Golden Dragon Yellow Tea

Tea type
Yellow Tea
Ingredients
Yellow Tea Leaves
Flavors
Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Bread, Butter, Floral, Malt, Nuts, Earth, Nectar, Savory, Smoke, Smooth, Thick, Green, Honey, Mineral, Round, Tannin, Metallic, Vanilla, Wheat, Sweet, Vegetal, Grass, Vegetables, Herbaceous
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Fair Trade, Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by AnnaEA
Average preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec 4 g 12 oz / 369 ml

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52 Tasting Notes View all

  • “1/20/14 Midday tea. 3g/6oz/175F First steep – 2 minutes. Very much the same tea as the pot tasting. 2nd steep – 2 minutes. The aroma and color in cup are lighter, but the flavor is...” Read full tasting note
    84
  • “I’m baccck! Sorry it’s been so long, but I’ve been super busy. Stopped into a Teavana with friends the other night and they were offering this one up as a sample. To me it didn’t seem much...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “Honestly, I love this tea; I bought 6oz of it. I miss the 90 bucks it all cost, but this tea is just great! If anyone can recommend a similar tea that is less expensive, I’d be forever in your...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “Just had a cup of this tea in my gaiwan which I received from Anna as a sample. thank you very much Anna. A good cup of tea. A very gold color in my gaiwan which looks nice. The aroma is very...” Read full tasting note
    82

From Teavana

We are proud to offer one of the rarest teas in the world; our limited edition yellow tea direct from China. The name ‘yellow’ tea refers not only to the unique processing and the lovely, bright golden infusion color, but due to its rarity it is also associated with the imperial yellow worn exclusively by emperors for centuries. Unlike any tea you have tasted before, at first sip it evokes the exquisite pleasure of everyday luxuries. Captivating high floral notes mingle with a smooth honeyed body and a subtle creamy, buttery finish. A perfectly balanced tea curated just for you.

High floral top note with smooth, mellow body with a subtle buttery finish

About Teavana View company

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52 Tasting Notes

84
114 tasting notes

1/20/14 Midday tea. 3g/6oz/175F First steep – 2 minutes. Very much the same tea as the pot tasting. 2nd steep – 2 minutes. The aroma and color in cup are lighter, but the flavor is still bright. A touch more astringent. The tastes don’t hang on the palate as long. 3rd steep – 3 minutes. This infusion is less golden in the cup, more a ‘summers first green is gold’ shade. The aroma is more vegetal and astringent. The taste has smoothed out and lightened a lot. This might be the last steep the leaves can support. 4th steep – 3min30sec. Both the tea aroma and color are very light now. The brew feels much lighter on the tongue, and the primary taste is a light astringent tone. I’m not going to try for a 5th steep.

A nice progression all in all.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C
Christopher F.

I’ve yet to try it brewed this way, but I plan to tonight. Thank you for the insight and I hope my findings are as good as yours.

Vidalia

Can someone please tell me about the caffeine effect. Teavana states it’s caffeine free. Thanks.

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91
421 tasting notes

I’m baccck! Sorry it’s been so long, but I’ve been super busy.

Stopped into a Teavana with friends the other night and they were offering this one up as a sample. To me it didn’t seem much different from some really nice Yunnan teas I’ve tried before. I found it to be rather malty with a touch of honey. Sure it was nice, but I didn’t find it to be as special as they were claiming it to be.

I certainly wasn’t going to shell out nearly $30 to take some home with me.

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91
72 tasting notes

Honestly, I love this tea; I bought 6oz of it. I miss the 90 bucks it all cost, but this tea is just great!
If anyone can recommend a similar tea that is less expensive, I’d be forever in your debt.

~1tsp in yixing pot,
1-2 steeps 15seconds with 175F
Colour is light golden.
Aroma is of mild honey, floral and sweet.
Taste is much of the same with a smooth buttery finish, that doesn’t stick around too long.
3-4 Steeps 20 seconds 180F
Colour is more of a yellow/green, still pleasing.
Aroma has settled on the floral notes and less on the honey.
Taste is much lighter, more delicate, but less complex.
5th steep 25 seconds 180F
Colour is now like a clear yellow.
Aroma still hits with the floral, but significantly less “umph” to it.
Taste has mellowed out and the buttery finish is almost gone.

I’ll keep steeping with 30sec times until I get clear water out of the leaves. I really enjoyed this one. The spent leaves are also very attractive on the bottom of the yixing pot.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec
AnnaEA

Nice to see a brewing note for a gongfu style brewing of this tea – I thought it would lend itself to it nicely! Thank you for sharing.

Christopher F.

You’re welcome. It really was worth brewing to this way. I think I had 8-9 steeps total before it just tasted like hot water.

Sha9on

FYI Teavana has an AWESOME sale! I just got this in the store for 78% off! You might want to check your store! It is only 50% online.

kjamin

on sale now $7.00

Christopher F.

@kjamin thanks for the heads up, stocked up with a pound for the year. Great deal.

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82
14 tasting notes

Just had a cup of this tea in my gaiwan which I received from Anna as a sample. thank you very much Anna. A good cup of tea. A very gold color in my gaiwan which looks nice. The aroma is very strong vegetal smell. The taste is smooth and mellow. It does not lingerin the mouth too long. Overall a good cup of tea.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec
Steven Cook

This is one of my favorite teas on the wall, little pricey though.

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80
4205 tasting notes

Another one from Arby (I think). I’ve never had a yellow tea that I can remember, so this should be quite interesting. The leaves are long and spindly, with a mix of dull grey-brown and light gold. They look fairly similar to a Yunnan black tea, and smell a bit similar too.

This is certainly an interesting one. To me, it’s like a mix between a light Yunnan black tea and a dragonwell tea. The beginning of the sip is more Yunnan, with bread and some malty notes, and a light stonefruit flavor. In the middle of the sip, a strong buttery quality appears, and some nutty dragonwell-esque notes. The end is a little bit bitter, and I probably should’ve steeped this at a lower temperature… A light floral hit in the aftertaste as well?

It’s definitely interesting. Holding off on rating until I can try the rest of the sample with a lower water temperature.

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Bread, Butter, Floral, Malt, Nuts

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec 3 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
tea-sipper

I had the ancient tin of Yellow Fairy in my hands yesterday…poor teas so old. I should steep some up.

Cameron B.

Well at least with straight teas, they generally continue to taste great for many years. :)

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88
12 tasting notes

This tea is another favourite of mine. The aroma is bright and summery, and the taste has notes that remind me of both green tea and of white tea. The crisp floral top note and slight smokiness are especially enjoyable.

Flavors: Butter, Floral, Green, Smoke

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 45 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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80
13 tasting notes

First off, the reason I got this tea (and went into Teavana for that matter) is that it was on sale for half of its normal price ($13/50g). Though I wouldn’t buy it at full price, I would consider buying it again at the discounted one.

The feature of this tea that really takes the forefront when drinking it is its texture, which is buttery/fatty and silky smooth. Its taste is similar to a light black with a combination of honey, butter and malt.

Another noteworthy aspect of Golden Dragon is that its smell changes in a novel way. When dry it smells like pears and orchids over a Darjeeling base, but when steeped this morphs into a smell is very savory and reminds me of a steak spiced with salt/pepper.

Overall it is quite a light flavor.

Flavors: Butter, Malt, Smooth

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80
2 tasting notes

Like many Teavana teas, this is fairly high quality but extremely overpriced. I got this as a gift, but apparently 2oz was over $30!

That said, this is a very nice buttery tea. Lasts through up to 4 or 5 infusions for me!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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85
2972 tasting notes

Day 4 of Lion’s Week of Tea challenge
Wednesday | Yellow tea

So I just picked this up the other day. as a free Starbucks reward. Since Teavana os owned by Starbucks, you can get loose tea/a free cup from there instead of a free Starbuck’s coffee. Anyway, I got 28g of Golden Dragon, my second yellow tea. I really like yellow teas, they offer many of the nice parts of green teas but without the grassy/stem flavours and no astringency or bitterness. I’m really liking this yellow tea streak I’m on.

This is a bit less toasty than my other yellow tea (“Yellow Sun” from What-Cha), I actually found it to be a bit like a black tea in that it has a strong and complex flavour with lots of tannins (but not in a bitter or overpowering way). I appreciate the tannins and flavour without the unpleasantness often associated.

There is a bit of a “mineral” taste, but not any specific metals. I do not find it overpowering or distasteful at all.

You can steep this several times, I would say probably 3 small teapots/large mugs.

Flavors: Honey, Mineral, Round, Tannin

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 24 OZ / 700 ML

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90
98 tasting notes

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this tea was amazing and stands up well to multiple steeps. After the 4th or 5th I increased the temperature to 205°F for an additional steeping or two. If I can catch this tea on sale I’m going to load up big time.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec

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