Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea

Dry leaf: The dry leaf smelled a lot different than I expected. I has a much darker and creamier aroma than I expected. The first thing that came to mind was a really light milk oolong. The leaves are very light colored and super flat.

Wet Leaf: At first I thought that this tea smelled like a light sencha, but as I smelled more I found this very bright sweet note. If I had to compare it to something it would be like a buttered pea. It has that creaminess about it, but once you bite into it a dark, sweet, and bright flavor comes out.

Taste: When this tea first hit my tongue there was a crisp vegetal note that didn’t have the sweetness I was expecting. As I began to swallow, however, I got that sweet oolong creaminess. After I swallow this tea is my absolute favorite, because I was left with a very sweet pea flavor running down my throat. It left a refreshed feeling in my mouth and a very smooth feeling in my throat.

This is an exceptional Dragon Well. I enjoy Dragon Well anyway, but, this one kicks it up a notch. The flavor is so crisp and clean. Vibrant. You can really taste the quality it this.

Sweet and tasting very much like fresh, roasted chestnuts, this tastes like autumn to me. It makes me wish I had a fire going in the fireplace and was roasting chestnuts. YUM! It is a very comforting tea, but at the same time, it offers a sense of invigoration. A truly lovely tea.

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

Note: this review is based on the 2012 harvest.

I received 15 grams of this tea as one of many tea samples provided by Teavivre. Thank you Angel and Teavivre!

This Long Jing Green Tea is advertized as being harvested on March 3, 2012. I brewed this up roughly a week after I received this tea.

Everything about this Dragon Well speaks of its quality: the characteristic appearance and fresh aroma of the both the dry and wet leaf, the movement of the leaves while steeping (more below), and it’s seemingly well-known sweet nutty flavor. As it seems most Long Jings do, this one yielded a mildly green colored liquor.

I started with my standard green tea times and temperatures when steeping (starting at 180F and one minute), and increased the time and temperature up through five steepings. While steeping, the leaves were all on top for 1st and 2nd, half and half on 3rd, such that they were up and active all the way to the 5th; I found the steeping of the leaves enjoyable to watch (with some teas the leaves simply sit on the bottom during the later steepings with little to no activity). I don’t know what all that activity means, but my guess is that movement is an indicator that there is life in the leaves.

I found that the wet leaf had the tell-tale signs of being a quality Long Jing: whole leaves interspersed with plenty of buds and bud sets, all of a uniform army green color. Although it is not the quality of Life in Teacups’s Da Fo Long Jing (the highest quality Long Jing I’ve yet had), this is clearly from a quality pluck.

The flavor was strong, and my wife and I both liked it. Still, as much as I like the taste of a quality Long Jing—and after having a number of them—I am finding that they all have a flavor profile that is not at the top of my list of favorite green teas. It had good flavor up to three steepings and on the forth it had a slight change in flavor that seems to be characteristic of Long Jings, something I don’t quite care for; I don’t know how to describe it, but it may be that it’s too nutty for me. Still, the fifth had an impressive amount of good flavor. With one exception, this is probably the best tasting true Long Jing green tea I have ever had. The price ($20 / 100g) is probably not too bad for an organic Long Jing of this quality, but it’s still too expensive for my tastes; personally, I would rather purchase a less expensive Long Jing. Price aside, this is a Long Jing I would be willing to drink on a regular basis.

What an excellent Dragon Well this is! It’s extremely pure and clean and crisp! It’s makes my mouth water and it’s sweet. I thought the flavor was sort of like the ‘water’ of water chestnuts (not the texture of).

This was wonderful!

I had a hot cup and a cold cup and LOVED both!

I am so mad at my mom right now, she used my desperation and tears about being one week off from seeing my favorite hockey team in Florida on spring break again to book a cruise from Tampa during that week.

Oh no, not for me, for her and my dad. I have to go up there and watch the dog. Never even ran it by me until today telling me that’s what I’m going to be doing.

Never asked. MEH.

So then I decided I had to try this Dragonwell today rather than wait till morning. I’m sure it’s just a matter of it steeping a shorter amount of time, but the other one just seemed so much more creamy and nutty.

This isn’t bad though, 30 more seconds would probably have done it good. It does remind me of peas and a bit like sparkling mineral water. And it smells just so clean! It’s like having spring in a cup, 14 hours before a winter weather watch.

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this sample

I am not the biggest fan of green tea, but I wanted to try some good quality straight greens to try to change my mind. So, I asked for some samples from Teavivre.

Dry leaf: smells very vegetal
Liquor: still smells vegetal, very light yellow colour

Taste: vegetal, smooth nutty quality, and that “savory” flavour that I am getting like salted butter. I find the taste to be comforting.

2nd steep: 80degrees, 1.5 minutes, much the same as the first

Unfortunately, I wasn’t really feeling well, so I tossed the leaves and didn’t do more infusions but I think this would go a couple of more infusions.

Overall, I like the Pi Lo Chun from Teavivre better, but this company is starting to change my opinion of green tea!

This is the Spring 2013 production of this tea. The dry scent in the sample bag is slightly sour and reminds me of fresh baled hay. The aroma of the wet leaf makes me think stew beef and buttery beans. The liquor is light yellow green and very clear and bright.

The sip is crisp and fresh with a slight bitter edge with a mineral finish that I find produces a very refreshing mug. There is a milkiness to the feel. The taste is vegetal and what I guess is best described as nutty. I find it more savory than sweet. The aftertaste lingers nicely.

Going strictly from memory (usually not a good idea) of the premium grade I tried long ago I believe this version is brighter with less of a roasty feel about it.

I would not normally think to ice this, but as I was typing my notes the mug reached room temperature and I must say I really liked this cold.

All right, first sample from the new batch from Teavivre. Thanks again, Angel!

This is also my first Dragonwell, so I’m a bit excited to finally get to try it out. I put about four grams of tea in my tea ball. The instructions said to use more, but that was also to make 8 oz. of tea, whereas my mug only holds 6. Anyway, I steeped the leaves for one minute in 175 degree water, and the results were great. It has a very smooth texture, like the aftertaste of a Wuyi Oolong, which seems to coat the tongue and hard palate. The tea also has a delightfully nutty flavor which reminds me a bit of Hojicha, but it’s not as strong and taste more refined. Definitely a great way to start off the weekend.

Alright, second infusion, same preparation as before. The only real difference is that it has lost a bit of the mineral smoothness, which, while disappointing, does not really affect the taste too much. It is, however, a bit unfortunate, because it seems that I won’t get all that many infusions out of this tea.

If only all green teas were like this …

A sample so kindly sent by Hallie (and yes I am breaking my two caffeine teas a day rule. Temptation is too hard to resist…), I was glad of a chance to compare with the dragon wells I could find locally and there is not much of a competition – this is really much better. At all levels. Weird taste note – there was a nutty taste which is lovely and which I can not quite describe. The seller mentions chestnuts, not to me – for me it was something more like pumpkin seeds or something even greener… Lovely just the same, even if impossible to describe.

PS – downrating this a little bit. Tried to resteep and it does not work! Second steep was extremely weak, even using my tricks of much less water and hotter, and third steep was plain hot water. My generic worse-quality dragonwells are more generous. I think it is usually unfair to expect a tea to be re-steepable, it does not work with ALL teas nor should it have to – but this is a dragon well and can not help comparing it to other dragon wells!

I received a wonderful box of samples of the 2013 harvest today from Teavivre. Thank you!

Hubby and I have not had our bedtime green tea lately. We’ve been a little out of sync schedule-wise, so tonight we set that straight.

He really has been enjoying green tea though he is still rather new to it and says he really can’t describe flavors yet, but tonight he said “vegetal, I definitely get that this is vegetal.” He agreed that there is also a hint of butter and a nice toasted flavor. And this was just bursting with flavor! We had five steeps of it, and I have saved the leaves because I think I can get a few more tomorrow.

This is an excellent Dragon Well. I liked the first one I ever had. It was purchased from a tea shop not far away. For some reason I never finished that bag of tea, but when I tried Teavivre’s Dragon Well last year I had to order. This one is every bit as good as last year.

Hubby drank right along with me and kept refilling. He said he found this green tea particularly smooth and drinkable. I, too, found it smooth and easy to drink, and on one steep that went a little long there was a hint of root vegetable flavor (not strong enough to be unpleasantly astringent) that blossomed into sweetness after the swallow. Nice!

Thank you, Teavivre, for the samples! I look forward to trying all of them!

Thanks to Teavivre for this sample! Dragonwell is one of my favorite kinds of greens, so I was really excited to try this one. I brewed up a cup of it yesterday – it was morning, and I wanted a nice tea to drink, but I didn’t necessarily need much caffeine. I baked all morning for the tea party yesterday afternoon, and the stress definitely woke me up! I made shortbread cookies, vanilla scones (with the recipe DaisyChubb posted a few weeks ago – delicious!), a fruit salad and a homemade dill and goat cheese dip, and my friend made cucumber sandwiches, muffins and chocolate covered strawberries. We had so much food, and we ended up sitting around the table for seven hours just munching on all the goodies! It was a fantastic day, and the party continued until three in the morning… crazy. And then the next day I went straight to the beach all day and didn’t really get to try any new teas. Anyway, I made this tea yesterday, had a couple of sips of it, and then didn’t get to finish the cup because I was baking so frenetically!

After I drove my sister to camp today, I brewed another cup of this. And oh, it is good. I’ve been thinking about it all day. The leaves are long and flat, a pale grey-green color. The leaves smell beautiful. There’s a very quiet vegetal flavor here – I wouldn’t describe it as grassy, but green. There’s a characteristic chestnut scent there as well.

Sipping it, it tastes just the way it smells. One of my favorite things about a Dragonwell is just how clean it tastes, and this is no exception. Even though I’ve made it with regular old tap water, it tastes like I’ve made it with mineral water. I love it. It’s very light, it’s green and nutty. It’s one of the most soothing cups of tea to me. I’m in love with it. This is going into the order with that black dragon pearl tea… oh, it’s fantastic.

Thank you to Angel & TeaVivre for the excellent sample!

I chose to steep this gongfu style, drinking several steepings while I had a few students (yes, a few actually showed up!). It is a very nice quality Dragonwell, with a creamy vegetal slightly sweet taste, like roasted caramelized green beans. The mouth-feel is very buttery.

After a weekend of overindulgence in Easter goodies, a straight green just seemed like the right thing to do. I like green tea, but still haven’t found my “go-to.” I’ve tried a few different Dragonwells and although everyone seems to love it, it hasn’t grown on me. So I really wanted to give it another chance and brewed this top-of-the-line sample.

And it tastes…salty? I’m getting a chicken broth-like flavor that makes me feel like I’m drinking soup. As it cools the vegetal flavor comes through, but it’s still quite savory. I can tell this is a quality tea, but sadly I have to face the fact that I must be the exception and Dragonwell is just not for me. Ah well…no use mourning when there are so many teas out there waiting to be discovered. The search continues!

Thank to Teavivre for this very generous sample!
I feel crummy today and I still have almost 2hrs. before I have to start my homework so I thought I’d relax with some nice, pure tea. I’ve been in quite the flavored tea stint so all this plain tea tasting has brought me back to what I really love to enjoy.
Dry, this tea smells almost similar to a Bai Mu Dan; especially the light hay notes. There is also an almost nutty smell coming through. I’m not sure how much to add to my tiny cup, so I’m just eyeballing it as covering the bottom. I’ve only had one other Dragon Well and to be honest, I hated it. It smelled and tasted swampy.
Wow! Even though I only steeped this for 2min. the smell is very strong. There are lots of pea notes in the front of this brew. It is very crisp and I’m really loving the nutty notes. This particular steep is reminding me a lot of sencha. There is almost a milky-ness to this tea, as I saw other reviews state. Compared to my last run in with Dragon Well this is amazing! This is easily one of my favorite greens and I would really recommend it for anyone new to green teas.

Very tasty Dragon Well! Fresh, crisp and sweet. Savory and vegetal. This is the ideal Chinese green. Well, to me anyway. :) And I’m getting in some greens again. I’ve missed my green teas. Blacks were starting to take over my life! Next, I must rekindle my love for white teas.

_{Tea provided by Teavivre for review}

First steep, very smooth, velvety, light liquor, with the familiar Dragon Well flavour.

Second and third steeps, bolder in taste, there is also this almost fuzzy texture on my tongue.

Fourth and fifth steeps, the flavour has weakened a bit but is still enjoyable, and a bit of astringency if present (but not overdone).

Overall I really liked this Dragon Well tea. Teavivre always provides really nice green tea samples, and it’s given me a new appreciation for that type of tea.
Next time I brew this sample, I will use my competition cups to compare the Premium Dragon Well (which I purchased) with this one. After that, I’ll try it western style in a teapot.

100ml gaiwan, 4g-ish (sometimes my digital scale fudges it), 5 steeps (rinse, 20s, 40s, 1m10s, 2m, 2m30s)

Free sample from Teavivre

Back to reviewing teas after a few days off. This is the last of my samples from Teavivre and it is one that was well worth waiting for. I love the flat leaf and bud. The aroma of the dry leaf is sweet and nutty. The tea brews into a light yellow liquor and the taste is smooth, sweet, slightly nutty with a slight vegetal hint. The second steeping is as good as the first. I wonder how the third will be. I am really enjoying this tea.

It was a toss up between the black pearls and this dragonwell last night, so of course I couldn’t wait to try this one today!

The leaves smelled like butter when I opened the package. Not strongly of butter, but it reminded me of how my last dragonwell brewed up. The leaves are so big compared to my last bag of dragonwell. Long and flat. They wouldn’t fit into my teaspoon so I just poured out enough leaf to lightly cover the bottom of my press.

I impatiently waited two minutes for this to steep. I was worried for a minute because the liquor was turning out so light. In the press it was almost still clear but in my cup it was a very, very light yellow. I sipped it and the first word that popped into my head was “smooth”. It tastes so smooth and I drank it fairly quickly because it went down so easily. At the end of the cup it tasted a little mineral-y but not enough for me to really notice it if I wans’t paying attention.

I got busy organizing books so I didn’t get to have the second steep until after lunch. This steep was for three minutes and the liquor was much darker. It is still light and smooth but there is another note teasing the edges of my tongue. It is a slight creamy sensation with the tingle of light mineral water. I was afraid my lunch would overpower the tea, but now I’m thinking that I should have had it with my tea.

I have never steeped a green tea more than twice (mostly because I have never had a high quality green before), but I am going to try a third steep in a little while to see if it still has more to give.

Third Steep: I steeped this for four minutes and it tasted exactly like the first steep. I don’t think the flavors would develop any more after this so this is probably a three steep tea for me.

Testing out a new way of reviewing!

Water: I boiled 8oz water on the stove,then let cool for 4-5 minutes.

Leaves: A beautiful shade of light shade green.

Steep: 2 minutes the first steep. Even when steeping for 3 the flavor is great!

Aroma: I smiled when the scent hit my nose very pleasant,reminded me of Sencha.

Color: Pale yellow

Taste: I decided to make this tea because it was one I haven’t tried from my Teavivre samples. I was preparing to watch one of the Ted Talks. I took a sip this tea is light & very refreshing! It made watching the video that much more relaxing experience.

This one has been sitting in my desk un-opened why? Well sometime I forget where I put things and I have random stashes of tea at work. Again contributing to my coworkers asking what are you smoking today. If you have read any of my previous tasting notes. I was pretty much a green hater until I realized that I was brewing them wrong and I had Teavivre’s offerings. This one is so incredibly light, but it still has some body to it. I had to get over the lack of body in green and white teas to enjoy them. I like the full body of black and Pu-erh tea. I’m really starting to like Long Jing as well. The first dragon well that I ever had was a really cheap one and was not good at all. Teavivre’s and the last one that I sampled from Infusion have been great. Slightly grassy, a little like hay, I can see some comparisons to chestnut as well. Over all a great post lunch pick me up. The quality of Teavivre is just outstanding.