China Zhejiang Wild-Growing Dragon Well 'Long Jing' Green Tea

165F, 5gish, 150ml gaiwan
I think this is the actual sample I was sent as I don’t order green teas for myself. Dry leaf smells nutty and green. 10s- nutty, sweet 20s- nutty, almost roasted, lingering sweetness I stayed with the flash steeps as I usually don’t like green tea brewed for longer. I was surprised by the flavor and how much of it there was. If I were to stock a green tea, this would probably be it. 83

This is one of those days where I lack anything truly interesting or insightful as an opener to today’s tea. Sorry about that guys, I guess I can’t always be super clever or have super fun days. Yours truly might have overdone it a bit while I was rock hunting, it was totally worth it though. Examining one of the rocks I just stuffed in my pocket that fell off while I was hammering a larger chunk, it appears to be crusted with tiny epidote crystals. Next time I feel better, rock cleaning will occur and it will be awesome.

Today’s tea is part of a quest, not just to try all the teas at What-Cha (yes I have an obsession) but to find the perfect everyday Long Jing, yeah, I could drink this tea everyday…problem is all of my favorites have been really expensive. The cheap ones I have tried have been good, but not ‘everyday’ material, so maybe Zhejiang Wild-Growing Dragon Well ‘Long Jing’ Green Tea will fit the bill. This particular Long Jing is pretty nifty since it is picked from tea plants growing wild on an abandoned tea field. The aroma of the leaves is delightfully sweet and nutty, like roasted sesame seeds and a tiny touch of peanuts. This transitions to spinach and a tiny bit of sharp artichoke at the finish, so the aroma has a nice zingy finish.

So for this tea I decided to break out my (possibly) 18th century Chinese Imari Ware gaiwan, it is super tiny and delicate, perfect for a green tea! The aroma of the brewed leaves is very vegetal, a really green smelling cocktail of artihoke, green beans, and cooked spinach. There is a tiny touch of chestnut at the finish, but mostly the leaves are a pile of veggies. The liquid is delightfully delicate with slightly sweet nutty notes of chestnut and sesame seed and a touch of indistinctly vegetal aroma at the finish.

OMG yum, this tea is so tasty, and it has nothing to do with sipping it out of a dainty crystal…not sure if this is a cup or tiny vase, it was a quarter so it is a cup now! So, what makes this tea so good you are probably wondering, its crazy smoothness. The taste starts out sweet with notes of honey sesame candies and a touch of chestnut. This transitions to greenness with artichoke and green beans, this greenness lingers until the end with a hint of spinach. The aftertaste is honey sweet and lingers long after I have finished.

Second steeping time brings out more sweetness in the aroma than the previous steep, a sweetness of honey, roasted chestnuts, and toasted sesame seeds, there is a hint of vegetal at the finish reminding me that this indeed a green tea and not a sweet and nutty treat. The mouthfeel is surprisingly creamy for a green tea, which I like, it gives what I usually consider a light tea a touch of richness. The taste starts off honey and chestnut sweet and then fades to a savory cooked spinach and green bean midtaste. After that the finish it buttery, like lima beans and a bit like peas.

I also decided to give this tea a go grandpa style, Long Jing being one of my favorite teas to do this style (one of the reasons I am hunting the perfect everyday one) and this one handles really well. Steeping it grandpa style (or bowl style if you don’t want to get Gangnam Style stuck in your head every time you use it) brings out more of the savory vegetal notes, and calms the sweet down, which has its pros and cons. After many refills of the bowl and sippings I noticed it never got bitter, which is awesome. This tea is perfect for a grandpa style everyday tea, it is a little too rich and sweet for the gaiwan steepings, which is fine by me, I can make it a treat to do it that style. Perhaps my quest is over (not that I am not going to still try tons of Dragon Wells!)

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-cha-zhejiang-wild-growing-dragon.html

The dry leaves are a remarkably bright shade of green for a Long Jing, the leaves are a little broken up, but I most note that the box that my What-Cha order was shipped in was really banged up; even my postman apologized for the shape of it. I haven’t encountered any of What-Cha’s teas being that broken up, so I am confident saying this happened when it was in transit. There is a little yellow on some of the leaves as well; the most notable part of this tea is the scent. It has a really intense Chocolate-Mint aroma, not chocolate and mint, or chocolate mints, but the chocolate-mint plant; this was quite interesting, I don’t think I have ever encountered a Dragon Well with dry leaves that smell like mint. Already I knew this was going to be a really interesting tea, although I should have known it was going to be interesting when it said “What-Cha” on the label.

For my first steeping I brewed at 176°F for two minutes. I was greeted with a nutty aroma, I was a little disappointed that it didn’t have the chocolate-mint aroma from the dry leaves, but I won’t hold that against this tea. This tea had a very dominant nutty taste, think lightly roasted nuts, but there also was a green bean undertone to it that was quite lovely. The liquor was very light, although if I used a white cup rather than a clear glass cup it might have been easier to see.

For my third and final infusion I brewed at 190°F for four minutes. The aroma was very weak at this point; I could only get the nutty scent this time. The strongest flavor this time was peas, and then a very generic nutty taste.

(Pictures are on my blog http://rah-tea.blogspot.com/2014/10/what-chas-zhejiang-wild-growing-dragon.html)