pods. I am looking at them and trying to figure out how many do I use? I went with 5 as that seems to be the starting point I have read in other reviews. While I am pondering, I notice these smell like unsweetened chocolate.

This is pleasant but not as full bodied as I was expecting. The amount of expanded chocolate brown leaf in the bottom of my press tells me I used a sufficient amount. So, either this is a very light bodied tea, or I need to increase the steep time.

I think the novelty of brewing this amazed me far more than the actual tasting. Don’t misunderstand, this is quite good. It just didn’t knock my socks off like almost everything else I have tried from Teavivre. Since others liked this way more than me, I am going to hold off rating (I was thinking 85) until I try it again.

Generous sample provided by Teavivre.

Thank you CrowKettle for the sample! (Or wait. Was is Sil? /0\ I’ll start labeling from now on I promise, but I know this one showed up with my matcha samples!!!)

I think Dragon Pearls are one of my favourite types of teas! This is just so smooth, and I love the malt and cocoa notes. Honey too! I steeped it for two minutes and that makes it nice and strong, without being overwhelming, and I’ll probably get a few more steeps out of this before I call it quits. I love how much flavour is in this black.

I believe this is nicer than the one from Zen Tea, and the tea itself is so pretty to look at. I love those little balls! It’s hard to say what makes this one “better” but it seems like there are a lot of things going on, and if I steeped it for less time and more often I would probably pick up on all sorts of things!

I guess I’ll have to keep my eyes open for a Teavivre sale because I’d like to stock up on this one. Moar please!

Sipping on this right now :D It’s not something I would order but it is tasty :D

Pardon my absence from the Steepsterverse. Work schedule has been kinda nutty as of late. Has a nice malty cocoa like flavor. Reminds me a lot of the Gonfu black from Teavivre. Very smooth. Somewhat grainy like whole wheat bread. Another great offering from Teavivre

I came back home from vacation to find a brand new box of tea samples from the wonderful Teavivre. It took me all day to figure out which tea to try first, but this won the right to be my 300th tea tasting note.

I brewed three pearls in my french press for two minutes with the first steep and three minutes for the second steep. The pearls themselves are about twice the size of the green jasmine pearls and smelled like dry hay. It was interesting to watch the black pearls unfurl with the hot water.

At first the tea didn’t taste like much. It isn’t as earthy as my yunnan black and that is what I was expecting from the tea for some reason. Only after I let the tea cool down for a while I began to notice a dark note. It wasn’t very strong but it was a dark note. Not earthy and not very sweet, but present.

On my second steep the dark note was a little bit stronger and that was when I was able to pinpoint the flavor. It tasted like a small sliver of bittersweet baking chocolate. I think I am going to have to brew this again with another pearl or two to really bring out the chocolate note.

I think the next time I try this I am going to put either my second or third steep in the fridge to try this iced. I think it would make a nice iced tea.

Thank you again Teavivre for this lovely tea sample. I would have never imagined that I would go from having a tea bag every once in a while to writing about loose leaf tea samples.

I’m emotionally and physically exhausted. It’s time to sit back and relax with a nice cup of tea. Lots of people have given these dragon pearls high marks, so I thought it would be an easy winner.

I used 5 pearls instead of the recommended 3-4 because I prefer strong tea to weak tea. Last thing I want is to brew up a new tea and then find that it tastes like barely flavored water. I’m really glad I added that extra pearl! The first cup was pretty calm. Light cocoa notes playing in a sunny field of Yunnan. Anything lighter than this and it probably would be barely flavored water.

The second steep was for 2 minutes, and it has a much richer and more developed flavor. There’s an added component of spiciness to this cup too. This is a much better tasting cuppa than the first. Let’s go for a third steep for 3 minutes. The spiciness has dissipated, but the Yunnan flavor is still going strong.

This is truly an excellent tea. It’s not bitter or astringent, and it’s put me in a better mood. The world just doesn’t seem as dreary when you’ve got a nice cup of tea in your hand.

Finally got around to getting my Teavivre order from the post office and this was the first tea that the boyfriend wanted to try. I think that the name, and the rolled leaves, had a huge part in his choice. :) Oh, and this is the 3rd round of tea samples from Angel – who I can’t thank enough for her generosity and the education I’m getting!

I really need to learn more about Chinese black teas. Luckily I got a ton of Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas so I ordered a few books, but mostly I’m confused about the tea names/places. Clearly I need to research more of Chinese geography to get a better understanding of a teas’ origins, so I’m going to try and make that a goal for all of my pure samples from now on.

Okay, so Fengqing is in western Yunnan, which is a southern province according to the maps. I’ll have to go back and specifically read any Yunnan tasting notes to compare, but what I get from this dry is a very chocolatey, malty smell. It definitely seems like more of a delicate black – what I mean is that it’s not quite as heavy or earthy as an Assam is, which the brewing parameters seem to confirm.

I went for 2 minutes on the steeping because I do like a strong tea, and that was enough time to give it a pretty honeyed brown liquor. I say honeyed specifically because I really think this had a sweet nectary note in the taste and texture. There was the chocolate also, which was more noticeable as the tea cooled. And whenever I get a malty note in the scent I get a chewy texture, so that was wonderful!

This is a solid tea- not super heavy but not as delicate/fussy as a Darjeeling, which are usually a little too light for my tastes. It is quite unassuming, but it grows on you so that when you get to the bottom of your cup you find yourself wanting more.

I’m on a self-imposed tea buying moratorium until February 24 (1.5 months from today, gah!) but once I get through it, and try all of these samples I’ll be making a huge TeaVivre order, I expect!

Back to school, which also means back to tea because I have way more free time on my hands to brew and review. My housemate and I had a mini tea party with this one today. She loves black tea whereas I am picky so I figured that way I’d be able to give a more complete review.

This was my first black pearl tea so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was fun to watch steep! I decided it was a worthy tea to christen my cast iron pot (which didn’t make watching the unfurling all that easy in hindsight).

For a pure black, by my taste, it was good. I am usually turned off by the astringency of black tea, but this one was smooth and not at all bitter! To me it tastes like a combination of hay and chocolate, which sounds weird but tastes decent. I think that I may have let it steep for too long (3 minutes or so) and that could be where the earthy hay taste came from. Overall, for a black tea, I did enjoy it, but it won’t be a tea that I crave.

My housemate found it too earthy for her taste, compared to other dragon pearls that she’s tried.

Upon second steep, I have to up the rating! The second steep was much more sweet and chocolate-y and less earthy. I think I got the brewing time right this time!

Thank you to Angel at Teavivre for the latest round of samples! I cannot wait to try them all in the next few days!

Thank you to Bonnie for this Sample

This was a very good tea for a “Black Tea” (slowly opening to the world of black teas ;) I think this tea would be of interest to “Black Tea” enthusiasts and Non-Enthusiasts, because of it’s very smooth, bright in character, “iced Tea Flavored” (reminded me Alot of strong iced tea;) , that became quite strong/more concentrated in flavor on it’s 2nd steeping !! :) This is a very well made tea I would’nt mind drinking again :)

I was so absolutely excited the day the lovely samples from Teavivre arrived. I had just finished the final exam for my long, drawn out genetics course and it was finally a beautiful sunny day! I knew these little gems were in there so I was actually giddy with joy when I picked them up.
I haven’t had very good timing lately to try this tea as I wanted to pay very good attention to it, as well.. the sample bag is larger than an individual packet, and therefore I needed to be somewhere where I could repackage them immediately. So here I am.
Dry: I get that same strong umami flavour smell as I do with the Bailin Gongfu Black (BGB)…. but then I huff the bag a little more and float to a dark 80% chocolate cloud. Malty too. Yum I-am-so-excited!
Liquor 1 min: Amber liquor tastes like cream..then the flavour builds to the umami that I get which is slightly salty and sweet. Soy sauce like… it then melts into some 60% chocolate. Delicious
2 min: I’m excited because the balls are still 75% intact.. This steep is much darker. Closer to a blonde coffee. It tastes like cream still and umami with the salty sweet. Similar to the BGB. Interesting.. I just had a red berry flavour pop up and then disappear. If anything.. the chocolate flavour in this is minimal to the creamy umami to me. If it were chocolate it would definitely be 60%.. therefore more sweet malt than cocoa punch. I think perhaps if I used 5 pearls instead of 4, I would be picking up on more of the chocolate? I dont know. All I know is that I am in love with the umami sweet salty I get from some blacks. This being a big one.
2.5 min: I was putting on some sun screen when I waited for this next cup to cool and found I was getting a fishy aftertaste. Odd.. I haven’t eaten anything yet. I’m not apposed to it, but my taste buds are so weird. Did anyone else get a slightly fishy aftertaste? I kinda like it with the whole umami theme. Reminded me of fish sauce. Back to the tea. A sweeter, more malty side has come out. With a cocoa edge and still some saltiness that I am loving on. No big umami presence anymore.. it’s like they switched roles. Delightful!

I am going to stop posting now as the tea is inspiring me to paint for a bit before I go biking. Such a lovely day here! I hope it is for everyone else too =)

I brewed this this other day and my intial reaction was that it was ok. I assumed that I should increase the amount of tea and adjust the steep time. Today with 7 pearls and brewed 1 cup basket style I am loving it. The first steeping was light and flavorful and it gave me a nice wake-up cup. A good energy. The second cup I gave the eternal steep. In other words I lost time. Just like with other pelleted teas the second cup shined. Maybe this tea would benefit from a rinse? Either way my order went out to Teavivre without this. It will be on my next order. I am glad I changed my brewing method on this beauty. A superb selection.

Free sample from Teavivre

The pearls smelled malty and slightly chocolatey when I opened the packet. They were larger than other pearls I have had. I must say I rather liked the hefty chunk of them. So, out with the infuser mug, which I generally reserve for my jasmine pearls and gunpowder, but that is a practicality decision, not because it brews them best. I was not sure how many pearls to put in, so I plumped for five pearls. The mug is about 200ml.

As I poured the water over them, the maltiness of the aroma increased. Once steeped, I had to wait a bit, because it was really too hot to drink. I am not good at waiting! The first sip told me what I needed to know. This tea is malty with a smooth, thick underlying chocolateyness that is gorgeous. The liquor is reminiscent of dark chocolate too. The sweet aftertaste lingered at the back of my tongue for some time too. Lovely. In some respects, this tea was like drinking a mug of cocoa, but nicer.

In the end, I managed to get four steepings out of the leaf, but the real flavour only lasted for the first two. After that it was slightly chocolatey sweet water.

I generally struggle to find black teas that I really like (other than Darjeelings), but this one definitely hits the mark and will be making a reappearance in my cupboard soon.

I have never tried this type of tea before so thanks to Teavivre for their generous free sample to review.

The dry leaves (pearls) are huge! While a Jasmine pearl is typically the size of a BB, these pearls are the size of a marble. They do have a sweet aroma of chocolate. I am glad I drink my tea in clear glass cups, because it was so nice to watch the balls unfurl to do their magic.

The pearls unfurled into chocolate brown leaves with a few mahogany brown leaves. The brewed leaf was kind of grainy in aroma-with a slight resemblance to the aroma of a brewed Autumn Harvest Laoshan Black. The liquor leans toward a reddish-orangish brown.

The flavor reminded me a lot of a Keemun-so smooth and chocolately. However, it does not have the smoky notes you often find in a Keemun. It’s very sweet. There is a grainy type note in the background-again similar to Autumnal Laoshan Black-but it’s very minor. I enjoyed this tea very much and look forward to drinking more of it.

1st steep I brewed with 5 pearls, boiling water, 2 minutes.
2nd steep I added a 6th pearl and brewed at 208 for 3 minutes

4 pearls in 8 oz

Nice, smooth, mellow tea. Could be very enjoyable for times when I don’t want something with too specific of a character.

ETA: 2nd steep at same parameters was pretty good too!

I was reading Teavivre’s info and Steepster notes for this tea last night and just got so excited I could hardly wait until morning. Well, things happen with a baby and toddler, so it’s mid morning now by the time I’m sitting down to a cup.

I followed Teavivre’s suggestion on their site of 4 pearls (and they are big) and boiling water for 1, 2, and 3mins, using 200ml of water.

Opening the sample pack, I knew what to expect from all the reviews but I could hardly believe just how real it was! Every bit the scent of dark cocoa powder, maybe a little sweetened, and then a subtle hay scent coming at the end (maybe that was the sweetness). The wet leaf is full of cocoa and bread. I like where this is going!

I was a little concerned when I first started pouring that it wasn’t very dark in the cup. When the cup was full, it turned out to be a dark honey color. The taste—oh my word—semisweet, definitely more like dark cocoa than dark chocolate, but with a little cream or butter, and then finishing with bread. Seriously, look at those as a list of ingredients. It couldn’t have tasted more like a chocolate croissant if I was actually chewing through it! How is this possible?? It’s a straight tea, for Pete’s sake!
2nd steep: A few hours later, now that I can sit down again. I forgot to mention in the 1st steep that there was a whisper of smoke, but I can’t remember if that was in the wet leaf or in the cup. I’m guessing the wet leaf, because that’s where I find it this time. This steep is also semisweet, but also has a touch of bitterness—but it’s not bad—so I guess that makes it bittersweet! It has the same delicious flavors as the first, but it’s taking them longer to develop on my palate to become that buttery chocolate croissant. But that might not be the tea’s fault. I can feel myself having a hard time relaxing and concentrating on the tea… a migraine is trying to develop. Let me get right on to the next steep before Lil’ Man gets up from his nap.
3rd steep: A good deal thinner feel to this cup. The sweetness is still very much there, but the bitterness seems to be gone. The flavors are all there, too, but they don’t stick around. This time it’s just a cup to sit back and relax with; a cup to help you enjoy doing something else like reading, not a cup to focus on itself. If this was how the tea was from the beginning, I’d be saying, “Eh, yeah, what’s next?” But you know, this tea worked it’s heart out for the first two steeps. I’d say it’s rather entitled to fade off into the sunset.

This looks like it’s the first tea from my samples stash that makes me say “I’ve gotta get more of this!” I still can’t get over the whole chocolate croissant thing. Maybe I’ll do a blind sniff test with Hubby to see if he can tell the tea from some cocoa powder and a real choc croissant. There’s a good excuse to run up to the bakery!

Steep Information:
Amount: 7 balls
Water: 500ml at 212°F
Tool:Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 1 minute 30 seconds
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: coco
Steeped Tea Smell: sweet, coco, toasty
Flavor: toasty, sweet
Body: medium
Aftertaste: coco, toasty
Liquor: translucent dark orange brown

Resteep:
same as first

I enjoyed the nice toasty and coco notes!

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2012/08/10/teavivre-loose-leaf-black-tea-fengqing-dragon-pearl-black-tea/

Many thanks to the Teavivre team for another generous round of samples. I added 5 of these pretty pearls to my 12 oz teapot and steeped for 2 minutes. Wow! This is really super good. There is a bit of cocoa, possibly hay, a good amount of malt and a smooth finish. This is amazing without anything added. While everything I’ve tried from Teavivre has been really good – this is most definitely going on my shopping list.

_{Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review}

First steep had a chocolate smell to the liquor. Upon drinking it, I am reminded of other wonderful yunnan black teas I’ve tried. It is smooth, velvety, with a deep body and notes of chocolate, flowers, maltiness, and spices.

The second steep continued to strength in flavour and body. I also started to pick up on some caramel flavour and a “woody” quality to the familiar yunnan earthy body.

As I was moving onto sipping the third cup, I kept thinking about how strong the tea body tasted.

Fourth through sixth steeps  were great and only weakened subtly with each steep.

The first noticeably weak cup was the seventh. I kept steeping until the ninth just to see (taste) how long it could last. When I short steep this again, I will probably stop on the sixith steep.

This might be a bold statement, but I think this tea is a clear example of black tea done right. It’s smooth, velvety, has a strong body and is full of character.  It’s not the best resteeper, but still worth short steeping for an excellent six cups. Out of the five other Teavivre black teas I have tried this is my second favorite (first being the yunnan dian hong golden tips)

100ml gaiwan, 4 balls, 9 steeps (rinse, 30s, +15s each resteep)