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1st 30 second steep, 205 degrees, leaf enough to coat bottom plus of empty gaiwan, filled up when unfurled (too lazy to weigh it, bad me)

Very delicate and floral, a bit underwhelming, really.

2nd, again 30" (short but this is now well-opened and this 30" is more than the prior 30", effectively) similar, delicate, spicy, and very like an Alishan….but not quite.

3rd, went longer—2 minutes—still delicate, floral, light, delicious, and not-quite-Alishan! I guess this is the ‘flavor of the tea varietal’ used. Mmmm.

Somewhere 5th or 6th infusion….yes, I see the difficulty in labeling this tea. The flavor is very like a white tea in delicacy, but there is an element of depth and richness and spice that is distinctly oolong in nature, and the staying power of the tea is all oolong. This is wonderful stuff.

Preparing a 2nd series of infusions after the first one started to lose power….delicious stuff, spicy sweet. I am a fan.
….

(Sometime later) Stopped taking detailed notes, but the flavor of this one kept it pleasant right out to sweet water stage. I must have liked it because I drank 3 sessions of it in a row. Drinking it again now, a couple of days later, with some Dan Cong and Tie Guan Yin in between, and it still sings to me. Mmmm.

I let the first infusion go longer and am loving it from the first sip now.

Even the leaves are elegant and lovely as they unfurl—a rich deep green.

A perfect session with a perfect tea, in a perfectly lovely new teapot: just a few leaves of this tea, in 100mL teapot, water 205 degrees, and several infusions of fruity (plums/grape), lightly spicy (cinnamon, peppermint), sweet (honey) tea. More infusions after an overnight rest, totalling probably a dozen infusions from not much tea. Wow.

First brewing in a long time of this favorite, in a tiny yixing pot, drinking from a new gorgeous little tea cup, and the jewel-like glaze on the cup matched the delicate floral/camphor loveliness of the tea perfectly. Mmmmm…. Flash rinse after flash rinse, and lots more left in the leaves to enjoy this evening.

Enjoying this one as a cold-brewed tea, and the depth of flavor is just fantastic this way too. Mmmmm!

I sampled this one as part of a tasting on two different tea forums. I am drinking some of it again for the first time in many months. It was the strongest of the EoT three sampled in those tastings, and now, after just sitting in a sealed pouch in an airconditioned cupboard for a long time, it is sweet, spicy, anise, mellow, delicious. I’m drinking a lot of short infusions, water is variable temp (trying not to heat up the office too much by keeping water at boiling in the kettle), and it’s just delicious, and a lovely counterpoint to all of the green and green oolongs I’ve been drinking lately.

The package is almost empty, and still never a formal tasting session note. I enjoyed this one for 5-6 infusions in the evening, let the leaves sit overnight in the steeper, and then enjoyed another full day of infusions, floral, sweet, fruity, spicy, complex. One of my tea-buddies said, while enjoying today’s Alishan offering, “this one is nice, but that one yesterday [the Kan Tou] was something else…..so nice I want to wear it as perfume!” Another Dan Cong fan is born….

Another day when I needed a tea lift, and this LBZ reliably provides it. It’s sweet, herbaceous, and has a wonderfully long aftertaste. Mmmmm. As long as I keep the infusions very short—and this little yixing pot doesn’t pour that quickly, so immediate pouring of flash infusions basically means I’m doing 10 second infusions—it’s marvelous stuff.

Another day, and a more predictable and pleasant encounter with this tea. I really do need to watch the leaf to water ratio, because for me the delicacy that I enjoy here can be overwhelmed by the nuttiness if I overdo the leaf or length of infusions.

I did a comparison between this tea and one I’ve been drinking from Wing Hop Fung today, my first time opening the package of the Xi Hu. The Xi Hu is a 2011 tea, and the one from WHF was not so fresh—probably a 2010 harvest—but the tea tasted as I remembered it immediately after purchase.

The leaves are a pleasant bright green, smelling sweet and a bit floral. I started with water I did a comparison between this tea and one I’ve been drinking from Wing Hop Fung today, my first time opening the package of the Xi Hu. The Xi Hu is a 2011 tea, and the one from WHF was not so fresh—probably a 2010 harvest—but the tea tasted as I remembered it immediately after purchase.

The leaves are a pleasant bright green, smelling sweet and a bit floral. I started with 2 grams of each in gaiwans with 75 mL of 160°/71°C water to start, 30" first infusion, and the XiHu was sweet peas, very light on the nuttiness compared to the WFH tea, but nuttier than the average green tea. 20" second infusion again sweet and vegetal, lightly nutty. The 40 second 4th infusion was nuttier and less sweet. I increased the temp to 177°F/81°C for the fourth infusion, 1 minute, and the tea was notably lighter, mildly sweet. I did another similar infusion before upping the temp again, 193°F/89°C for the sixth infusion, 2 minutes, and the first sip was sweet, delicious, and it kept on as somewhat nutty sweet water, pleasant. Again upped the temp to 205°F/96°C for the 7th infusion, 4 minutes, just to see if there is anything else left in the leaves, and again, it was sweet water, a little bit vegetal and a little bit floral, very mellow.

This is a very nice tea.

Fuller review with photos
http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/DragonWells.7.11.html