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Teakan’s Long Jing

Long Jing (Dragon Well) by Teakan
Green Tea / Straight
70g for $30.00

Long Jing (Dragon Well) is one of five teas from Teakan’s Tea Exploration Kit (Volume 2) and makes up 15g of the 70g of looseleaf tea in this curated collection.

First Impressions

I’ve just been really excited about the Tea Exploration Kit from Teakan’s second curated collection, so let’s just dive right in! This is the second tea that I’ve decided to try from the kit and it’s Long Jing (Dragon Well). This is a traditional Chinese green tea and I’ve reviewed multiple dragon wells before in the past and it’s definitely a favourite in my household (…. by me). This particular Long Jing comes from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China and was harvested in spring 2020 – so just a couple seasons ago!

The leaves of this tea are long, flat, and a lovely bright shade of green. The dry leaf has a sweet, grassy aroma to it, and it’s honestly just really pretty to look at. You can definitely tell that it’s been pressed during the manufacturing process with how flatten the leaves are, but it’s nice to see such intact leaves as well! It’s quite pretty.

Preparation

Teakan recommends steeping Long Jing in 80°C (176°F) water for 2 minutes (for western style steeping) or 30 seconds (for gongfu style steeping). I opted to do an initial steep for 2 minutes with 79°C (175°F) water.

First Taste

Long Jing steeps to a fairly pale yellow on the initial steep. The aroma is a light grassy, vegetal aroma. The flavour has a hint of sweetness but lots of vegetal notes and a light background of grassy flavours. I would liken it to the flavour of bok choy, almost, with that heartier flavour of gai lan (Chinese broccoli). It has a nice sweetness that lingers though, so it kind of just ties it all together into a pleasant cup of tea. The texture makes for a slightly thickened mouthfeel, which is enjoyable as well.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Long Jing three times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour was enjoyable. The colour definitely deepened and became more of a golden yellow colour, with stronger vegetal notes over the initial grassy flavours.

 

My Overall Impression

I loved Teakan’s Long Jing (Dragon Well). I found it to be quite pleasant, and just steeped quite nicely – as well as resteeping. The flavour profile is nicely balanced between the vegetal and grassy flavours, and all ties in together well with the sweet notes. It’s definitely a nice sweetness to it that just really makes for a nice cup of tea, and I think this is the type of green tea that would be a great introduction to someone who’s not familiar with green teas – it has a nice crispness to it, and doesn’t have any extra flavourings or scents to it. Simply a pure green tea – just don’t slack on resteeping it.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Tsujiri’s Premium Sencha

Premium Sencha by Tsujiri
Green Tea / Straight
$10.25 for 30g

First Impressions

This is the last loose leaf tea that I picked up from my visit to Tsujiri. It comes in familiar packaging – the lovely linen-feel paper with a cardstock sleeve with some information. The tea itself comes in an unmarked silver pouch that is sealed but not resealable. For the other teas, I’ve popped the silver pouch into a zip top plastic bag to help keep the tea from going stale (my empty tea tins are still packed away at this time).

Premium Sencha is dark and bright green leaves, mostly short and flattened pieces, with quite a bit of tea dust in the package. The aroma is mostly grassy, with a hint of salty air to it. The tea itself consists only of Japanese green tea.

Preparation

Tsujiri recommends steeping Premium Sencha in 70-80°C (158-176°F) for 1 minute. I opted to do the initial steep with 79°C (175°F) water for a steep time of 1 minute.

First Taste

Premium Sencha steeps to a yellow colour. There’s some grassy aroma from the tea when I smell it, and there are visible tea leave bits that have sunk to the bottom of the cup. On first taste, I noticed that there are some umami notes, a hint of saltiness, some grassy flavours, and some vegetal notes that remind me of dark green leafy vegetables. It has an interesting flavour profile, but the salty flavour does overwhelm the grassy notes at the tail end of each sip and it’s the aftertaste that I’m left with when drinking this green tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Premium Sencha three times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour got more grassy as I went, with less vegetal notes. The umami and salty flavours remained fairly consistent with each steep, the colour got a bit more golden in colour. More tea dust came out with each pour, I had used a stainless steel filter in my teapot.

My Overall Impression

I liked Tsujiri’s Premium Sencha. I found that the tea was enjoyable with an interesting flavour profile that was fairly well balanced – I would have rated it higher if I didn’t have that strong umami aftertaste with each sip. That said, I like green teas and this one has the flavours that I expect to find and drink. I do think that the price is on the higher side for the amount (only 30g!), as well as containing quite a bit of tea dust in the bag, which was unfortunate to see.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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DavidsTea’s 9 Berries

9 Berries by DavidsTea
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$9.98 for 50g

First Impressions

As the weather turns a bit cooler, I’m torn between a love for fruity infusions, and things with a bit more spice (chai spice blends, I’m looking at you!). 9 Berries comes in a familiar silver pouch that’s sealed and resealable, a bright yellow label on the front. There was no indication about enjoying this tisane as hot or iced, so I opted to try it hot because the weather outside was grey, rainy, and windy when I finally had the opportunity to sit down and try it.

9 Berries contains organic: elderberries, aronia berries, hibiscus, juniper berries, sweet blackberry leaves, chicory root, strawberries, black currants, sea buckthorn berries, natural berry flavouring, raspberries, goji berries, and blueberries. And if you’ve been counting, it really is nine berries in this blend (creative naming or just phoning it in?). The aroma of the blend is very fruity, as one might expect. It reminds me a lot of that ‘mixed field berry’ aroma from a jar of jam. Just very fruity, sweet, and inviting.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping 9 Berries in 95°C (200°F) water for 5+ minutes. I opted to follow the recommended water temperature and do a steep for 7 minutes.

First Taste

9 Berries steeps to an amazingly dark shade of reddish pink. From all the berries involved in the blend, it’s no wonder that the tisane is such a deep colour. The aroma is purely berries – just a rich, fruity aroma with plenty of sweetness to go around. It definitely has the aroma of a berry fruit punch, and it even tastes like one! However, it is not as sweet as one might expect. While there is some natural sweetness that comes out of the steeped fruit, it lacks the amount of sugar that one might find in jam or honey, although it certainly wouldn’t hurt to add your own (sweetener, that is). There is a considerable about of mouth pucker that happens when drinking 9 Berries. A lot of it definitely has to do with the hibiscus – there’s a nice amount of tartness in the tisane. It goes nicely with the fruity flavours from all the berries though – it reminds me of biting into a not quite fully ripen berry.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped 9 Berries once, adding an additional 30 seconds for the subsequent steep. I found that the berries didn’t quite resteep nearly as well as I would have liked. It lacks that punch of flavour that was so present in the initial steep. I would recommend 9 Berries for just the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s 9 Berries. I found that the flavour to be really enjoyable with a great amount of fruity flavour and just enough sweetness to really make it tasty. I would recommend adding sweetener if you like having sweet fruity tisanes. Also blending it with some lemonade – just a splash to accentuate the tartness from the hibiscus would be just stellar. Having it iced might be a good idea too, although I quite enjoyed having it hot – just made for a nice cup of tisane on a cold day.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.