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The Dragonwell served me well yesterday on a grey and bleary day. It’s much the same out today so I will go with the same tea for my afternoon consumption. And again, it is enjoyable. It seems lighter today, in a good way.

An Ode to A&D’s Dragonwell

Dragonwell, oh Dragonwell,
Your warmth, your taste, your smell,
Are all so wonderfully swell
When outside a heavy rain fell
Pelting the very place where I dwell.
Hopefully, tomorrow’s as clear as a bell
But, for now, drinking you, I am well.

My dear Steepsterites, long time no posts. At least, it hasn’t been long time no tea. I’ve just been busy, there is no particular reason. But I hadn’t thought it had been that long until I got on here to tealog this lovely Dragonwell. I’ve missed ya’ll.

I’m on my second steep, the first one being 2 min 30 sec. After this I shall reheat some leftover veggie pizza in the oven. I plan on resuming steeping this later in the evening.

The Napal continued its successful quest to please my taste buds. It is a bit drying at the end of each sip yet there is an underlying note of candied, think olden days confectionery type candied, in this steep. Perhaps I will only steep it for 4 min on the 2nd steep next time.

I went to my cupboard intending to have a nice ordinary cup of DFT’s Ceylon. I needed the caffeine, it was regular, nice, and easy. But then the Napal looked at me and said, “You drink me. You drink me now.” I looked at it and complied. It was right, it was bolder, stronger, and perhaps tastier. I think I need to add a pinch more of fresh leaves and steep a 2nd cup. The Napal concurs.

Ah, the elusive(-to-me) 4th steep. I rarely drink enough of one tea in a row before I get tired it or concerned about the leaves being out too long. More watery than the 1st steep but sweeter, the lemon more muted, the green tea completely hidden, only its essence showing, and a bit of drying bitter. But let’s begin at the beginning, shall we.

The husband and I had a silly not-quite-an-argument. He was tired and didn’t say much. I was upset and upset that I was upset, about nothing really. I steeped the 3rd steep in the kitchen talking to myself out loud.

It was good. The best of the three steeps. The baked lemon had a golden glow-y warm quality about it. It calmed me. I sipped, it soothed.

I’m not even that fond of this tea. Why it’s inspiring me to write such post-y posts, I do not know. Perhaps it is my muse today. An average, not-super-great muse.

I looked down and suddenly, it seemed, the 3rd steep was gone. It was time for more. There was no doubt that I wanted the 4rd steep. Tea made the not-an-argument badness go away.

On the way to the kitchen, I stopped and did a tea dance with song. The refrain went “Everybody wants more tea, more tea”, repeat. It was happy. I was happier. (Yes, there is probably something wrong with me.)

I’m so proud of myself. The way the lemon in this tea tastes reminded me of something else. So I thought about it and thought about it a bit more while steeping a second cup. Then I realized what it was exactly. I feel a bit like one of ya’ll that writes the really great Tasting Notes.

Now on to the tea. The lemon in this tea is not the bright fresh taste of freshly squeezed lemon nor is it like lemon candy or powdered lemonade. When I finally got it, I realized I thought it tasted like baked lemon. You know the lemon taste you get when you bake fish with lemon slices on top or when you roast a chicken with lots of lemon stuck in the cavity. There is a light hint of green tea but it’s not distinct in its qualities and it hides nearly completely behind the baked lemon. It has also a teeny bit of not quite natural to it but I think that might be because I expected a lemon tea to lean more towards the fresh lemon taste. The 1st steep was fairly watery. I expected the 2nd (at 1 min 30 sec) to be even more so but was surprise that the watery was nearly gone. I intend to do a 3rd steep.

With putting my finger on a flavor that I picked out of this tea, I now have hopes in improving my Tasting Notes and advancing my palate. I am more excited about this than I should be currently. Normally I’d have just been like ‘lemon-y’. But I tasted, I re-tasted, I recognized, I compared. Tea drinker break through!

4th steep! This is the first time I’ve done a 4th steep on any tea, I think. Yay tea! It’s good. I may do a 5th steep. I may not.

Clearing off my desk again is not good. Didn’t I just do this on Monday? Where did all this stuff come from?

I had natural peanut butter and plum jam on multi-grain toast and a cup of Ceylon for lunch. A delicious combo. I’m about finished with this cup and will steep one more with these leaves before heading out to run errands later.

My yummy Wuyi Oolong seemed different this morning. It was not as yummy as I remember it being. It seemed stronger, more bitter, and more dry. I shall have to see how subsequent steeps fair.

Yay for PMs!

I was looking for a non-black/oolong tea this evening and with my nifty new tea thermometer, I decided to give this one a try again. Upon smelling the leaves again, I noticed a strong orange-pineapple-coconut scent with no green tea scent and an odd non-sugar sweetener like scent. Tea has a pineapple-apple taste with not much green tea. Better brewed at this temperature correctly but still nothing great. 2nd steep included the husband’s leaves as well so I still only steeped it for 3 min.