Organic Long Jing

Light, smooth and refreshing!

LongJing always has a place in my cupboard, so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed this one the most from January’s Steepster Select; or maybe the Okubucha.. Can’t decide yet.

Brewed in the traditional Dragonwell method, I emptied contents into a warmed tall glass, poured in 180F spring sourced water and let sit until the leaves expanded and danced around the glass. I drank the glass 2/3rds and added more water to the remaining 1/3rd. I had maybe 5 infusions with this method, the last resulting in mostly clear hot water with very little flavour.

The aroma was nutty and vegetal, as described on the packet, and lasted through the first 3-4 infusions.
The taste was typical of Longjing, and I thought it to be delicious. The fact that it’s organic only made it better.

Definietly a great tea, and I’ve yet to have a bad longjing…knock on wood.

a wonder full dragonwell! IMHO long jing is dragonwell

when i smell the leaves dry, they smell roasted for some reason.

when i smell the leaves wet, they smell nutty and like sweet grass

when i smell the brewed tea, it smells like sweet grass

when i taste the brewed tea, it tastes nutty and like sweet grass.

many thanks to toad thomas for this amazing tea :D

Not the best Long Jing I’ve had, but none the less smooth; offering grassy, buttery pie crust flavors and a most pleasant aroma.

I don’t know why, but this tasted bitter to me. I followed the directions on the packet exactly, so maybe I need to try a lower temp or less time….or both. I didn’t like it, but I could tell there was potential.

This tea has aromas that I associate with South Georgia during the summer. I am reminded of boiled peanuts and freshly cut grass. Given the rainy weather this might be the best choice I could have made for an afternoon tea. There is a slight flavor at the beginning of the tea that reminds me of dry-roasted peanuts. This is quickly replaced with a heavy vegetal and grass. Finally, there is a slight earthiness that is quite pleasing. It really is summer in a cup and a solid reminder of why Dragonwell is one of my favorite green teas.

Backlog:

As I write in my full-length review of this tea – http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/22/organic-long-jing-03-steepster/ – this is a Long Jing that stands out among the many different Long Jing offerings that are out there. This is a really good Dragon Well.

Please click on the link above to read the review I wrote … it will tell you what you need to know about this tea.

Very mild green tea with a nice balance of roasted flavors and fresh green notes. Nice finishing sweetness adds to a very easy to drink flavor profile. Very sweet, nutty aroma which is echoed in the faint almond aftertaste. A nice warm-weather tea. 8/10

Just exploring green tea more, so not well versed in it. The leaves for this one were really cool. They were so perfectly shaped still, you would of thought that they were fresh and not dry. Nice pale brown/green flavor that you expect with a green. Taste was rather ordinary to me, plain green if you will. Nothing to make me remember it, but I did drink and like it.

After the success of the Obukucha (SO bummed that that is only sold around the new year) I decided to order Japanese for lunch and make the other green tea in the Steepster box as a companion to it.

Dragonwells are easily my favorite Chinese green, if only because I find them very similar to senchas, albeit a touch more…nutty? Earthy? Something like that. There’s less of a salty ocean tang here – just vegetal green. Not necessarily grass, more of a spinach undertone. The liquor is a pretty light green, almost colorless, despite my longish steep time. Still, it does hint at broth – just not the seaweed senchas tend to evoke.

This one was good but there’s just less going on than there was in the Obukucha. A solid green tea that I could see as being well suited for an every day cup, though.