Showing posts with label Long Jing. Show all posts

What-Cha's Vietnam Dragon Cloud Green Tea

What-Cha Vietnam Dragon Cloud Green Tea
Origin: La Bang, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
Harvest: March 2015
Cultivar: Hybrid of Ta & long Jing

http://what-cha.com/green-tea/vietnam-dragon-cloud-green-tea/


This is the first of What-cha’s new 2015 Vietnamese teas I decided to try, I originally was planning on having the Ta Jin Xuan Green tea first since I was amused at the idea of a green tea being made from a Jin Xuan hybrid, but ultimately I decided to sample this late one night since I was not expecting much of this. And I kind of regret choosing this first because it is amazing and the other What-Cha 2015 Vietnamese teas may pale in comparison to this. Before I gush about how much I love this tea, What-cha describes this as:
A splendid Vietnamese green tea with the cool minty tones associated with Long Jing coupled with the powerful grassy strength of typical Vietnamese greens, it very much lives up to its rich pedigree.
Dragon Cloud is a great example of the tea experimentation currently ongoing within Vietnam, it is a hybridisation of the native Vietnamese tea cultivar 'Ta' (meaning 'our' in Vietnamese) and the famed Chinese cultivar 'Long Jing' used in the production of Dragon Well.

Sourced direct from the Trong branch of the Vu family who operate a number of small farms around Vietnam, with one family member typically managing a single farm. The Vu family were one of the first to cultivate tea in Thai Nguyen, now considered one of the foremost Vietnamese tea regions.

  
Dry Leaves: The dry leaves are very green and have a fresh grassy aroma; it smells much cleaner than the typical long Jing. The leaves are a little on the small side and feel to be young buds which is amazing because of how inexpensive this tea is. 

Temperature: 167oF (+ 5o for each subsequent steeping)
Brewing Time: Ten Seconds (+ 10 Seconds for each subsequent steeping)
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Grassy, Nutty and Mint
Tasting Notes: This is a very powerful tea, What-cha warns about over brewing it, and even from just letting it steep just for ten seconds the brewed liquor is incredibly potent. While at the first steep it feels very much like your typical Long Jing, it lacks the sweetness of many. While at first this feels like a very powerful tea, it does have a soft side, sort of reminds me of a Bi Lo Chun. 

I was not really fond of the minty aftertaste, although I am not a fan of mint flavors to begin with, but the mint was an interesting contrast to the very clean Grassy and Nutty notes.  I decided not to follow my normal template and list my notes for the first three steeping because I could not notice significant change in-between any of them. I did get seven steeping out of this, although the leaves probably had more to give, but by the seventh steeping I was bored. I am not saying this tea is bad per se, but I would have preferred for the tea to change over time and it just didn’t.



Perhaps my style of documenting my tea tasting notes is lacking, while I am sure there was some change happening between infusions, but I could not tell. Oolong Owl tends to describe her tasting experience in numeric form with on a 1-10 scale and perhaps if I tried to train myself to judge intensity rather than strength this post could have been a better post, but at the end of the day even if I felt more competent in my ability to accurately describe this tea and the changes that happen over time I doubt I’d feel any different about it. 


I absolutely love this tea. At the time of writing this What-cha is currently selling 50g for $6.60 and I am confident that this is going to replace Long Jing as my green daily drinker. 
Read More

Pekoe Sip House - Organic Pekoe Dragonwell Green Tea

(Tea Provided For Review)

Jen at Pekoe Sip House was nice enough to send me a couple samples of their teas and I decided to try their Dragonwell today. Before I get into the tea itself I decided to do a little research on Pekoe Sip House since I never heard about them before and this is my first tea from. Pekoe Sip House is a certified B Corp which is a business that strives to solve societal and environmental problems. According to Pekoe Sip House’s blog there are dedicated to ethical sourcing both their teas and their coffee, being environmentally friendly and supporting local charities. All of which sounds pretty cool. While a lot of tea stores strive to help the various people directly involved in tea production, I have not seen many invested in supporting local charities as well; it’s nice to see a business trying to be a positive presence in their community while ethically souring their products.


Dry Leaves: There is quite a bit of variation in the tea leaves. I was excited to see tea stems mixed in. I know outside of Japan and Taiwan tea stems/stalks are often seen as garbage, I’ve found they add quite a bit of flavor to the brewed tea itself, but I digress. The leaves are darker green than anything else, although there is a little light green and brown mixed in. The leaves had a nice woodsy scent.


First Steeping
Temperature: 175oF
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Fruity
Flavor: Fruity, Floral and Nutty
Tasting Notes:  I was really taken back by this tea, I was expecting a nuttier tea, but in this first infusion I found a lot of floral and fruity notes while the nutty taste was a little light. It had a really nice body, a little stronger then what I was expecting, especially for brewing it for only one minute. The leaves have a lot left to give.


Second Steeping
Temperature: 180oF
Brewing Time: Two Minutes
Aroma: Peach                     
Flavor: Fruity, Nutty and Floral
Tasting Notes:  It had a nice peach scent this time; I couldn’t really distinguish individual scents last time. It still is fruity, but it is starting to become a little more distinct this time, more towards berries then the lighter fruit flavors (apples, pears, etc). It had a nice nutty taste, a little like a cross between fresh peanut butter and roasted almonds. Still is floral, but considerably weaker.

Third Steeping
Temperature: 180oF
Brewing Time:Three Minutes
Aroma: Lychee and Nutty
Flavor: Peach, Apricot and Nutty
Tasting Notes:  It has started to become overwhelmingly fruity! Rather surprising for a dragonwell, but not unpleasant. The aroma is becoming weaker. The liquor is becoming lighter, but the flavors are becoming more potent.



I rather liked this Dragonwell, I was slightly disappointed by the fruity flavors being more prominent than the nutty ones, but I’ve had plenty of stellar nutty Dragonwells, not a lot good fruity Dragonwells; this definitely falls into the latter category. I wouldn’t recommend this for someone looking for a very traditional nutty Dragonwell. This is a nice introduction to Dragonwells and green teas; for $7.48 (at the time of writing this) is not a bad deal at all. If you are looking for 50g at below $8 you are probably going to have a hard time find a better deal than this.  

I definitely could see myself buying this again. Jen of Pekoe Sip House was gracious enough to give a promo code for 25% off site wide, which expires 1/31/15, "teajoy". 
Read More

What-Cha’s Zhejiang Wild-Growing Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea


(I decided to change up the format of this blog a little, instead of brewing both western style and having a gongfu session, I’ll do one and then revisit the tea at a later date and do the other. This way I’ll be able to revisit the tea with a fresh palate later on. I am also looking into buying less reflective teaware, a careful reader of this blog could notice in my previous posts I have been posting underexposed pictures because of how shiny most of my teaware is.)



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 next infusion I brewed at 185°F for three minutes. While it still had a nutty aroma, this time I could also distinguish some vegetal notes to it, a little bamboo and peas. The taste was similar to the last, but less roasted nuts and a new wet wood taste that lingered. The liquor was still light, but I think I enjoyed this infusion more than the last; it’s not often that I taste a wood element in a Long Jing.


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.


 This was quite an interesting Long Jing, if What-Cha stocks the 2015 spring harvest, I’d buy again, I am interested if the grower and roaster can duplicate the chocolate-mint aroma the dry leaves had.  I don’t think What-Cha mentioned what Tea Estate this tea came from, but I wonder what side of the West Lake it is situated, although in the title it says it is wild growing which leads me to believe it may have been in one of the mountains as it doesn’t taste like Dragon Wells grown in some of the more polluted areas of Zhejiang and that it is wild growing makes me think it comes from a more affluent tea growing region (of Zhejiang). Overall it was a very good tea that I am looking forward to having again.
Read More

Two Dragon Wells from Teavivre

I’ve been going through some of my older teas and trying to make room for new ones and discovered two nearly empty canisters of Dragonwell from Teavivre that I remember enjoying. So in the interest of making room for new teas I decided the only logical thing to do is to revisit them.

Premium Dragon Well Long Jing

Normally when I am sampling new teas I have a short gongfu session, since I already tried these before I am going to forgo that and go straight into western brewing. For my first infusion I brewed at 185℉ for four minutes. Immediately I tasted a buttery vegetal flavor, somewhere between spinach and kale, a very dark leafy flavor. There were slight orchid undertones to it, I imagine if I didn’t brew the tea for so long this orchid taste would not be masked by the vegetal taste as much. The aroma was quite pleasant, a little bit grassy and a little floral.

For my second infusion I brewed at 195℉ for six minutes. This time the buttery taste was not as strong and mellowed out, and it was still vegetal, but considerably sweeter than the last infusion. The aroma was grassy rather than floral this time. While I could brew the leaves a third time even though every infusion feels like it is sapping everything from the leaves.

I am in love with this long jing since I can just keep rebrewing more and more; this is a very generous tea and certainly can be an everyday type of tea.

Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing

For my first infusion I brewed at 185℉ for four minutes. This time the tea was very creamy, a little artichoke, a strong nutty overtone and a pleasant unami aspect. The aroma was very grassy, but not overpowering the nutty scent. I was quite fond of this infusion while not as sweet as the Premium Dragonwell, it felt more balanced.

For my next infusion I brewed at 195℉ for six minutes. This time the flavor was nuttier than anything else, although I could still taste the artichoke in it, but it was not as pronounced. The aroma was even lovelier then the last; this time it smelled more like roasted chestnuts then a general nutty smell.


I have enjoyed both long jings, but I am fonder of the Premium version than the Organic Superfine version, even though the Organic felt more balanced, the Premium had some nice contrasting flavors. It was floral yet grassy, and lingered more so then the Organic. While I do enjoy the Organic Superfine Dragonwell, it felt more like a palate cleanser, especially since it stayed nutty. 
Read More

Verdant Tea Club - Mrs. Li’s 2014 Shi Feng Dragonwell Green Tea

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.
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.
Read More
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)