Tag: Green Tea

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Grand Tea’s Organic Dragon Well

Organic Dragon Well by Grand Tea
Green Tea / Straight
$45.00HKD for 25g

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Grand Tea has provided me with Organic Dragon Well for the purposes of providing an honest review. I received this product at no charge to me and received no other compensation.

First Impressions

This is Organic Dragon Well from Grand Tea, a tea company from Hong Kong. I was really excited to receive this sample because I like green teas. This is a lightly roasted green tea, which smells amazing. There’s a light seaweed smell because there’s a salty smell to it, and there’s a vegetal aroma to the tea that reminds me a lot of tomatoes.

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From Grand Tea’s website, I learned that the tea is European certified organic and is free from chemicals and contamination. There were not ingredients listed, so I am writing on the assumption that this, like most other Dragon Well teas, is a straight green tea. Dragon Well (or Longjing Tea) is a pan-roasted tea that is quite well known, so I was excited to see this one in my package from Grand Tea.

Preparation

Grand Tea’s product page for Organic Dragon Well suggests steeping this tea gong-fu method or in a tall glass. I’m not quite as sophisciated, so I steeped mine in a tea pot with a stainless steel infuser. I steeped Organic Dragon Well in 80°C (175°F) water for an initial steep of 1 minute.

First Taste

Organic Dragon Well steeps to a very pale yellow-green colour when steeped for a minute. There’s a light vegetal taste that has a mild salty flavour that reminds me a lot of seaweed snacks. I noted a nutty flavour at the end of each sip, which goes well with the salty flavour because it reminds me of having roasted nuts as a snack. The tea has a nice warming feel to it, kind of like how ginger does (but without the ginger taste), as well as a good smoothness to the tea with zero noted bitterness – a trait I always appreciate in a tea.

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A Second Cup?

Organic Dragon Well resteeps fairly well. For the first resteep, it becomes darker in colour and has a slightly saltier notes that really adds to the total umami flavour of the tea. I steeped Organic Dragon Well for a total of five resteeps (so a total of six steeps with the same batch of tea leaves). The flavours were fairly good to the fourth resteep, but the fifth resteep was fairly lacking in flavour.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved Grand Tea’s Organic Dragon Well. I always do appreciate a cup of tea with a complex flavour profile, and Organic Dragon Well does not disappoint in that department. For those that do not like a little bit of salty flavour in their tea, they may be a bit turned off by Dragon Well, but I think it is enjoyable – then again, I grew eating seaweed snacks. If you’re a fan of seaweed snacks, I think you’ll like this Organic Dragon Well green tea. The saltiness works well with the roasted nutty flavours that come together in this pan-roasted green tea.

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea

Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea by The Chinese Tea Shop
Green Tea / Straight
$22.95 for 50g

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First Impressions

And the winner for the longest name possibly ever to grace a review here on One More Steep goes to… the Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea! This was a tea that I picked up at the 2016 Vancouver Tea Festival from The Chinese Tea Shop’s booth. Part of the reason why I picked it up is because I love watching rolled tea open up when steeping, and also because it smelled amazing.

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There’s a strong jasmine smell with these pearls, which is understandable given the name. I love that I can see the variation in colour in the leaves with the tips being white, ans well as seeing the tiny hairs of the tea very easily. This tea is described on The Chinese Tea Shop website as being made with the “finest silver pekoe tips rolled into small balls”.

Preparation

The Chinese Tea Shop recommends making most, if not all, of their tea gong-fu style. I still lack the proper tea ware for that, so I made it in my normal glass tea pot. I steeped the tea in 79°C (175°F) water (the ‘green tea’ option on my Breville IQ Kettle) for 1 minute for the first steep.

First Taste

Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea steeps to a very pale yellow after the first steep, it’s barely noticeable in my white tea cup. There’s a great jasmine flavour that is immersed into the tea. With the short steep in the low temperature water, I’ve found zero bitterness. There’s a slight sweetness that I quite enjoy and found to be pleasant. The tea itself is very smooth and that makes for an easy to drink tea.

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A Second Cup?

I resteeped Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea a few times, increasing each subsequent steep time by 30 seconds. The colour of the tea gets to be a pronounced golden yellow as each steep occurred. I managed to get a total of seven steeps with this tea before it started to get a little bit lacking in flavour.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s Finest White Tips Dragon Pearl Jasmine Green Tea. Yes, it is on the pricier side when it comes to jasmine green teas – this I will fully admit. However, the ability to steep again and again just goes to show that it’s a high quality tea. Less expensive jasmine green teas lack the ability to be resteeped over and over again. I loved watching these dragon pearls open up, and found the tea to be smooth and delicious. It’s not a tea that I would have every day (I don’t think I could afford for it to be a daily cup of tea!) but it’s definitely one that I could see having on special occasions or when having company over as a little bit goes a long way.

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24 Days of Tea: Organic Kashmiri Chai

Organic Kashmiri Chai by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Getting near the end and day 23 is Kashmiri Chai! One of my first tea loves from my undergrad was indulging in Chai lattes from one of numerous Starbucks on campus. The sweet and spicy scent profile from DavidsTea’s Kashmiri Chai reminds me a lot of the Starbucks Chai latte, just with a stronger punch of spice fragrance to it. The cardamom, clove, and cinnamon are the most obvious, with slight hints of the green tea base lingering in the background.

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Organic Kashmiri Chai is a mix of: green tea, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, ginger, cardamom husk, clove buds, and marigold flowers. The mix (according to the packaging) is kosher.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Organic Kashmiri Chai in hot water (75-80°C/167-176°F) for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped my first cup for 3 minutes.

First Taste

While I was steeping the Organic Kashmiri Chai, I couldn’t help but notice that there were a lot of fine dusty tea particles that didn’t get caught by the stainless steel infuser that I was using. I’m not sure if that’s just because of what I got in my little calendar tin, but I would consider using a filter bag in the future to avoid that.

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The level of spicy flavour in this Kashmiri Chai are divine. I love the heavy taste of cinnamon, cardamon and cloves. The green tea just acts as a base and I can just barely taste it – but that’s really okay with me because the warming spices are just a delight in my cup. There is a level of sweetness to this tea that is nice, I think it could benefit a lot from having the addition of a sweetener.

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Because I’m a fan of Chai lattes, I opted to make it into a latte as well (my tutorial on making lattes at home here!) and it is delicious! I think I want to try steeping this particular tea in milk in the future, like how traditional Chais are done, to see how it holds up flavour wise.

A Second Cup?

Organic Kashmiri Chai does well with one more steep. The heat from the ginger is more prevalent in the second steep, with the cinnamon and cardamom taking a back seat. Overall, I think a maximum of two steeps is good for this tea.

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My Overall Impression

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I loved DavidsTea’s Organic Kashmiri Chai. From the warming sensation of the spices to the way the tea works deliciously well as a latte, I really enjoyed the Kashmiri Chai. I think that the level of sweetness and spiciness works well, and it translates into a great cup of tea that I would buy to have some in my tea stash.

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