Dragon Tea House

This is a superb white tea. The aroma is intoxicating!

First brew yields a delicately sweet and vegetal liquor, that has a grainy/rice like overtone. Subsequent brews lose the graininess but remain sweet and grassy, and so so delicate and smooth. Later brews can become astringent, but never bitter.

This is a very beautiful looking tea, with very fresh looking and pretty green leaves!

Taste can be very delicate at low weight, I use maybe 5-7g for a medium gaiwan.

Taste is a bit sweet, vegetal and slightly, ever so slightly fruity.

One of my favorite green teas.
Sweet and mellow, rich, almost oily mouth feel.
Taste reminds me of sea weeds with some grassy notes.

6g / 90ml celadon gaiwan.

My habit is going strong. watched some breaking bad tonight and of course i choose a nice sipdown of this nice sheng.
today i did some stronger infusions.

wash/20s/40s/1m/1m/1m/1:20
This produced a very potent brew. And i experienced my first “tea drunk” i got all giddy and excited. Like after a couple of glases of wine. Im pretty sure it´ll be hard to sleep tonight…. :)
Anyways, this tea really started to shine when brewed stronger. To bad itss all gone. :(

6g / 90ml Celadon gaiwan.
wash/wash/15s/20s/25s etc.

A decent sheng with very little astringency. first steeping was almost buttery. Usual sheng taste (woody/earthy). But slightly mild. I actually forgot my steeping for 3 minutes and the result was only a slight bite. Simply diluted it with some hot water.

I almost always seem to drink sheng when watching series. :)

I’ve taken 6gr, 6 brewings:
35’’, 30’’, 45’’, 1’, 1’30, 3’

The water has to be really hot, otherwise the tea stays completely blank with no taste.
Although the scent in the aroma cup was very weak, the taste is good. At first it seemed very weak, and then developed a flowery/fruity taste in the throat. It’s not the best Ben Shan oolong I’ve tried (too weak for my taste) but at this price it’s very interesting.

I’ve also tried to brew it in a big teapot (sometimes with weak tea it’s better to have everything in the same cup :-) : it’s great for an everyday tea.

I received my new Pu Erh bowl from Dragon Tea House today (no Sunday shipping, it arrived yesterday at my parents address and they came by today). It’s so beautiful! http://www.dragonteahouse.biz/lotus-fish-handpainted-porcelain-teacup-110ml-3-7oz.html

I haven’t been able to walk for more than 5 minutes now for 9 days and have gone a little mad with internet shopping to make up for it. Why is my back out? Truth be told I believe it to be a bad water infection, that’s what the hospital said it was two years ago when I visited. So I suppose I will just ride it out and keep my fluids up.

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This tea was part of my previous Dragon Tea House order but I haven’t got around to sampling it until today. It says this is made using wild leaves, that just sounds magical. Imagine living local and being able to pick them up for yourself to prepare for your family. :)

In colour this is dark brown and light brown mixed with some golden shimmery pieces. It almost looks like it’s glowing… There are some stems/sticks in the compressed cake piece too.

It has a strong, dark, soil scent with a hint of lightly smoked wood. A little stronger and darker than I expected of a raw Pu Erh.

Using my Gongfu teapot which holds 8oz/220ml ish it is recommended to use 10g of tea. My husband has beer tonight so the full amount is not needed, instead I shall only half fill my Gongfu which quite nicely fills my new Pu Erh bowl and use 5g of tea per 110ml. This shall be done across 5 steeps with boiling water.

Steep One – 30 seconds – Once steeped this tea is light golden brown in colour and has a strong, damp and muddy wooden aroma. Like a forest after torrential rain. The taste is much subtler than it’s scent. It has a gentle musky quality mixed with smoky earth and a touch of sweetness.

Steep Two – 1 Minute – Golden in colour now. It’s sweetness has been increased slightly and it has more of a wooden feel about it. Still on the musky side and very subtle with both soil and smoke still being present.

Side Note – The Pu Erh itself has dramatically lightened in colour after the first two steeps. It’s now a mixture of green, dark green and brown leaves.

Steep Three – 2 Minutes – The musky quality has grown to match its sweetness which gives this a more leathery effect in comparison to the previous steeps. Being vegetarian it’s strange to say something is leathery and mean it in a positive way but there is just no other way of explaining it. Roughly double the strength of the previous steep but it’s still light and very easy to drink.

Steep Four – 3 minutes – Not as strong, musky, smoky or sweet now but it is certainly more wooden. Perhaps also a touch floral in a dark sort of way. Still on the leathery side.

Steep Five – 4 Minutes – Back to it’s original steeps light colour. All that is left is a mellow, sweet, wooden hue that has a faint hint of musk in the after taste.

Overall – It’s a nice Pu Erh that was pleasing throughout but I must admit that it just doesn’t feel like a raw Pu Erh. I’m not saying it tasted ripe either but rather something in the middle of both which I cannot recall experiencing before.

It’s scent offered a strong tea but it’s flavour gave you a range of sensations which was enough to please just about any tea drinker.

I have roughly 25g left of which I will be able to drink with ease and much delight. Would I buy this again? Definitely.

Very nice milky Oolong, the taste and scent is strong and it doesn’t need a lot of leaf to give a strong and mellow taste in the mouth.
No off taste in the last brewings.
Definitely one of my favorite milky oolong.

Average Bi Luo Chun. The taste is really weak even when increasing the leafs quantity or increasing water temperature.
Good point, it’s not bitter at all.
I’ve ordered it in november, so maybe it’s the winter recolt (it’s not written on the pack, too bad).

This was from the generous Dexter3657, who has sent many pu’erh samples, this being of them…I thank you so very much!!

This one falls on the lighter side of pu’erh. From the name I kin of expected that it would brew to a lighter colour…deep golden colour.

The taste is lighter as well. There is light earthy quality that puts to mind the ravine and trails that beast and I traverse. The tea is a little woodsy…but not overpowering. It is a pleasing outdoorsy taste.

I usually add creamer to the darker pu’erhs, but it is not required in this case. This one I did straight up. This sample will have me looking at more raw pu’erhs…thank you Dexter for introducing me to a variety of pu’erhs!

I am currently on steep 2, and I anticipate several more steepings.

The brewed colour is now deeper, as is the taste. Earthy clay-like taste, but still pleasing.

I so love pu’erhs.

You know those photos of pretty bohemian looking girls walking through cornfields, or poppy fields, or…well, walking through fields. They may possibly have a floppy hat on, invariably a white flowy cotton dress. There is almost certainly a bit of lens flare, and it’s faded so it looks like a photo that got left on a windowsill back in about 1968 and sat there until someone found it yesterday?

This tastes like that.

Thanks to Kittylovestea for swapping with me :)

言巴相差 in YiXing GaiWan, 1st at 30sec I’m tasting a very vegetal and fresh gua, little bit of green tea taste showing up already. 2nd 1:00 my favorite steep so far lots of freshness and extreme melon even melon seeds taste, freshly roasted cha ye dan.
3rd 50 secs it’s lively I think I have both the pan fried and the melon in perfect harmony, i’d save some room for desert by drinking this leaf and I might just have one more desert, namely this liu an melon slice.

I have a couple of different gaiwans around now. The one I use most often actually has fairly thick clay walls and a glazed interior. I love it because it holds heat in relatively well, and that heat is pretty important to bringing out some of the flavors in many of the teas I drink. But I also have a couple of very thin-walled porcelain gaiwans, elaborately decorated with pretty images. But I rarely use them, because they let heat escape so quickly that they’re better suited to the more delicate teas with low brew temperatures.

Usually I pick the tea out first, then select the appropriate brewing vessel, but today I just really wanted to use my little bird-and-flower printed gaiwan covered in mysterious Chinese characters that I imagine translate to, “Aiko, you drink too much tea.” So that narrowed my selection a lot, and I eventually settled on this Chinese green with cute mythology. I love teas with stories behind them.

I have a weird love/hate relationship with Chinese greens. I love their range of flavors, but on occasion, certain kinds make me sick to my stomach, for no known reason. It doesn’t seem to be a pesticide or quality thing, because I’ve had the same reaction to organic and high-quality tea in the past. Perhaps it is a matter of processing or something. But the strange reaction seems to be exclusive to Chinese greens— I’ve never had it happen with other teas.

Luckily, this tea does not make me sick. It has a very light, crisp flavor, of snow peas, I think. It’s a little one-note, but it’s a pleasant note. The leaves are of widely varying quality— some are tiny buds, some are broken pieces of older leaves. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be much longevity in this tea; only five or so gongfu steepings in, it is little more than slightly astringent water. Oh well. It was very nice while it lasted.

(What is with my tea reviews lately; they’re like three paragraphs of backstory and then one regarding the actual tea)

Trying my best to have a lazy day as I’m just not feeling tip top today. While packing some tea swaps today I got the craving for some puerh and chose one on my shelf at random. Dragon Tea House have a wide range of pu erh and I make it my mission to try them all.

This puerh cake is dark brown and golden brown in colour with a sweet earthy and floral scent.

Steeping with the following times in my Gongfu Teapot -
5 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m,4m 100ºC/212ºF

Steep one – 30 seconds – Colour is yellow/green with a thick earthen clay aroma. Flavour is subtle and floral with a hint of sweetness and dryness. Also a little muddy and wooden.

Steep two – 1 minute – Sweeter in flavour and more floral. Also more honeyed and wooden. Lost some of it’s earthy clay taste and is smoothing out very nicely.

Steep three – 2 minutes – Even less earthy and more floral, almost perfumey and musky. Also sort of ricey and gluttonous but mildly.

Steep four – 3 minutes – Light red/brown now in colour. Quite astringent and musky with a dry, floral after taste. Still has some wooden sweetness but not as much in comparison to the first few steeps.

Steep five – 4 minutes – Smoother than the previous steep and once again very mellow overall. All that is really left is a wooden musk and sweet floral hue that become dry in the after taste.

Overall this tea is very pleasant and is suitable for multiple steeps without becoming too harsh and bitter. It’s a very musky puerh but I think it has real charm. Not one of my favourites but definitely something I would be happy to share with friends and family. Plus I have a warm glow after drinking this tea and a bit of a buzz :)

3g / 200ml glaspot
2m @ 75C

Anna was kind enough to remind me i infact had a jasmine tea in my cupboard. Found it faaaar in the back.
Very seldom drink jasmine teas. To me it is a very comforting tea for a late night in front of the fireplace.
This tea uses my alltime favorite white teas. The flavour of the tea balances the jasmine perfectly.
Perfect before bedtime :)

4g / 200ml glaspot
1m/2m @ 75C

Very mild pleasant taste. The jasmine doesn´t overpower the silver needle.
A pure comfort tea :)

10g / 360ml banko-yaki kyusu water from kunzan tetsubin
1m @ 75C

Decent green, very refreshing. Light and nutty, veggy. Been awhile since i´ve tried this one. The leaves smell fantastic. The flat shape is also very pleasing to the eyes.
Not to fond of greens, however Arya Emerald SF darjeeling is an exeption :)

6g / 200ml glaspot.

Two infusions
1m/2m @ 80C

Nutty flavour. Full flavour, very greenish. :)

5g / 200ml glaspot.
1: 1m @ 75C
2: 2m @ 75C

Fresh and light. Relaxing tea, could probably be brewed cold with good result. Will try sometime.
But when it comes to roasted green tea, Bi lou chun is still king for me :)

Sipdown!
120ml yixing, filled to 1/2 with leaf.

wash/25s added 15s for a couple of infusions.

This is what i call an oolong. Full of smokey burnt flavour. very powerful. Long aftertaste. To bad its all gone. :/
Luckily i have a bag of Gue zi jin wuyi oolong waitning for my pleasure! :)
I wonder what tea i will start my x-mas celebration with. :)