Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: In Nature
Company Description:
Long Jin tea is also known as Dragon Well and is often called the national drink of China. It is probably the most well known green tea produced in China.
When brewed, this green tea produces a yellow-green colour, giving off a distinct but subtle aroma with a great taste. It is incomparably better than the beverage produced from cheaper green tea bags.
Taster’s Review:
The flavor of this tea is so rich and pure. It has a very clean, vegetative taste with no bitterness and a surprising amount of complexity – especially when one considers that this tea was brewed just 1 minute in a gaiwan!
The dry leaves are a bit smaller than I’m used to seeing when it comes to a Dragon Well. As they unfurl, they reveal themselves to be tiny, young, WHOLE leaves that are just beautiful – almost breath-taking! – to behold.
The aroma is floral with grassy notes, and this translates into the flavor except that I wouldn’t really call the flavor grassy. It is vegetative but not overwhelmingly so, and it’s more like a vegetable than a grass taste. There are notes of flower, hints of fruit, and even a very subtle nutty quality. The tea has a light astringency that gives a sense of continuity to the clean taste of the overall cup.
But the dominate flavor of this cup is the buttery taste of it. No, it’s not like drinking a cup of melted butter, but the sweet, creamy butter taste of this tea is a fine compliment to the other notes of this pleasingly complex tea.
And this tea stands up to multiple infusions, too! I managed five very flavorful infusions – each just as delicious as the one before it! I am so thrilled that I had the opportunity to try this fine tea.
Long Jing from Lahloo
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Lahloo
Company Description:
XI HU, ZHEJIANG, CHINA
The story:
This year’s Long Jing green tea is a real treasure! Strolling around Xi Hu (West Lake) you can smell the sweet tea flourishing. Legend has it that Long Jing (meaning Dragon Well) should be made with water from the ancient spring it’s named after. Don’t worry, it’s a great tea even made with your local water!
♥ Skilled tea masters pluck only the delicate, whole leaves in the Spring
♥ Indulgently refreshing
♥ Sweet chestnutty, moreish
♥ A real treasure – share it with a friend!
Taster’s Review:
A funny thing about Dragon Well tea… a funny story, actually. It’s one that I’ve probably told before, and if you’ve read some of my Dragon Well reviews you might have already read it. Back when I was first becoming more acquainted with tea – green tea, that is – I had tasted some Dragon Well tea and found it not to my liking. Now, I don’t know if I happened upon a particular Dragon Well that I didn’t like, I don’t know, it could have been the vendor, it could have been a bad year… but more than likely, I think it was MY fault.
Yes, there it is, my friends. I admitted fault. Please don’t tell my husband. I have him trained to believe that I am never wrong.
I think I brewed it wrong. Back then, I brewed all teas with boiling water for 5 minutes. And the tea that I tasted was bitter and vegetative to the point of tasting like freshly mown lawn clippings. It was not tasty. Not in the least. And so I had an unfavorable – and incorrect – opinion of Dragon Well tea for quite a few years to follow.
Since then, I’ve learned a thing or two about the art of steeping tea. And I also think my palate has become a little more appreciative of the more vegetative qualities of some green teas. Both these things have led me to the point where I am able to proclaim that I LOVE Dragon Well Tea!
This Long Jing (aka Dragon Well) from Lahloo is no exception. It is smooth, rich, buttery and delicious. It has a pleasant chestnut-ish flavor, slightly roasty, slightly nutty, slightly sweet – that melds together well with the vegetative quality. It almost tastes a bit like roasted vegetables that have been lightly buttered.
I generally prefer Dragon Well tea hot, because I am of the opinion that the complexity is stronger when it is hot. As tea chills it can sometimes lose some of the flavor. This is still rather tasty cold though, and would make a very refreshing, energizing iced tea. But, I still prefer it hot – with no sweetener – it doesn’t need it! It is tasty and sweet on its own.