Golden Dragon is the most expensive tea at Teavana, so naturally I decided to try an ounce for one of my Starbucks rewards! At $30 for 2 ounces, my reward was valued at $15! I’d thought that I was making the most of my reward when I requested an ounce of gyokuro a while back, but little did I know that there was a tea from China even more expensive than Japan’s claim to tea fame!
Yellow dragon is good, no doubt. The leaves are multicolored, long, spindly and basically beautiful. They also have a scent about halfway between vegetables and baked bread. Once infused, the leaves have a very strong cooked vegetable scent and even reminded me of the scent of the Coors Beer Company, in Golden, Colorado. I used to go on long bike rides past the factory and was always struck by the scent of overcooked green beans (it was really the barley somehow, it seems…)
The liquor is peach veering brown, and the taste is very good indeed. I’m not convinced that this is twice or three times as good as some of the heartier green teas I’ve tried, which also boast a succulent quality. However, I’m a yellow tea gringo. I’ll try the Tazo Collection offering soon and see whether I can figure out what it is about yellow tea specifically that is supposed to make it so much more special than the robust China green teas I’ve enjoyed of late.
I realize that this tea is more difficult to prepare, as the leaves are allowed to wither slowly and turn yellow before they dry. But if that does not translate into a huge improvement in flavor, then what’s the point? Again, I’m a yellow tea gringo… I also don’t understand the people who eat cheese with maggots crawling out of it—but hey, that’s okay.
A chacun son goût!
(Blazing New Rating #53)
Flavors: Vegetables
Yep, à chacun son goût is right…But I personally think that eating maggots is madness even if they are very high in protein!! (Reading this post might have ruined any possible further dégustation de fromage for me, lol!)
It’s funny, isn’t it, The Tea Fairy, how we abhor moldy cheese if it’s not supposed to be moldy, but then people go crazy over Gorgonzola, etc.! ;-)
Lol