Imperial Dragon Well Tea From Hangzhou * Long Jing Tea

First spring green tea of 2022.

Pale green leaves shorter than a typical dragon well. Matcha like aroma that changes to spinach and chestnut when the leaves are placed in a heated vessel. The brewed tea is nutty with a pronounced roast. Tastes like stir fried vegetables with an astringency that becomes less noticeable the more you sip. Notes of grilled asparagus, green beans, zucchini, straw, and edamame.

Enjoyable tea but not memorable.

Longjing isn’t my jam, but I do appreciate it from time to time.

I usually brew longjing 2 tsp/8oz/175F/grandpa with two top-offs but I cut down to 1 tsp for this tea specifically because of what it does to my mouth.

Most of the flattened leaves and needles are still vibrant 5 months after purchase. The silver bag has a smattering of fuzz. A few leaves here and there have a ball of light golden fuzz stuck to them which makes it look like some kind of leaf gall. Nope it’s fuzz. Cool.

The smell of many Chinese green teas is difficult for me to describe – I’d say this dragon well is kind of like cashew, oats and light cocoa. While brewing, the liquor has a strong fragrance of sweet roasted chestnut. A minute later, it tastes like a cross between green beans and sweet peas with some chestnut. After the tea glides across my tongue, the sweetness persists. I notice some astringency. Chew on the leaves that have a death-by-mastication wish. Good, no bitterness.

Second glass is noticeably lighter in flavor and aroma and some time into it, I notice that my mouth feels torn up like I ate a lemon. Twelve hours later, it’s still feeling rough. Is that the leaf’s revenge? Not very pleasant. Third glass was very light and not worth it.

Overall, it’s an ok tea. I always eat the leaves, so next time I’ll turn them away from my pearly gates to see if I still get a raw mouth. I’ve had longjings I like more and may even prefer lower grade.

As one would expect from a good Long Jing, this is quite a delicate and nutty affair. The main notes I get are almonds, eggwhites, cooked vegetables (courgette, spinach) and also cooked poultry. It’s savoury, but maybe not as much so as it might seem from the flavours. Overall, the taste is actually quite balanced, with a touch of astringency and sourness in the finish, and very little bitterness. The mouthfeel is velvety, thick, and not too coating.

I can definitely recommend this tea to people who like Long Jing, but if you are not already onboard with this style of tea, you might want to look elsewhere for an introductory tea.

Sadly, I am reviewing the 2016 harvest of this tea in 2018. I am so bad at finishing fresh teas (green and white) in a timely fashion…

Despite being 2 years old, this is still an excellent tea. It has a delicious nutty, malted sugar, almost roasted cereal or oats aroma. Nutty, roasted vegetable, toasted bread flavour.

First cup, very smooth, nutty, sweet.
Got lost in drinking and stopped recording notes, but man the pineapple note REALLY turned up in cup 3. Delicious and awesome!

I drank this twice, actually, but this morning it was a sipdown. Thanks to Ubacat for sharing!

I first drank this a few weeks ago after I finished reading Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear – because it contains a dragon that lives in a lake, and they actually call the location in question “Lung Ching”. Hooray for second-world fantasy series that aren’t set in Europe!

I finished it off today because I finally published my review of the Eternal Sky series, of which Steles of the Sky is the conclusion. Review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/08/book-review-the-eternal-sky-trilogy-by-elizabeth-bear/

The tea itself is pleasant and nutty, and produced a really pale liquor despite oversteeping. No astringency, which was nice. However, dragonwell teas don’t really ring my bell – I just figured it would be the perfect tea to commemorate this book/series.

This is my very first tea of the day. Well, first REAL tea. I had to fast to get a blood test done this morning and just ate breakfast out having a green tea in a restaurant for the morning. So to me that didn’t really count as a REAL tea.

This tea is delicious. It’s sooo pricey though compared to some other teas at YS.

I brewed it gongfu trying out my new glass gaiwan. The only other gaiwan I had was a tiny one and I wanted a bigger one that could take a little bit more volume. I soon learned that it’s much harder to handle when it’s bigger. The whole thing comes dangerously close to flying apart when I can’t get a good grip on it. I still like it though. It’s nice to see the green leaves through the glass.

This dragonwell is deliciously sweet and nutty with a green bean taste to it. So fresh! Even at the price it is, I would consider getting more of this tea.

Beautifully sweet and nutty :)
Thanks Stephanie!

Wow! I love early spring Dragonwell!

SO SWEET! Nectar of the gods for sure :D