I thought Dragon Pearls would be bigger coz of the name but it is the same size as my other Jasmine Pearl…steeped side by side with equal amounts.
i read that it is better to steep green tea by soaking them in a bit of regular temp water then adding the warm water later so i tried that here and behold, it was perfect. haha
my other pearl has a stronger flavor but in the 3rd steeping, the delicateness of Teavivre’s Dragon shone through like a beam of light and suddenly, the other pearls I’ve tried seemed too strong.
sipping this tea is like sipping the flower itself! and God knows that throughout my life, i have held many a jasmine flower to my nose until it was all squished up so i should know!
I wonder what it will be like to brew this with hotter water? I was pretty conservative with the temp for these greens.
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I just read recently an opinion that high quality Chinese teas can and should be steeped with higher temperature water to bring out the true flavors. The author thought that since we have tended to have lower quality teas available in the west, the lower temps are needed to overcome the inadequacies, but truly high quality tea needs higher temps. An interesting thought. I have always stuck with the lower temps for greens and whites but I admit that I don’t buy a lot of greens and they are probably not the best quality when I do. The known high quality whites I get from Shang don’t suffer at all from higher temps though so that makes me curious to try a high quality green that way.
I was also thinking that quality leaves can be steeped at higher temp :) However both got bitter. Teavivre’s got just a bit more bitter so i just mixed the two of them to balance out and put them on cold steep (end of experiment) Sorry I am not too scientific about it – my thermometer broke and I have no way to measure temp.
Yeah, I would put Teavivre in the high quality category. Likely, the real truth is variable depending on growing season, processing, etc. And I rarely measure temp accurately. I heat to boiling and then let cool till I think it’s good. :) Not very scientific and not easily repeatable but I tend to drink forgiving teas. :)
These are the smallest pearls I have seen from Teavivre. Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearl is a little larger, and their Black Dragon Pearls are much larger!
I just read recently an opinion that high quality Chinese teas can and should be steeped with higher temperature water to bring out the true flavors. The author thought that since we have tended to have lower quality teas available in the west, the lower temps are needed to overcome the inadequacies, but truly high quality tea needs higher temps. An interesting thought. I have always stuck with the lower temps for greens and whites but I admit that I don’t buy a lot of greens and they are probably not the best quality when I do. The known high quality whites I get from Shang don’t suffer at all from higher temps though so that makes me curious to try a high quality green that way.
I was also thinking that quality leaves can be steeped at higher temp :) However both got bitter. Teavivre’s got just a bit more bitter so i just mixed the two of them to balance out and put them on cold steep (end of experiment) Sorry I am not too scientific about it – my thermometer broke and I have no way to measure temp.
Yeah, I would put Teavivre in the high quality category. Likely, the real truth is variable depending on growing season, processing, etc. And I rarely measure temp accurately. I heat to boiling and then let cool till I think it’s good. :) Not very scientific and not easily repeatable but I tend to drink forgiving teas. :)
These are the smallest pearls I have seen from Teavivre. Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearl is a little larger, and their Black Dragon Pearls are much larger!