Lung Ching

I look back on my initial note on this with amusement. Between then and now I have learned to appreciate green tea in general far more, and Dragonwell in particular.

For one thing, I was seriously underleafing when I first tried Dragonwell. I was using a spoon as a measurement rather than gram weight which undoubtedly resulted in underleafing given the size of Dragonwell leaves, and then I found out that the gram weight I was using (2.5 g per cup, which is pretty standard) is about .5g less than what one should ordinarily use to steep Dragonwell. Once I got the leafing right, things fell into place.

One thing that’s still true for me, though, is that Dragonwell is different from other green teas; I get less butter than with many others and it doesn’t taste like run off from cooked vegetables so much as it does actual vegetables. It’s interesting that Harney mentioned eggplant. Not sure I would have come up with that on my own, but with the power of suggestion, I certainly understand what they mean. Bumping the rating.

Lung Ching is another of our flights this weekend and is an early spring tea and is the standard to which all other green teas are measured. It emotes aromas of steamed bok choy and toasted walnuts. It pours a very smooth cup with little dryness. The cup has a delicious meatiness of roasted eggplant, with similar steamed bok choy and toasted walnut flavors as in the aromas. A sweetness of spring clover sneaks through to the top!

Sweet very mildly vegetal green tea. I quite enjoyed it and will gladly have this as my go to green for a while.

I’m so new to tea that I didn’t realize that I already had Lung Ching because I learned about it through its other common name, Dragonwell, which I’ve bought a couple of times from Teavana. I love Dragonwell as a mild, forgiving (hard to ruin!) green tea. Dragonwell is like that basic article of clothing that looks good on you and goes with just about anything you own- something you can depend on to complement your wardrobe. Dragonwell complements my tea cupboard. It is a comforting tea that doesn’t have to wow me to be thoroughly enjoyed.

And I say all of that because when I opened up the lovely Harney & Sons tin (my first purchase from them) I thought hey- that looks like a slightly paler version of Teavana’s Dragonwell! I steeped it and loved it immediately. A hint of sweetness and a vegetal flavor and aroma. The flavor is more robust than Teavana’s Dragonwell, though both teas are nice -and pretty to look at, too.

I have had this tea quite awhile and yet I never logged it. I’m not quite sure why that is but here goes.

The dry leaf is dry medium green flat leaf. Once steeped it is a slightly nutty, vegetal flavor I can’t say I would reorder this tea but it’s not a bad green tea it’s just Meh.

I’m not really an experienced green tea drinker, even though I’ve drunk it for years. Lung Ching comes in a large variety of grades, which I can’t really speak to. This one compares favorably with the ones I’ve drunk from my Chinatown supplier and from Mark T Wendell. This Lung Ching has that grassy, fragrant, fresh scent and nice yellow liquor I expect from a Lung Ching. It’s smooth and delicious. I always notice a really fine sense of alertness that accompanies the cup. Sometimes I brew it in a brown clay tea pot and give it several pours. Today I wimped out and used my Bodum glass press pot, 4 minutes at 90 degrees celsius.

A simple and good tea that I drink on nearly a regular basis. Lung-Ching tea is classified as a China-Green tea (superfine), with the liquor having a pale yellow appearance. The taste is mild and sweet,with an almost nut-like flavor.

Other Names: Dragon Well (most common), and Long-Jing

Steeping Suggestions:
2 1/4 grams per cup
Water Temp 160 degrees
Steeping time 2 minutes

This is a quite mild green tea. More sweet than vegetal. There is nothing offensive about this tea and that is why it is so unexciting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good. But, it simply doesn’t take any risks that might make it exceptional. It’s super forgiving to brew — almost impossible to make bitter from oversteeping.

This is a wonderfully sweet and complex tea without the vegetal taste that most non-green tea lovers find distasteful. It’s quickly climbed my favorites list to the top three, and my fiancé, who is rather impartial to tea, enjoyed this as well. I enjoy it both cold and hot, and I would not recommend using sweetener with it (though if you had to, I’d recommend light agave or a touch of honey).

Like many teas on my favorites list, this holds up to abuse rather well. My first brew ended up lukewarm before I remembered I was brewing some tea. It was still delicious! I was expecting it to be incredibly bitter, like other grocery-store green teas or sencha. Thankfully this tea doesn’t get that heavy, bitter taste.

I only add two pinches of the tea to my cold cup before adding hot water (195 F). If the cup is pre-warmed, I try to take the tea out before 2 minutes. Two minutes is what I usually consider the longest steep-time for green tea, though Lung Ching has proven me wrong.

If you’re watching the leaves sink, take out the leaves when most of the tea has sunk to the bottom. Using this method, you can go for a second steep but definitely not a third.

Such a good basic green. I have my whole family addicted. I think I may actually like it more than the higher end Meijiawu, but probably because I feel like I can just enjoy it rather than feel like I have to analyze it so it’s not wasted.