Christina / BooksandTea Send Message

A sample from my first-ever order from Teavivre. Thanks, Angel! I’m sure there will be more.

I’ve never had a Dragon Well tea before, but I’ve often wanted to try. I’m going to hold off on a rating for now, because I want to see how the second steep goes. Anyways:

Dry Leaf: The leaves are long, flat, and thin, like feathers, and are a beautiful grass green. The smell is kind of like seaweed, though I do see what others mean when they mention buttered vegetables.

Steeping parameters: 3 tsp of leaf to 24 oz of water, 85°C, for 2 minutes. I think that was the problem – I think I should have steeped it for 3. Next time, though.

Liquor: A lovely light yellow-green that shades down to light amber as the tea sits in the cup. The wet leaf smelled surprisingly sweet and grassy (rather reminiscent of my Shincha Kuro from Capital Tea Ltd), and this transferred over to the taste. The taste is part seaweed, part sugar snap pea. Unfortunately, I think I understeeped this. I think I really should have gone for a steep of 3 minutes rather than 2. I’ll report back once I steep it properly.

Verdict: I like it, but I don’t want to give it a rating yet – I really need to see how this tastes with a 3 minute steep.

EDIT: I steeped the same leaves again once I got back home, and did an extra-long steep of 4 minutes. Unfortunately, the tea still tasted rather weak. Kind of sweet and hay-like, but nothing that really wowed me. However, I still have at least half of the sample left, so we’ll see if I can get it to work the next time I try.