Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea
Where to Buy: Verdant Tea
Tea Description:
Mrs. Li’s father was one of the most respected professional tea tasters in Zhejiang, and a farmer since age 16. Mrs. Li is proud to carry on her father’s tradition of hand picking and roasting pure, organically-produced Dragonwell.
The tree covered mountainside tea fields of Mrs. Li are fed by sweet natural spring water from Dragonwell, and are protected from excessive heat or sunlight, creating a sweet and crisp brew with not a trace of bitterness. At the peak of freshness, her tea changes the way that you think about green tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Recently on Steepster, there was a discussion on where people would be getting their Dragonwell teas this season. To that discussion, I think I might suggest this Mrs. Li’s 2014 Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea from Verdant Tea! Because … oh wow! This is one seriously spectacular Dragonwell!
I tried last year’s harvest of this tea, and at the time I was reviewing it, the tea had sold out. So, this is a tea you DO NOT want to hesitate on … because hesistation can mean the difference between getting some of this tea and having to wait until next year! This is a very special, very FRESH, limited edition tea that is well worth dropping everything and ordering some right now.
Since this is a very special Dragonwell, I decided that I should take it through it’s paces, and infuse it as many times as I could get flavor from it.
My first pot of this tea is sweet and toasty. The tasting notes on the website suggest “warm nutty cashew” and that’s what I’m tasting. It’s sweet, roasty-toasty, nutty, and creamy. It’s a nicely round flavor. The texture is soft and brothy and creamy. I emphasize ‘creamy’ here because it’s got that kind of taste and texture that makes me want to curl up in a bubble bath and just drink this. A sip of this tea and I can feel the worries and stresses of life melt away and I feel like I’m in heaven. It’s so luxurious and wonderful.
The second pot proved to be even sweeter and more intensely flavored than the first. I am still getting that warm, creamy cashew flavor and I’m also noticing more of a “browned butter” note: sweet, nutty, creamy and with a hint of savory. The creaminess in the first cup was more like a sweet cream sort of flavor, whereas this is more similar to the creaminess you’d experience from a brown butter sauce.
The third infusion had more of a “green tea” sort of taste, with stronger vegetal tones and as the description on the website suggests, hints of “matcha” like notes. Still buttery and nutty and sweet, I find this infusion to be a little less sweet than the previous two and a little more savory than they were. However, this still tastes sweeter than it does savory.
I am finding myself in utter AMAZEMENT by my fourth and final infusion (hey, I might have scheduled this for early in the day, but it’s getting late as I write it!) because this is still sweet and creamy and delicious! The flavors are getting lighter now than they were in the first three infusions.
And as promised, I am tasting notes of sweet, candied citrus, and yes, even some brown sugar notes. The creaminess has waned somewhat compared to the first three infusions, but I notice lovely creamy notes (particularly connected with the nutty tones, think a creamy cashew butter) but these creamy notes are more of a flavor than a texture.
If you’re looking for an exceptional Dragonwell – this is it. I highly recommend this. I know I’ve tasted a lot of Dragonwell teas and I’ve enjoyed most of them – but this one – this one is truly unique from the “usual” Dragonwell and deserves a place in the very upper echelon of those that I’ve tried. You would be hard pressed to find a better Dragonwell than this.
