Mrs. Li's Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea Leaves
Flavors
Citrus Zest, Cream, Green, Guava, Nuts, Roasted Nuts, Vanilla, Vegetable Broth, Vegetal, Creamy, Peas, Spicy, Sugarcane, Thick, Butter, Vegetables, Artichoke, Asparagus, Chestnut, Floral, Grass, Green Beans, Hazelnut, Honey, Mineral, Straw, Nutty, Salt, Broccoli, Kettle Corn, Wheat, Spinach, Garden Peas, Soybean, Lettuce, Pine, Smooth, Cucumber, Flowers, Honey Dew, Sweet, Sweet, Warm Grass, Apple, Lima Beans, Beany
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Vegan
Edit tea info Last updated by CHAroma
Average preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec 4 g 10 oz / 285 ml

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90 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This is possibly one of the most beautiful teas in my collection, it’s beautiful ‘leaf and bud’ sets floating gracefully, gradually swelling and unfolding, and finally sinking to the bottom. I...” Read full tasting note
  • “Finally, I feel like I have enough time to try this tea and do it justice! However, although I’d love to try the authentic dragonwell method, I simply can’t drink hot tea, and can only envision...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “I’ve had this tea for a while, I can’t remember how long it’s been. It smells so nutty and tastes so sweet and vegetal. I have definitely enjoyed this tea a lot and will consider getting some more...” Read full tasting note
    91
  • “Mrs. Li’s Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea has arrived! It seems like this tea present (more than purchase) will be arriving today (and the rest of this week) in households across North America and...” Read full tasting note
    100

From Verdant Tea

True Shi Feng Dragonwell is one of the most admired teas in the world, officially endorsed by Emperor Qianlong as the archetypal green tea. We sourced this limited batch from an old friend, Mrs. Li, whose family has a plot of land at the heights of Shi Feng (Lion’s Peak). Tea lovers make the long hike up gravel and dirt roads to reach Mrs. Li’s farm and buy a bit of her precious harvest. Because of our unique friendship, we were able to secure a few pounds to share.

The aroma of the leaf in the cup is creamy with a sweet tinge of Granny Smith apple, the vegetal notes of soybean and the distinctive crisp mineral quality that Dragonwell green tea is known for. The first sips of this tea are a textural experience with tingling notes that play across the tongue like Sichuan peppercorn, and a building thickness of sweet rice pudding.

As the flavor unfolds there is a hearty confident vegetable sweetness like caramelized Brussels sprouts accentuated by a bursting juiciness of apple coming trough. The mouthfell moves gracefully between a thick Bourbon vanilla and cashew quality to the crisp mineral sparkle of fine Dragonwell. Later steepings bring out a Rainier cherry aftertaste with the herbaceous sweetness of cooked cactus paddle.

As a side note, the beautiful buds are sweet and tender to eat plain or tossed in a salad with a bit of sesame oil after the tea is fully steeped out. Use a glass vessel to brew this tea and get the full experience of the downy buds dancing in the water.

About Verdant Tea View company

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90 Tasting Notes

95
57 tasting notes

This is my second “high quality” dragonwell I’ve tasted (first one being Panan from Redblossom) and my first ever Shifeng. As soon as this was announced I immediately preordered 1 ounce just to see what all the fuzz was about.

>Dry Leaf Appearance/Aroma
The leaf is somewhat coarse, with a pale golden green color and a very faint grassy, nutty, hay-like aroma. Leaves are mostly medium sized, with several broken pieces and leaf bits.

>Brewing Method
I’ve experimented with this tea with Verdant’s gong-fu style and Redblossom’s recommended shifeng brewing guidelines. Both yielded somewhat different results. Gongfu was done following Verdant’s guidelines of 175F water, 4 grams of leaf, with 3 second steep times. Redblossom’s I used 180F water, 2 grams of leaf, with 1 min steep time.

>Liquid Appearance
Clear pale yellow-green.

>Taste/Aroma
Following Verdant’s gongfu style, this tea was very light, slightly creamy, grassy, and with a very noticeable cashew-nutty taste. I was able to brew the tea several times in a row with similar results, with it slowly losing its flavor.

Following the more “default” way to brew green tea, using Redblossom’s guidelines, I was able to get a super thick and creamy first cup with crisp grassy notes, but surprisingly lacking the clear cashew hint. Subsequent re-infusions were noticeably weaker in taste and texture (losing its thick creaminess at the second infusion).

>Wet Leaf Appearance
After several infusions, the coarse leaves become very tender and reveal their beautiful shape of three young top leaves.

>Overall
I really liked this tea. It’s also very interesting to see the differences between good dragonwells. I still prefer the panan version, but this one, with its clear cashew nut taste and thick creamy texture makes it a delicious green tea. I also found verdant’s gonfu way to be my preferred method to brew this tea, Redblossom’s way gave me a very one dimensional tea compared to the gongfu style, but maybe this method will work better with their version of shifeng? we’ll have to find out once I try that one in the future.

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Spoonvonstup

Have you gotten a chance to try this one “Dragonwell Style”? I believe that’s what David has up in the “How to Brew” for Mrs. Li’s Shi Feng. If you haven’t yet, I recommend it, if only as another comparative brewing method. It’s almost a combination of the gong-fu and Red Blossom methods.. leaves floating in a glass (longer steeping), yet you sip on it continuously (getting snapshots as it goes like gongfu).

Mike G

I have not… It was in my plans to eventually try it, but it seems it has gotten discontinued. Too much green tea in my cupboard for many months kept me from trying this :(

Spoonvonstup

Ah yes- it has definitely sold out. In any event, it’s still an interesting method to try on your other dragonwell’s when you get the chance.

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290 tasting notes

Instead of getting on with my work, as I am supposed to be doing, I decided to catalogue my teas today and update the cupboard on Steepster. This has proven an instructive process, because I found a small sample that was gratefully received from Bonnie some time back. It had worked its way to the back of the cupboard. Cataloguing teas is thirsty work, so I immediately decided to brew this one up and try it. The label Bonnie had written indicated that I should expect something special from this tea. I forgot to sniff the dry leaf, but it did look marvellous, as only a Dragonwell can. All those flat leaves lined up appeals to my sense of order. The wet leaf was savoury with a hint of banana, while the liquor seemd to have little aroma at all. It has the savoury taste that I expect of a Dragonwell, but also apple, a spot of spice and something vegetal. This is so much more delicate than other Dragonwells that I have drunk with a light creaminess that I really enjoy. What a superb tea.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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99
30 tasting notes

A “cv” stans for “curriculum vitae”. Its basically a resume but for all the scholastic accolades you’ve apparently acquired. Initially, I felt pretty good about writing one; seeing my name with M.S., M.A. to the right of it, like a stamp of approval for all the hard work and hard times I went through.

As I completed it, though, I didn’t feel so good. My cv doesn’t look that impressive at all. I’m not technically published: I’ve written a thesis, a 98 page atrocity of short stories, titled “Toska”, that was dedicated and tries to pay homage to my favorite writer of all-time, Richard Yates. That’s it. No journals, no articles, no academic presentations. There’s no way one of those two community colleges looking for instructors are going to hire me. Granted, I’m fresh out of the gates but looking at my professors cv’s and their pages-upon-unfair-pages of publications and books written, it makes me feel like I’m not trying hard enough. Like I’m not good enough. Like I’ve got these little stamps of approval next to my name that don’t really mean anything.

So, I need a way out of my existential meltdown. Let’s steep.

My packets of Yu Lu Yan Cha Black, Hand Picked Autumn Tieguanyin, and Autumn Harvest Laoshan are just about depleted. This tea, though, is tucked away in the corner, behind my tins and some other packets. Even though I know where it is, I like to think its hidden. I should keep it in a bomb-proof safe.

I know I’m technically not supposed to rinse this tea but I’ve done it a few times just to smell the leaves as the water is absorbed into them. It’s so beautiful and calming. Chestnut, a roasty and nutty mellowness. Like peanut butter. Little bit of smoke scratches my nose.

My mom used to make me a “Skippy” when I would come home from grade school. It was a piece of bread with peanut butter on it. The name “Skippy” doesn’t make any sense now because she used Peter Pan peanut butter because I thought Skippy tasted too sweet. Regardless of that, the only thing that made a “Skippy” a “Skippy” and not just peanut butter on bread, was that she would use the knife after spreading the peanut butter to carve out a perfectly shaped heart into the tan spread. They tasted better that way, I used to tell her.

She stopped doing that when she started getting sad. Haven’t had one since. Thought I forgot about those days. This tea brought me there.

There’s something about watching leaves change from their dry leaf appearance during the infusion that fascinates me. With this tea, the color of the dry leaf is dark and light green and they trickle over the flat little shards like shadows. For some reason I think of ripped-up old book pages. There’s a barely noticeable gloss to each leaf if the light hits it right. Once they soak in the water, all that disappears and there are big, juicy, plump, tongue-like leaves with little ridges on the edges, the colors rich and deep, fleshy green and shades of dark.

I’ve had other Dragonwell teas before. The flavor of this one is a different breed. There’s that sweetness others have written about (that sticks to my lips), there’s that mineral quality, too (in the back of my throat). I get the contrast of a creamy, nutty spread on top of toast against the hint of a sharp, rock-like bite. I don’t mean that tastes like I’m licking a rock but there’s something “rocky” and “stony” about the aftertaste in the back of my throat that makes me think of rocks underneath a faint trickle of cold water. Maybe its because of the “family’s plot of land at the heights of Shi Feng” that it has this “mountainy” taste to it. I couldn’t tell you. I can tell you that its gorgeous and calming and I feel so, so much better now.

Is this the best Dragonwell I’ve ever had? It could be. I have a lot more tea to try and buy before I can sound like I know what I’m talking about.

And even if I don’t know everything there is to know about tea, even if I don’t have 200,000 posts and am not well-known in the tea world, even if I just drink tea and write about it on a website and don’t get published in some scholarly journal for snobby intellectuals…at least I’m using my time in this life trying my best at the thing I love.

That’s all we can do, right?

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec
Bonnie

Right you are. The best writer is the one who can sit still long enough to listen I say.
Tea has a way of creating that otherworldly space where magic is possible. (I sound like a blithering mystic but I think it’s true, at least to me it’s true).
I congratulate you on your achievement! Spend some more of those fine skills right here where they will be appreciated!
Tea and good writing seem to go together. Even the silly writers like me sound better with a good cup of tea.

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92
289 tasting notes

I couldn’t resist the chance to try this tea and ordered a sample. The dry leaves smell deeply green, with that peculiar ‘Dragonwell’ aroma. I’ve only ever had one other Dragonwell, and I was interested to see if they had the same aroma. They share characteristics, but this tea is definitely has more depth. It’s also probable that it’s fresher.
I’m trying to brew this the recommended Dragonwell way with a glass tumbler. To keep from eating leaves I’ve resorted to using a large spoon to hold the leaves back as I sip. I’m still managing to sip in a few but so far this working much better than without. And this tea is WONDERFUL. It blows the other Dragonwell I’d had out of the water.
I finally strained the tea into another cup, leaving leaves in a little water in the tumbler. It was taking me so long to sip through the leaves that the tea was getting a bit bitter. Once I added more water and strained it though, the sweetness came out more. I’m using filtered water but I think next time I may make sure I have spring water on hand, and see how much of a difference it makes. I also want to try this western style, without as much leaf.
This tea is really good!

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C

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85
523 tasting notes

It’s finally cold enough to use my heater. I love autumn! It’s supposed to warm up a bit next week, but not too much.

I completely forgot that I had this tea, a small sample from my last Verdant order. I haven’t been too impressed with dragonwell teas in the past, so I was in no hurry to try this sample when I first got it.

I’m enjoying my second cup of it now and must say that it is the best dragonwell tea that I have tried. It hints at wanting to be a japanese green, but maintains a non-astringent sort of nutty and fruity dragonwell characteristic too.

And now I’ve finished my cup and must get ready for class :)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 30 sec
K S

Send some cool this way 90+ again today.

Shelley_Lorraine

oooh, I can almost feel your pain. I’d be eternally happy if it was 55deg and overcast every single day (unless I was in Florida, where 50 feels like 10 and the humidity freezes in my hair :p)

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87
612 tasting notes

Drank this last night, let’s see if I can remember…

Generally I haven’t been nearly as crazy for green teas as blacks in the past—I lived in coldcold damp dark Rochester, where you want hot black teas all the time!—and most of the greens in my past (from around high school and prior, say) were just generic lesser quality bagged things with over-the-top grassiness and a strange harsh textural bite that left the mouth feeling rough. But the loose greens I’ve trying in my tea revival now that I’m in hot sunny Memphis have all been very welcome, and this was no exception.

I like how sweet (cashew-sweet, yes!) and buttery bean-y and green vegetable smelling and tasting this was. There is a crispness, but it’s not really anything like unpleasant mouth-puckering astringency. For something so relatively light and vegetal tasting it’s so satisfying, drinking like a meal of fresh garden vegetables in broth. And that sweetness!—I hadn’t had greens with a lovely sweet perfume and front flavor assault until the past month. Really delicious. I can finally see how Ozu could write a movie named after a popular snack in Japan—“The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice”. As I finished my third steep of this (and the tip I didn’t know until this year, that greens resteep so well that often later infusions are actually better than the first, proved very true here; I thought the second through fourth were the best) I was reminded of it, thinking how tasty that would be.

The further along you go drinking this, the thicker and richer the mouthfeel; after 3 cups I felt like I’d stuffed myself with vegetable rice soup somehow just from the texture build up alone. Pretty interesting considering how light and sweet it seems with the first sip. Sometimes I really enjoy that transformative/subtle gradation of changes quality premium unbroken leaves offer, when I have the time to appreciate it! (Then there are those times it’s 9am and you’re in a rush and the ironclad consistency of a cup of CTC is called for, ha.)

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 15 sec

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93 tasting notes

Yup, definitely the real deal :) Don’t have time for a proper note, it arrived on a day I am leaving on a business trip so expect full note after week or so…

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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86
20 tasting notes

I received this fresh Dragonwell as a sample from Verdant. The dry leaf in the bag has a strong chocolate scent (not at all expected from a Dragonwell.)
The steeped leaves lose the chocolate, and the liquor has a sweet, caramel & rice-pudding taste, very mellow and smooth.
I did not find this Dragonwell vegetal or grassy (except as a light background note), which for me isn’t a plus.
Personally, I like the strong toasted almond & grass flavor of a fresh and assertive Dragonwell. This tea is assertive but in a softer, sweeter caramel fashion. More rice pudding than green or seaweed. To many, I’m sure that’s what will make this Dragonwell stand out from another. There is no bitterness or floral to the steeped tea, which dances lightly in it’s green/gold liquor. A very nice selection!

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99
257 tasting notes

This tea is spectacular to look at,,,fantastic flattened raffia-like green leaves.
I brewed this in my Kyusu that I use for green teas other than Gyokuro.
This tea is delicious, buttery, and cooling. This is nice because I am having a lunch of a spinach patty wrap with greens, tomato, jalapeño, and some Sriracha and this tea is cooling and balancing the spiciness.
The flavors are fava beans with a touch of butter. There are nutty notes as well.
This is a very good green tea! Though on the Verdant website, it says there are sweeter notes such as lychee, white grape, vanilla, sparkling, cucumber which I wasn’t tasting so I need to come back to this one later this afternoon and see if I can catch some more notes from this lovely tea.

Flavors: Butter, Lima Beans, Nuts

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 45 sec 3 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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98
7 tasting notes

I got this in the mail yesterday along with the Laoshan Black 2013 (which is becoming a drinkable temperature at this moment.

I tried this with both the western brewing for around 15 seconds or so and the way recommended on the website (tumbler method). I think the tumbler method is what I’ll be using from now on.

Firstly, I will just say that this is the best green tea I’ve ever had. By far.

The leaves are long and flat, almost like they’ve been pressed (maybe they have, I’m not sure). The smell of the dry leaves is actually very fruity, almost like a strawberry tea, but with that vegetal green smell present. Mm.

I didn’t get as much of a fruit flavor in the tea; it was almost negligible at first. It tasted at first very grassy, but not astringent. It was so smooth it was almost like I had put milk in it. Almost. As it went on, the leaves became slightly less grassy and more vegetal in general, with a little bit of spinach or something like that in there. By the end, I could almost barely taste the fruit. But it was so subtle that I could have been imagining it…

Bottom line, fantastic tea.

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