I received my Verdant Tea of the Month club package on Saturday and I was considerably more impressed with this month’s then I was with the last.

Mrs. Li’s 2014 Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea

The Dragonwell was the weakest of the three teas ironic considering I am not fond of white teas. Regardless I found the dragonwell to be interesting, but somewhere in the middle of the Dragonwell spectrum. Verdant does not have a recommended western brewing instruction on this tea, which piqued my curiosity. Rather than my normal gongfu session for new teas I decided to skip it and go straight to my default western brewing. I steeped the tea for two minutes at 175 °F for two minutes and for the subsequent infusion 185 °F for three minutes. The tea from both infusions had the normal seaweed taste from Dragonwell that has been steeped long, but it was lacking anything else. So I decided to have short gongfu session with it (like I should have done from the start).

I started at 167°F for thirty seconds and every subsequent infusion I added 2-5°F and ten seconds. This time the tea was completely different. I tasted lightly roasted chestnuts, a little buttery, cucumber and something similar to grape leaves. It had a buttery smell that became sweeter and citrusy as I went on. Overall it wasn’t a bad Dragonwell, but it was not as complex as I would have liked.