Sweet Mouse - Jasmine Dragon Pearls

A nice pleasant Jasmine tea which is perfect as the temperature just dropped below 0 today.

I finished up this tea months ago, but it feels wrong not to leave a note on such a lovely green tea. I’m pretty sure this was Teabento freebie too.

Jasmine Pearls aren’t always my favourite (they’re my mom’s) but when they somehow end up in my cupboard it’s like stumbling upon a ballet performance in your kitchen. Too fancy, delicate and beautiful for my humble abode. This one stood out from the rest (H&S and Teavivre), lacking the soapy sour veg note of the parenthesized offerings. It was so sweet. If/when I’m looking for the Pearls again Teabento will be on the list of top contenders (it’s a short list but it isn’t a bad one).

Thanks to tea bento for the generous sample box. I made these green tea jasmine dragon pearls according to pacakage directions: gong fu style, 80-90c, rinse/1min/20s/50s/80s/140s/4min.

The first steep is a pretty standard jasmine green: floral and grassy. 20 seconds is too short for the second steep. It comes out tasty but too light. I did the third steep at 88c and that made the brew come out too tart. I went lower on the temp and brewed the fourth steep at 83c, but it came out bitter, as if the base was being oversteeped. I went way lower for the fifth steep and brewed at 75c, which was much better in that the brew was no longer bitter but the jasmine came out more perfumey than floral. The same problem happened in the sixth steep, with the jasmine taste becoming cloying.

Overall, I think this is a somewhat finicky tea that would benefit from fewer steeps at a lower temperature. I have enough left to try again so I can play around with it a bit.

I do not have a lot to say about this tea, for it is a straight forward brew. It’s a jasmine green tea. Therefore, it tastes like Jasmine and green tea. Hahaha. However, I will say that Jasmine pearls are an all time favorite for me. Actually, jasmine tea in general is almost always a win in my box, except some the very poorly executed greens that curl your tongue. This is not one of those tongue curling monstrosities. This is actually quite nice and quite meek. The leaves give off a very subtle and sweet waft of jasmine that is warm and feminine. The brew itself matches the subtlety and quiet approach with a tantalizing sweet touch of jasmine. the follow-through is filled with basic soft watercress tones. It’s good stuff.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZxUtW0HOTE/?hl=en&taken-by=haveteawilltravel

In general, I really, really like the tea and animal graphics that teabento uses on their site but I think this is probably one of my favourites – I’m totally biased though as a rodent lover in general. I do have a rat and a hairless guinea pig at the moment, after all.

This was my last tea of the day today; I drank it Western style on the way home from work. It was smooth, light to medium bodied with a very fresh, aromatic and sweet jasmine flavour. A little peachy in the undertones, and pleasantly grassy. I thought the whole profile was very clean, and to the point without feeling flat/stale.

Jasmine green teas are actually probably my least favourite variety of jasmine scented teas; but every now and then as a really rare cuppa I can get into them. So, I wouldn’t order this again because I just wouldn’t want it enough to be worthwhile. I actually only got it because I was grabbing a bento anyway and needed one more tea to fill it; and since this is one of my favourite tea/animal designs on the site I figured why not? If I were going to order on of their jasmine teas again I’d probably go for teabento’s jasmine scented white tea, Silver Cat, instead. However, there’s definitely nothing I can fault this tea for – as far as Dragon Pearls go I thought this was a very solid option!

Higher rating, because even though it’s not my favourite profile in the world I don’t have anything negative to say about the cup at all.

Another great sample from teabento!

I prepared the tea in a Kyusu at about 170 degrees. The pleasant (but not overpowering) jasmine aroma was evident shortly after the water hit the leaves, and grew stronger as the leaves began to unfurl.

The first infusion was really more a 1-minute rinse, and produced a nice cup. The second infusion was shorter – around 30-seconds and produced a delightful and aromatic cup.

The tea is light, minty and refreshing. The jasmine is very evident when it’s warm; as it cools, the flavor profile takes on a honey-like edge and the lingering taste of mint is more prominent.

Delicious, delightful and delectable!