Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea

If only the taste of the first steep stayed…

The first one, when the tea is not yet uncurled and moistered eniugh, is simply godly. The taste is very interesting and complex.

Then… harshness kicks… and I am not sure it is controllable to produce anything comparable to 1st. And this turns it from godly to average… :(

This tea has a malty chocolate taste. It has a deep and rich flavor that is very satisfying.

Smells malty and sweet in the bag. The taste for me is pretty much the same as the smell: malty with a little bit of sweetness in the aftertaste. Perhaps some earthiness as well? Sugar brings out honey-esque notes. I cold brewed the leftover leaves for iced tea and it’s good that way as well, nice and refreshing taste. I’m drinking it iced now and liking it more and more with each sip.

Chocolate! It tastes more like chocolate than any tea I’ve ever had that didn’t actually have chocolate in it. Six pearls was more than enough for two steeps of this rich, chocolatey, malty delight.

I got hooked on the Black Dragon Pearl from Teavana. It is actually one of my top 3 teas. I decided to try it from Teavivre since it is much more cost effective and the description is exactly the same. As soon as I opened it up I noticed the scent was a bit different. Visually the Teavivre and Teavana pearls look exactly the same so I figured it might be still taste the same. But no.

I really didn’t get much of the earthy malty flavor that I loved in the Teavana version. I tried so many different variations but I could not get it to taste anything close. The earthiness in the Teavivre brand tasted slightly pu’erish (very slightly) and I don’t like pu’er teas.

I gave up on comparing it to the Teavana version and just tried to enjoy it for what it was but it didn’t do anything for me. Now I have 3.5 ounces of tea to get rid of.

This was my first ever pearl tea and it seemed strange that it wasn’t in loose pieces when it started but looked sort of like black seaweed after it was steeped.
The biggest surprise to me was how smooth this tea was from the first taste. The first steep was only 1 minute and the color was very pale, but the second steep I left for 2 minutes and of course the color was deeper, but still it was a smooth as the first steep, but I did feel like it left a lingering taste on the back of my tongue that I couldn’t identify. I decided to do a third steep, but got distracted and it was left to steep for 5 minutes. Being in a hurry afterwards, I just poured the tea into a glass and later in the evening decided to try it with ice…what a surprise to find that it was great, and so much so that I might plan on doing a long 3rd steep again in the future to use for ice tea.

Used 6 pearls to 8 oz of water, came out extremely smooth, like chocolate. Check out a full review here http://www.examiner.com/review/teavivre-fenqing-dragon-pearl-black-tea-review

This is such an incredible tea, really unlike any other black tea I’ve had before. The cacao flavour is so perfectly in-your-face and that’s the whole flavour profile. Like a perfect liquified tea chocolate. There’s no astringency and no smokiness. Just cacao. The darkest of chocolate. I generally resteep this twice for three steeps total and it’s amazing every time.

For reference, I use four pearls for my 14-ounce mug and steep 5 minutes, 6.5 minutes, and 8 minutes.

This tea is amazing, even when you don’t use enough tea for brewing it. I ordered several sample packs from Tea Vivre, and this was one of the samples. On the label, they don’t give a quantity for brewing, only steep time and temperature, so I’ve been splitting the samples in half, and brewing each half with 500 ml of water. This worked okay for the first one I brewed, but not this one. I’m pretty sure I should have brewed the entire 5 grams in 500 ml of water. The first time I made it, I steeped for 5 minutes and had a not bad brew. This time I’ve steeped for 8 minutes, in the hopes that it would be a more full-bodied brew. I’m definitely going to add this one to my to-buy list. I’m pretty sure I have one more sample of this that I can brew at the proper strength another time.

Quite enjoyable, complex and reserved black tea. As the leaves unfurl over several steepings, chocolate and leather aromas come out, confirmed on the palate. Very little astringency comapred to most black teas I’ve experienced. Nice and mellow, a joy to drink.