82

My evening drink today was chosen to be Slumbering Dragon, the first time I am trying this sample. I am not sure what I was expecting, but this is quite different from whatever that was. The highlights of the tea are nice mellow taste and a heady cha qi. In my opinion though, it lacks body and a dynamic character. Also, for a tea of this price point, I would expect a more interesting aftertaste. In the end, I think it’s too expensive for what is worth, but I will try it in a yixing instead of a gaiwan next time and see how it performs. Maybe it can impress me more in the next session.

The first thing I notice is how different the dry leaves look from other sheng, like TJ Elite pointed out. The aroma I get is mostly peppery with notes of forest and wild strawberries. As for the taste, I was definitely expecting a much harsher and stronger one. Instead, it is mellow with relatively low bitterness that also only appears properly in very late steeps. There is no astringency to speak of either. The taste profile is sweet, sour and vegetal with fruity tones. There are flavours of tree bark and black currant (especially its leaves).

The aftertaste is long, but not extremely so. It can be a little dry and numbing as well as cooling in the initial steeps.I get additional notes of menthol, spices like cloves and cinnamon and a light cocoa bitterness.

The tea has a medium to light body and a buttery mouthfeel. It is decent, but not the Slumbering Dragon’s selling point I’d say. Overall, the liquor is thinner than I expected.

I am going to give it a “not recommended” badge, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I do think however that there are similar teas available at half the price and similarly priced teas that are much better.

Flavors: Bark, Black Currant, Forest Floor, Fruity, Herbaceous, Menthol, Sour, Spices, Strawberry, Sweet, Vegetal

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 50 ML
TJ Elite

I finished my sample last summer with my cousin who was visiting. I don’t remember my first session having any notable cha qi, but we got totally messed up by this tea. Extremely energetic and hyper yet focused, meditative and creative. Like you said there’s hardly any harsh character to be found and the biggest shortcoming is definitely the fairly undynamic nature of the session. I went going in expecting a bitter fest as that’s how I’ve heard the previous years described, but at least to my disappointment there was none of that here. Glen said when I asked him that at least to him the 2018 was fairly similar, so no luck there either. I do like the 2017, though, and am looking forward to how my cake will age. For me the high points for now would be the cha qi and cleanliness of the tea. You can really taste the wild nature of the tea and environment it grew in.

Togo

Interesting. As this was just the first tasting, and a small one at 4g, I am very much ready to adjust my opinion of the tea when I try it in larger vessel and a different circumstances. In fact, I would usually postpone a review until I tried a tea several times, but in this case I wanted to record my thoughts on this particular session.

TJ Elite

I think your notes sound similar to how I recall the tea tasting. Would need to look at my own notes to refresh my memory of how the first session was. Don’t remember the body so probably wasn’t anything substantial. The mouthfeel was probably nice or good. Probably not worth its price tag in its current state like you said, but I think the quality’s there and it’s such unique material that I hold hope that it will age into something very unique given enough time. Don’t know if this is technically purple tea or not, but certainly reminds me of it.

Togo

It does remind me the Ye Sheng teas in certain aspects, the leaf shape and colour including, but it seems to lack the harsh bitterness.

Scott has this Jinggu Ye Sheng, which I haven’t tried, but according to him it’s less bitter than his Dehong Ye Shengs. I wonder if it is similar in profile to Slumbering Dragon, Jinggu being fairly close to Kunlu and much closer than Dehong.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2017-yunnan-sourcing-jinggu-ye-sheng-cha-wild-tree-purple-tea-cake

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TJ Elite

I finished my sample last summer with my cousin who was visiting. I don’t remember my first session having any notable cha qi, but we got totally messed up by this tea. Extremely energetic and hyper yet focused, meditative and creative. Like you said there’s hardly any harsh character to be found and the biggest shortcoming is definitely the fairly undynamic nature of the session. I went going in expecting a bitter fest as that’s how I’ve heard the previous years described, but at least to my disappointment there was none of that here. Glen said when I asked him that at least to him the 2018 was fairly similar, so no luck there either. I do like the 2017, though, and am looking forward to how my cake will age. For me the high points for now would be the cha qi and cleanliness of the tea. You can really taste the wild nature of the tea and environment it grew in.

Togo

Interesting. As this was just the first tasting, and a small one at 4g, I am very much ready to adjust my opinion of the tea when I try it in larger vessel and a different circumstances. In fact, I would usually postpone a review until I tried a tea several times, but in this case I wanted to record my thoughts on this particular session.

TJ Elite

I think your notes sound similar to how I recall the tea tasting. Would need to look at my own notes to refresh my memory of how the first session was. Don’t remember the body so probably wasn’t anything substantial. The mouthfeel was probably nice or good. Probably not worth its price tag in its current state like you said, but I think the quality’s there and it’s such unique material that I hold hope that it will age into something very unique given enough time. Don’t know if this is technically purple tea or not, but certainly reminds me of it.

Togo

It does remind me the Ye Sheng teas in certain aspects, the leaf shape and colour including, but it seems to lack the harsh bitterness.

Scott has this Jinggu Ye Sheng, which I haven’t tried, but according to him it’s less bitter than his Dehong Ye Shengs. I wonder if it is similar in profile to Slumbering Dragon, Jinggu being fairly close to Kunlu and much closer than Dehong.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2017-yunnan-sourcing-jinggu-ye-sheng-cha-wild-tree-purple-tea-cake

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Bio

Hi, I am a researcher in math, physics and computer science. Apart from teas and mathematics, I enjoy sports and traveling, as well as music of all kinds. Connect at https://rateyourmusic.com/~Togo

I had been drinking Japanese green tea for a while before discovering the world of tea in 2017. I rarely drink blends and generally avoid artificially scented teas. Other than that I try to keep it varied.

My rating description:
100 _ Unforgettable tea, an experience that changes your life.
90 – 100 _ Excellent tea.
80 – 90 _ Very enjoyable, I will buy again.
70 – 80 _ I enjoyed it, but I most likely won’t be buying it again.
60 – 70 _ Decent.
50 – 60 _ Average, forgettable.
40 – 50 _ I didn’t really like the tea, but it is drinkable.
0 – 40 _ I would prefer to avoid the tea.

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Innsbruck, Austria

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