Jing Tea

Up there with the best I’ve tried. Very floral, intense flavor, mineral backnote and finish. Delightful.

Still really yummy.

One of the best Earl Grey offerings that I’ve had. Excellent Ceylon tea base that brews up rich and dark and shares the stage with the bergamot rather than being overpowered by it. Tastes best unadulterated.

Malt, honey, smoothness. A very satisfying breakfast blend with a robust character.

The best standard grade Long Jing i have had all year.
Leaves are more broken in the pack as compared to the picture, but i guess thats just aesthetics of the site, you know a standard long jing aint gonna look all perfect like the pics.
That being said this really is a truly wonderful dragowell, i have tasted strong coconut notes which i have not had in other LJs.

If you are looking for a standard grade i cannot rate this highly enough, seems 2010 is a great year for LJ

Still yummy and fresh tasting.

Fresh and buttery. Yummy.

Rich, deep, spicy. Amazing.

Possible my fave from the Jing White and Yellow tea taster set. Delicious, light flavours with a melony sweetness. Lovely.

1st Infusion:

I had thought the tasting notes on this tea provided by Jing (“graceful, sappy…”) were a bit pretentious, but I can really understand why this tea is described as graceful now I’ve tasted it. Grace implies balance and this tea is very well balanced between sweetness, freshness and tanin. It is quite refreshing and I can see this becoming my breakfast tea for when I don’t need a strong caffeine hit.

1st infusion:

Nutty and deeply flavoured. In fact a bit too nutty/rich for my tastes (I prefer a very fresh tasting green tea). The tea had a lovely honey-sweet scent and the dry leaves smelled just like the earth after summer rain. The smell of the infused leaves was disappointingly “mushroomy” though.

I will make the next infusion cooler (70 deg.) and brew for longer.

This is the 2009 pick. Sweet, light and delicious. I am not a Dragon Well fan, but this stuff is pretty darn good.

2nd infusion:
The balance shifted slightly towards the green tea flavours with this infusion. Much more tannin as well. I probably slightly overinfused it this time (should have been 3:30 rather than 4 min). I preferred the first infusion, but this was still a very pleasant and drinkable cup, though not quite up to the standard of the magnificent Rare Tea Company Silver Needle Jasmine.

1st infusion:
Strong honey + jasmine aroma (dry leaves, steeped leaves and liquor)
Well balanced between tea and Jasmine flavours, more tea comes through than white jasmine teas.
A little of the fuzz from the leaves is present in the infusion (a good thing!)

More cold-brewed, and it smoothed out (not so sweet and bitter) toward the bottom of the bottle.

Cold-brewed FTW!

This tea smells very heavily of jasmine. And by that I do not mean just a light aroma of jasmine flowers. I mean the heavy, sticky sweet smell of concentrated bunches of jasmine. Of course, not to judge a tea by its dry leaf aroma, I went ahead and steeped it according to the directions on the website (1 tsp per cup, 3 minutes, 80 degrees Celsius).

One thing I noticed as I was putting dry leaves into my teapot was the amount of extra broken pieces mixed in with the pearls.
The aroma of the freshly-steeped tea carries none of that same overwhelming jasmine scent. In fact, the smell of jasmine is almost more of an undertone now than anything else, which is something I found immensely interesting. The pale liquor has beautiful clarity, but I know, I know, you all really want to know how it tastes!

The jasmine is back! And with a passion. My first sip was a burst of floral flavour in my mouth…or rather just the flavour of jasmine. Thankfully, it is subdued enough to make this tea pleasant and worth drinking. The medium body of this tea comes mainly from the jasmine, I suspect, as imagining this tea without it would leave it quite light. Overall the flavour is very smooth, with just a light touch of a bite from the jasmine.

This is a good tea and a very reasonably-priced jasmine pearls.

Super fresh, delicious gunpowder green. I am not a huge green tea fan, and even less so of gunpowder, but this stuff is really yummy. Try it cold brewed as an iced tea. Wow. Sweet and light, with a surprisingly vegetal finish.

I tried a different steeping method this time, and got different results. I used very hot water for a very short steep in a tiny (100 ml) glass gong fu teapot. This is a sweeter and juicier tea as a result.