Organic Long Jing

Last of my January Steepster box! Woohoo! And I beat the deadline too.

This green tea is a dragonwell and is a little similar to previous dragonwell teas that I have drunk. It is very vegetal in the aroma and a bit less so but still strongly present in the taste of the first steep. I thought the sips from this steep ended on something of a mineral note. This is pleasant, but only that. I prefer Verdant’s Dragonwells much better from the ones that I have had. This smells like the lovely soy beans that I enjoy tasting in these types of teas but the taste is more grassy than soy bean and as the cup cools farther, the grass comes out and the vegetables retreat, though the mineral note is still there.

ETA Second steep is much better. The vegetativeness (is that a word?) is much stronger. I think I’m tasting the nutty notes near the middle to end of a sip, masking the mineral notes a bit.

My green tea taste buds are not very sophisticated, my black buds tend to run the show around here. So all I can really say is this a decent green tea. Nothing mind blowing, but good with my dinner :-)

I don’t know why I don’t drink Dragonwell more often. I used to drink it, & various other greens, daily. I loved green teas so much that I included a line about them in one of my original songs, aptly titled “TeaMind”, from my CD “Zen Breakfast”. If you’d like to hear the song, here’s a link:
http://harpsinger.net/Terri_Langerak/My_CDs.html

Here’s the verse:

“Music
in this moment…
note by note
the whole of life.
TeaMind…
just this moment
sip by sip
this is life.
Drinking tea, like playing music
subtly alters both mind & mood
from the Sky Between the Branches to the Dragonwell
Journey within, return renewed.”

Of course, back then I was drinking green teas from Rep. of Tea. They were a new company, & the only interesting tea company available in the local stores. They were my first experience with loose leaf tea, & although IMO the quality of their products has declined, or maybe I’ve just developed more refined tastes, I’ll still be forever grateful because their teas were amazing to me back then.

OK…sorry to blather on about other things. This is a lovely Dragonwell, with a nice thick mouth & a ‘yellow’ flavor, & when I say that, I don’t mean it tastes like yellow tea. I’m just getting the color yellow in my weirdly twisted senses. I don’t why I see yellow, because the flavor is VERY green. It’s nicely robust, with a nutty earthiness to it. I don’t know that it’s any more outstanding than the other Long Jings in my collection, but it is satisfying, & there is a brightness, almost a metallic feel (not taste), but not in a bad way, that lingers on the tongue long after the cup is drained.

This is my second and final batch of Organic Long Jing from the Steepster Select sample pack. It’s perfectly fine, but not my favorite tea of this kind, so I will not be purchasing this particular version. I did enjoy the experience and will reinfuse the spent leaves this evening…

I recently learned that Long Jing actually means Dragon Well! So when we say Long Jing Dragon Well, we are repeating ourselves! ;-)

This is from the January 2014 Steepster box.

Green tea and I aren’t best friends, but we sometimes get along. I have had one other dragon well tea and really enjoy it so I was looking forward to this tea. I think my excitement got the better of me though. I do not think I let the water cool long enough. The first few sips of this tea were very nice, a lighter green flavor. Not too chewy, or spinach-y. Sweet grassy/vegital flavor. As this cooled a bit it became extremely bitter to me. I will have a go with the second package. From the other reviews I believe the bitter was due to my error in steeping.

Dry leaf: ooh, that does smell nutty! And looks like what I’ve come to expect from a quality Dragonwell, large green leaves pressed flat and slightly shiny, with the dustiness you get from a Silver Needle or Yunnan Gold (not fannings). Nice color, a little yellower than the sencha from earlier today. Smells sweeter, and lighter.

Flavor: mineral, and a little drying with that. Crisp, and yes nutty. Very nice! Will update with later steeps.

1 sample pack, 8oz water

Long Jing and Dragon Well are the same thing? I’ll be damned.. Hm. Wish it hadn’t been so long since I had my last Dragon Well so that I could compare them more accurately.

This tea, like most I’ve tasted in Steepster select, is strong and bold. The vegetal flavor is dry and serious, and is accented by a nutty base flavor. The Long Jing doesn’t taste springy as some ultra-green teas do, but it reminds one of roasting vegetables to put in a slow-cooking soup. A great winter tea.

I liked this tea better than the previous select green, Karigane. Long Jing was a bit grassy on the first steep, with a slight honey note at the end. The second steep was less grassy and more honey at the end. I’m not the biggest fan of green tea, but this was quite drinkable.

This is only my second experience with Long Jing, also known as Dragon Well tea. My first was unfortunate and was very bitter no matter how I brewed it (Republic of Tea). However, this magnificent tea from Steepster was exactly what I expect from one of China’s 10 famous teas.

The mouthfeel of this tea is thick, juicy and wet. It has a very lush, full flavor, green and vegetal with notes of earth, quite savory. There’s a top note of lemon. The finish is smooth, slightly sweet, and lacking in astringency. Upon a second infusion the tea is more mellow, more sweet, and nutty tones of almond come through.

White tea was my favorite type for years, but green teas like this one have recently won my favor and I find myself just craving them more and more. I’m glad that with Steepster Select I was able to add another tea to my repertoire and enjoy a very famous and well known tea the way it is meant to be enjoyed (minus yixing pot, anyways).

As for brewing, I eschewed the suggested 180F for a bit softer 176F/80C. I steeped it in a porcelain gaiwan with the lid propped open for the suggested 2’ 30, adding 0 ’15 for repeated infusions and using 1.75g of leaf per 100ml of water.

This is my 5th Dragon Well. I have had popular Verdant and Rishi Dragon Wells, but I will say that this one is up there. Grassy, but not overly grassy. Nutty and buttery tasting. I like it.