LongWu Dragon Well from Tealet

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where to Buy:  Tealet

Tea Description:

The tea leaves are harvested in April each year and processed by Farmer Ge senior . The premium processed dry leaves are smooth and flat with a uniform size. They have a golden-green color. After steeping them in hot water, they taste fresh with an earthy aroma. The brewed water is clear and bright with a lighter shade of the golden-green color. Looking at the dry leaves absorbing the water into tea leaf flowers is a pleasure for your eyes.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

Opening this pouch was such a treat for the eyes.  The leaves are gorgeous!  Each leaf is nearly identical in size and shape, and they are a beautiful green color that is almost forest green, but they have a beautiful golden hue too.  They have a fresh, grassy scent to them.  It was an amazingly beautiful experience for this tea lover!

And the experience continues … the flavor is delightful!  Sweet and vegetative but not what I’d call “grassy” … certainly not as grassy in taste as the fragrance of the dry leaves might lead one to believe.  It is more like the flavor of lightly buttered, freshly steamed lima beans.  Not the dried lima beans, or even the kind you might buy in a can or in the frozen aisle of your local grocery store.  The flavor of this tea is reminiscent of the freshly shelled lima beans that my gramma would pick from her garden in the morning, and then steam and serve for dinner that evening.  Fresh!  Vibrant!  Delicious!

There is a creaminess to this as well, one that I do not normally associate with a typical Dragon Well tea, but then again, this is not your average Dragon Well.  As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, this has a lightly buttered taste, and that is where the creaminess comes in.  The butter tastes light and creamy, and it doesn’t build on the palate.  It just sort of peaks its way in around mid-sip, and disappears by the end of the sip … just enough creamy goodness to enhance the savory element of this tea.

Some tasting notes on Steepster have suggested a hint of bitterness to this tea and I don’t really get bitterness in the traditional sense of the word.  What I taste is more of a savory element that is difficult to describe.  It’s quite unlike any other Dragon Well I’ve tasted before, and yet it does have a sort of familiarity to it.

I love the balance here:  it is sweet, but it is also savory.  It doesn’t taste too sweet, and the creaminess does not overwhelm or saturate the palate.  It has a pleasant body to it, nicely round, but at the same time it does not feel heavy… it has a light, invigorating taste and texture to it, making it the perfect afternoon tea.  This is one that you want to keep resteeping, too.  The leaves can handle it!  I managed three very flavorful infusions from one measurement of leaves, and I think they could have delivered a fourth and possibly a fifth, too.

A superior Dragon Well, one of the best I’ve tried.  I think that this is one that could satisfy even the most discriminating tea connoisseur.  I highly recommend it!