Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls Green Tea

Another experiment in green teas! Wheee! Again, though i don’t mind this tea the jasmine is not my favourite. There are bursts of sweet in this as I sip the cup that i’m not sure i can place. If you’re a fan of green tea and/or jasmine this is a really nice tea.

Many thanks to Angel and Teavivre for sending a sample of this tea to taste and review.

I’m going to admit from the start, that I find mingling flower petals with tea is not something I find appealing. Why? Well, before becoming obsessed with tea, I was obsessed with fragrance. Jasmine and rose are probably the leading additions to most perfumes you will encounter, and that doesn’t mean only “floral” fragrances. And while a lot of my collection are florals, only one or two are jasmine heavy (not a favorite scent…lilies, lilac and tuberose are). So in other words, I’m already biased.

The brewed aroma is very heavy with the scent of jasmine. Not knowing what jasmine petals taste like, I can only imagine while taking first sip. Trying to separate the green tea flavor from the jasmine, I think it imparts a bit of bitterness to the tea. Bitterness isn’t the right word though … more of an aftertaste that lingers, that I am finding unpleasant.

I can see this is a quality tea, and that jasmine tea fans would love it. I’ve tried 3-4 others, and I think it’s just not for me, and no other jasmine tea will be either.

2 tsp, quick rinse first, tsp honey

This is a buttery, smooth jasmine tea. It is light and refreshing. The pearls will stand resteeping several times and do not lose their potency quickly. I keep this one in the cupboard all the time, because it is my favourite Jasmine tea.

First of all, a big thanks to Angel at teavivre for this free sample!! I had to try this tea this morning, it’s going to be a beautiful day so I wanted a beautiful smelling tea lol. This one fits the bill, a gorgeous jasmine scent wafted up from my sample pack. I used about half of the pack. I made a few cups gaiwan style with about 15 second steeps. The resulting tea is a very light yellow, and after two cups, the pearls haven’t opened up too much.

As for the flavor, this is superb. Very light, real jasmine present, and fresh. Reminds me of a dewy spring morning! I’m going to make a few more cups for myself and the boyfriend, oh and my kitty is finally getting used to the kettle noise hehe he’s not as worried by it :)

Sipdown! (126)

This was good, and would likely be better appreciated by someone who better appreciated green teas. :)

(Speaking of which, why did I order 9 oolong tea samples? I will likely enjoy them, but I’ll have to force myself to drink them. Otherwise I’ll just choose black teas all the time!)

The third and final Teavivre Jasmine tea for our face-off… dun dun duuuuuhhhh!

This feels a lot more like the soothing, relaxation medicine that jasmine tea should be. The jasmine flavor is smooth and sweet, but not overpowering. It blends in with the soft, delicate green tea flavor coming from the cute little wrapped up pearls. It really is a great experience.

This will be our permanent collection jasmine, methinks :)

Thanks to Angel and Teavivre for this sample, and all of the samples. It is truly awesome that you do this kind of service for your customers.

Tea of the afternoon…..

The sample was sent for review by TeaVivre. Thank you so much, Angel, for arranging this tea tasting with Steepster members. It has been wonderful to see how others experienced the tea you are currently drinking.

I have about four versions of this tea in my house. I do have to say, that I do enjoy a good jasmine green. In looking at the price points of the versions I have on hand, it runs all across the board from just over $5per ounce when purchased in around a 4 oz amount to this one which is just over $3.50. One of the close to $5 versions is organic, but the other is not. The one that I have that is close in price to this one, I have relatively zero information on it as I purchased it from a glass jar at my local Asian Market. I think the offering from TeaVivre is the one I will stick with…I have much more information on it, and it definitely smells fresher than the one I bought locally. I know green teas have a shorter shelf life than black, so it being very fresh is important. (I wish I had known that about my local purchase….while it is good, it is not nearly as bright tasting as some of the others I have tried, and who knows how long it was sitting in that glass jar?!) They all look very similar, but the two that are closest in smell are this one and the version from Harney & Son’s. My local one, and the organic one from the Summer Steepster box both smell kind of flat, although the local one is slightly floral, while being flat, and closer to what would be expected in a jasmine tea. (I am not even sure I want to try the organic one. It just doesn’t smell right, and I just opened the package…)

Onto the tea. It makes a pale, golden-green liquor and has such a lovely, relaxing, light floral scent. More of a refreshing scent than you would find in rose scented teas. The flavor has a slight butteryness and I definitely taste a light floral note as well as smelling it. I find this very good and I think jasmine tea would be more of a Spring/Summer choice for myself, but I am trying to push myself to drink more green tea. I always forget jasmine pearls are green, though! This is a very good and reasonably priced version of this tea in my opinion, especially since it is a good resteeper.

Today is a pearl kind of day! Although I prefer black Dragon Pearls because they are more like chocolate, these really are nice. The jasmine is strong, but not over the top. The green tea adds a nice, warm vegetal quality to the tea.

Since my doctors fiasco this morning and having had stomach ache for half the day I have decided to treat myself to a gaiwan steeping of this wonderful jasmine dragon pearl tea.

My tasting notes are just quick, I will write a better review soon.

The pearls are magically perfumed before and during steeping and the only thing that could match it’s fragrance would be it’s taste. Perfumey sweet jasmine with fresh grassy green tea leaves and a pinch of sunshine.

It’s fun to look at the pearls after each steep to see them change, at my second steep in they changed from being tight pearls to becoming 6’s or 9’s due to unravelling slightly. Fourth steep and they are starting to look like long spirals.

My stomach feels better now too :) Plus the jasmine has perfumed my mouth.

Wow, this was sweet – almost candy-like. One of the things that I always like about jasmine pearls is that you never need as much leaf as most other green teas to get a good flavor. It’s also one of the things that I forget the most and usually end up with super jasmine-y tea. Which in this case is yummy. This is probably a tie with the Bailin Gongfu for my favorite of the TeaVivre samples.