Notes of chrysanthemum, gingko nut, and marshmallow.
Green tea from Zhejiang, China・April 2022・白龍井・Organic
White Dragonwell’s unusual name refers to this tea’s cultivar, which yields brilliant green leaves with a whitish down. It is closely related to a rare green tea called Anji Baicha (or Anji White Tea). The buds are small and boast wonderful fruit and floral notes.
What particularly distinguishes this tea is its source garden. At 1200m, the garden is in northern Zhejiang Province, less than an hour drive from Thousand Island Lake. It is remote, accessible via a single path that meanders through rows of loosely clustered tea plants. Limited infrastructure results in these plants being effectively dry-farmed. The region’s remoteness and elevation produce beautiful tea plants and perfect leaf buds.
This is the fifth year we’ve sourced White Dragonwell from this tea garden. The northerly latitude and higher elevation of this garden mean the harvest is later to sprout, and sprouts more sporadically than lower elevation gardens. Because of this, our method for selecting this tea is to cup several pickings – some earlier, and some later – and select the one that best combines the textural, aromatic, and taste properties that we look for in our teas. We are not necessarily tied to arbitrary date and time stamps, relying instead on the quality and character of the tea to guide our selection.
There are 30,000 buds in 500g of tea. Each batch was carefully roasted in 3 stages. First, the tea was fired to stop further enzymatic breakdown; it was then pressed and shaped, and finally pan-roasted to dry. The entire production process took 40 minutes to complete.
The finished result is sublime. To cup this tea is to experience a green that will reset your expectations of what quality is for a green tea. The texture is incredible; luscious and viscous, while at the same time, delicate and bright.
Brew: 3 grams・150 ml・185° F・1 min
Few Dragonwells have the same round texture as this harvest. Our brew guidelines, followed strictly, will produce a tea that best expresses this tea’s texture and mouth feel. We suggest pre-warming the tea brewing vessel, but avoid rinsing the leaves themselves. Instead, slowly pour water onto the leaves to ensure that each leaf is properly pre-moistened.
