Black Dragon Pearls

These little pearls of tasty greeted me with the wonderful scent of cocoa when I opened the bag. Clearly off to a good start!

The directions on the bag recommended a “heaping teaspoon” for each cup, but I remembered the description on Adagio’s website advising the use of two to three pearls per cup. I chose to place three pearls in my teaspoon infuser. A heaping teaspoon seemed like it would be a bit much for one cuppa, and only using a few pearls would leave each of them some room to unfurl and steep properly. To be very specific, I chose two larger and one smaller of the pearls. I steeped them in boiling water for four and a half minutes. (The recommendation was boiling water for three to five minutes.)

The scent of cocoa is not very prominent once the tea is brewed, but the hint is still there in the taste. The farther into my cup, the more earthy the tea tasted. I did not add anything to this tea since it was my first brew, but I will likely add a bit of sugar next time. It is entirely enjoyable without the addition of sugar but my personal preference is for a sweeter taste. Another future cup might have me experimenting with half-and-half as well.

Completely unrelated to the tea itself, the name invokes a certain want all on its own. If you’re partial to dragons, that is. Why not try a cup to celebrate the Year of the Dragon? As for me, I feel a bit inspired. Perhaps I will use these pearls to create a Fire & Blood Latte for the second season premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones. And since the gaming world has confirmation on the release of Guild Wars 2 later this year, I might have something on the brew there as well.

Want to give this tea – or any of Adagio’s other teas – a taste? Let me know and I will send you a $5 gift certificate to use for your first purchase! :)

Still loving this tea. It’s so smooth and robust…

My first non-bagged tea, and I am quite delighted. I added some milk and sugar, and was so very, very pleased. I love the chocolate-y richness. Mmm.

It took me a while to get the right time and serving size for this, but I think I got it. I need this strong, especially on a cold, rainy morning like today’s. 3 balls for a single cup, 5 minutes in boiling water. Resteeping once or twice will keep me going until lunch.

I don’t know what sort of sorcery the tea wizards worked on these little things, but they are awesome. So sweet and chocolatey and yum. I use four to a cup, but that’s because I like it a little stronger than the 2-3 Adagio recommends.

Since they are a little pricey for me, I’m glad that I can get two or three good infusions out of them. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to oversteep these; they’ve never tuned bitter on me.

Tasty, well rounded and smooth but somewhat thin and one-dimensional, especially for the price. My scouter shows these dragon ballz lack a sufficient power level to reach super saiyan. Would rate higher if they didn’t drop a spirit bomb on my wallet.

A perfect black tea for me. It’s malty and earthy and sweet and everything I want in a tea. It almost has a chocolate/spice taste to it. Highly recommended. As a bonus, it’s so pretty to watch it unfurl as it’s steeping!

Received as a gift from dearest Mum! I enjoyed this tea, but I found the recommended steeping directions made a slightly weaker cup than I preferred. The second brew, using less water for the same amount of time, was an improvement. A very smooth tea, altogether; unlike my usual breakfast teas which need a splash of milk to take the edge off, this was quite nice without.

I put two balls in for about three minutes and that seems to do the trick. It’s chocolatey and smooth. While it isn’t as complex as a keemun or yunnan tea it still is very relaxing and I am using it more and more to end the day.