Organic Green Dragon

Decent for a packaged grocery-shelf product.

I’ve been trying to drink a bunch of my teas to make room for some that I have coming in the mail, so tonight I tried out Organic Green Dragon. It had a lot of earthy, nutty tones, absolutely nothing overpowering or begging for attention, though. This definitely qualifies as a quiet, wallflower type of tea. A suitable choice if you don’t want to be too distracted or overwhelmed by flavors. While I would rather have this than no tea at all, I have certainly drunk many other cups superior to this.

A random tea bag in my stash, I might have snagged it when I was on a trip at the beginning of the year. I enjoyed this tea and would pick it up again if they changed their packaging to eliminate plastics. I found it to be light, slightly nutty, and smooth.

Kitchen clean-out teabag. No idea of age but it is the old style of Mighty Leaf packaging.

Not much aroma to the leaf — smells light green, leafy and strangely what I interpret as cherry blossom that can be found in some sencha. Brews up apple juice in color with aroma of nutty hay with some kind of bright note. First thing I notice on the sip is how mineral-salty it is, followed by hay-butter-nut. Mouth-watering comes next then a short butter-chestnut aftertaste. Astringency develops as I sip. Not worth resteeping. Meh.

So, I had this tea at a restaurant in our hotel called “Rice & Company”.

I swear every restaurant that we went to in Vegas (except for High Tea) carried Mighty Leaf tea; it started to feel a little weird after a while. Normally I probably wouldn’t order this; bagged green tea!? No thanks. However, my tea options were limited in Vegas so I took what I could get…

It tasted fine; definitely nutty and grassy and not overly flavourful. However it did compliment our cuisine really well – I mean, Chinese food does tend to go pretty well with Chinese green tea, right? For what it was, I was happy enough drinking it.

I had a meeting at a hotel convention center for work, and to my delight, they had Mighty Leaf teas instead of the usual Bigelow or Twinings. The first tea I tried out was this organic green dragon. I let my water cool for a few minutes before steeping because I have had so many painful bagged green tea experiences due to scalding hot water. Anyway, I’m so glad that I had the patience to wait because this tea did not turn out bitter at all! It was actually a bit sweet and nutty. It also wasn’t overly grassy, which is what usually puts me off many Chinese green teas. I even resteeped it once, but the resteep was definitely weaker flavor-wise and just a tad grassier (unless I was going crazy at the meeting, which is totally possible).

Overall, it was quite a nice cup of tea for a bagged green tea. I’d definitely have it again, and consider even buying it if I needed a bagged green tea for any reason.

I’ve brought the last of the teabags from my Mighty Leaf sampler to work this week to try and finish them off. They’re mostly green, and this is the one I felt more comfortable with for starters. It’s similar to other Green Dragon teas I’ve tried, although not as light as some. It has quite a heavy flavour that’s both savoury and nutty, and a little dank. It’s smooth, with not even the slightest hint of astringency, and that makes it more palatable than I think I’d find it otherwise. I’ve had Green Dragon teas I prefer, so this isn’t one I’d keep in my cupboard long term. I’m glad I had a second opportunity to try this one, though — my first experience back when I had just started drinking tea wasn’t overwhelmingly postive, but I feel better about this one now :)

In today’s steep-off chez sherapop, Mighty Leaf Organic Green Dragon in a sachet is going sip-to-sip, sniff-to-sniff against Les Palais des Thés Long Jing in a muslin sachet.

Both teas brew up golden, and the taste is different enough to reconfirm my suspicion that the Mighty Leaf is a blend of Long Jing with some other teas. The taste is more robust and while enjoyable, it does not really match the profile of the many Long Jings I’ve tried of late.

This tea is perfectly good, but more vegetal and less chestnuty, so I would not recommend it to those seeking a silken Long Jing experience.

I got this tea at a local coffee shop. It was really good. It had a nutty taste that is highly addictive, in my opinion. I overstepped it since the bag was left in my cup and I had to drive home..lol but it was great nonetheless. I would get this tea again.

Whole leaf in a silk bag. Probably the only bagged tea I’d willingly choose, LOL. Nice and grassy but not too astringent, lovely pale color, and gentle aroma. I got a couple of these as a free sample somewhere and I may have to get more. I bet they’d make a refreshing iced green.