Dragonwell

Light, clean, and tasty. By far my favorite. Just…a cut above.

Taken without milk or sugar.
This tea is nice and mild enough to drink everyday. The three flavors of green mingle well with vegital being slightly out in front followed by sweet and then toasty… which is present but only barely so and more as an aftertaste.
It re-steeps enough to make the price point good.
It’s definitely not my favorite but it’s good enough.

Ah Teavana… In my experience with Teavana (which is pretty extensive, as I used to work there) they don’t usually sell the best quality teas. Even their “premium quality,” or rather, really ridiculously expensive green and white teas are usually just meh, but I find that this is one that I actually like a lot! Enough so that I purchased a full large tin of it before I left (gotta love that discount.)

This tea has little to no astringency, which makes it really easy to drink. It’s not particularly complex, but falls back on a buttery, nutty taste that would be really great with an acidic or even savory dinner. Immediately when it hits the tongue, I taste grass and hay, followed by a honey-like sweetness. Maybe a barley flavor in there as well? It’s hard to tell.

This tea is really smooth and I think that makes it a great place to start for people who don’t usually like green tea because of the astringency or bitter flavor most Japanese green teas are known for.

I believe this tea has been discontinued, which is a little bit of a shame since I think it was one of Teavana’s gems, but it was quite overpriced (even with the discount.) I haven’t yet drank dragonwell from other vendors, but I’ll be on the lookout for a similar sweet and buttery variety elsewhere.

This is a sweet but gentle green tea. That sounds weird, but I guess I compare all greens to the first variety I drank: gunpowder. So most of them are gentle in relation. For this Dragonwell, I like the way it mellows at the end, so it starts sweet and then gets more full as you drink.

Excellent choice as a daily drinker. Very smooth and sweet, with a hint of bitterness that fades with each steeping. This one keeps me coming back for more.

What an amazing green tea! Wonderful yellow/green flavor and subtle but fantastic aroma. Unlike most green teas, there’s no “grassy” or “hay” flavor to me here; just a subtle but relaxing tea taste. Very pure tasting.

Got this from a teafriend as an extra, so I’m taking it they didn’t care much for it, heh. Have been grandpa-ing this one as I do pretty much all my dragonwell and it was alright, had the basic dragonwell flavor, but was also oddly… strongly perfumed tasting. Didn’t care much for that, but it was drinkable given that it was free. I would probably look to buy other dragonwells in my possession if I were going to restock, however, as it either didn’t have as much of the lovely sweet and subtle chestnut of other dragonwells I’ve had, or it was drowned out by that air freshener like aroma taste. Maybe I’ll try experimenting with home roasting it and see if that improves it.

This tastes like water with the vaguest hint of buttered green beans. Even oversteeping, there’s not much to this tea. I’ll stick with the Japanese greens.

Such an awesome, light and vegetal green. Love love love this tea. It’s generally my go-to at work and I’ll have 3-4 cups in a row. No sweetener. Straight Dragonwell goodness.

My second dragonwell. Tasty and lives up to the good reviews. I did a side by side comparison to teavivre’s premium dragonwell and thought teavivre’s was a little better, but not ridiculously so (although I don’t know that much about green tea). I would definitely recommend it to those getting into unflavored teas.