Sleeping Dragon

So first a story of how I received this tea. Today I had my last final for class where I got certified in unarmed stage combat and broadsword, as well as getting certified with recommendation for rapier and dagger. Since I did so well and because I rocked all my other finals, I decided to get myself a little gift. The Adagio I frequent just got in several Kyusu and I figured if I’m gonna reward myself it might as well be tea related. So I went in, saw some of my friends who work there and picked out a nice Kyusu for myself. To my surprise it ended up being expensive, $136 to be exact. To make me feel better about paying so much, since I didn’t have any points or anything, my friends decided to throw in a lot of samples. This happened to be one of them and it has been one I wanted for a long time.

Now to the tea….

Smell Dry: sort of sweet and veggitabally.

Wet Smell: like wet leaves after fresh rain. There is still some sweetness to the smell as well as a little smoke.

Taste: Rather lovely. There is a mix of taste similar to gunpowder and dragonwell.

I ordered this tea two times from adagio… Two completely different teas. First time was amazing, smoky, vegetal, savory tea with just a slight hint of sweetness. It reminded me of vegetable stock with roasted vegetables. The second time, around 2-3 months later. The tea was faded as if it had been exposed to sun and air for a long time. The only thing remaining was a slightly smoky taste and the oxidized taste of badly stored green tea.

This new offering by Adagio Teas is very similar to their Jade Snail Tea and both appear to be varieties of Bi Luo Chun (Pi Luo Chun). This is a very delicate tea and is better if left to steep at a lower temperature, and for less duration that recommended by Adagio. Complex, crisp and a great pleasure to drink.

1st infusion: 1 tsp. for 6 ounces water, 170 F, 1.5 minutes.
Slightly sweet and fruity aroma and flavor. Nice gold/green color. Lingering toasty taste, probably from pan firing the leaves.
2nd infusion: 180 F, 1.5 minutes.
Sweetness continues with flavors ranging toward a spring oolong. Very slight grassiness in the background.
3rd infusion: 185 F, 2 minutes.
Color has become more gold than green. Definite taste of spring continues. very nice!

Picked up a sample of this a while back with my Adagio order to bump up to free shipping status.

Crisp, vegetal, hint of sweetness and a touch of smoke. Kind of reminiscent of the one gunpowder I had from Teavivre, but less smoky and a little sharper and fruitier. A nice and refreshing cup!

I liked this tea. Still testing my tea taste buds but am definitely enjoying this green tea. Relaxing and fresh!

1/23/14 Evening pot. 3g/6oz/180F/3min. First impressions. A soft vegetal aroma , and pale translucent brew. Bitterness. Almost a hoppy character. Heavy in the mouth. Good. I like it a lot. A lasting finish. The opened leaves are velvety looking. I want to try brewing this gongfu style when my gaiwan arrives.

I wished I had something prettier to steep this tea in. I loved watching it unfurl – was late to work this morning because I actually stood there for a bit watching. Lol!

Very tasty green. Not grassy, just subtle and soft. Not seaweedy either, but very vegetal. It was easy to drink, but a little plain overall. I drank it straight, but I feel this type of tea has a lot of potential. I’ll likely seek out other varieties and adagio mixes with this. :)

Definitely need a prettier way to steep my tea.

I’m not a huge fan of ice teas but this is what I made today and I really enjoyed it:
Green Tea and Strawberry Lemonade

Step one: making tea ice cubes.
I used Adagio’s Sleeping Dragon (because I had it at hand) and I brewed it a bit stronger than usual. Regular ice cubes tend to make everything taste too watery.

Step two: cut a box of strawberries into quarters, put them into a bowl and added some vanilla sugar (regular sugar would be fine too) and let them sit for about 30 min. The amount of sugar depends on how sweet you like your drink – I use very little sugar (just a personal preference)

Step three: Brewed a some 3-4 cups of Adagio’s Sleeping Dragon using twice as much tea as I normally would. Pop it into a fridge to cool down. After the tea cooled down I added the strawberry/sugar and to it.

Step four: buy sparkling mineral water of your choice. I used San Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water.

Step five: I used a tall champaign glass, added 2 of tea ice cubes which I had prepared in advance. Filled 50%of my glass with green tea/strawberry mix (adding some strawberry pieces) and filling the other half with San Pellegrino Sparkling Mineral Water.

A very light and enjoyable cup. It’s fun to watch it steep as well because it starts as little rolled balls of tea and they unfurl into lovely leaves. Steeped this in my winter themed perfect mug (I need one for spring/summer) and I love covering it while it steeps and then when it’s time you open it and BOOM leaves ahoy. Anyway, this tea is very light and tasty, a bit vegetal, a little smokey, and a little bit of a raisin type note. Not bad, I’ve actually started drinking more green/white/oolong tea than black tea. Never thought I’d say that!

Very light and crisp green tea. First infusion: very light vegetal taste with a sharper almost oolong bite after. I don’t taste the smoky gunpowder reference but its a nice simple green.