Recently, I tried a yellow chrysanthemum flower tisane and found it to be a pleasant evening sipper, so I gave this dragon ball a try the following morning. I had not yet brewed a dragon ball in a teapot large enough to accommodate that volume of leaf, so into the family pot it plopped.
This tea was pleasant enough as I drank it, but it was very dull for my tastes. The dry leaf smelled good with malt, leather, spice, brown sugar and rose and chrysanthemum notes. Light chrysanthemum aroma wafted from the cup. In the mouth, the tea was thick but rather flat with sweet potato, leather and floral notes. It seemed to taste much more herbaceous-vegetal than any black tea I’ve had from Yunnan. The info about his tea on Teavivre’s site states the tea leaf is from Jinggu county (thanks for providing that info Teavivre!). In my experience with a white tea and several puerh that have been explicitly stated as originating from Jinggu, I’ve had little luck. They don’t seem to work with my palate — too vegetal, herbaceous and floral. Strangely, when I poked through the spent leaf, some of the leaves appeared to be only partially oxidized, reminding me of some lesser oxidized Wuyi oolong.
Rating is a reflection of personal preference, as usual, not based on any faults the tea might have but the fact that Jinggu teas don’t mix well with me. I’ll stick to plain chrysanthemum tisanes.
Thanks for the sample, Kawaii433.
