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When it comes to green tea, I’ve always been partial to Japanese tea. For a long time, all I ever drank was sencha and gyokuro. But this particular dragonwell has completely upended my perception of Chinese green teas.

This tea tastes like spring in a cup. It has a bright, crisp flavor reminiscent of freshly cut grass and a sweet vegetal note as it goes down. Just a wonderfully delicate and very clean tasting tea that refreshes the palette. It reminds me a lot of some of the top Japanese green teas I’ve had more so than your typical roasted Chinese green tea. I much prefer this dragon well to Yunnan Sourcing’s which has a tendency to become astringent.

Like most green teas, this one is a little fussy. You have to pay attention to steep time and temperature. Followed Teavivre’s instructions, I brewed it for 2 minutes in 185 F water and found it bitter. Dropping the time and temperature to 1 minute and 175 F gave the best results. I increase the steep time for each subsequent infusion. The first two infusions are excellent and then the flavor starts fading by the 3rd.

Meh. This tea left me sorta disappointed. There was little to no milky flavor to it at all. I gave it a quick rinse and then brewed around 205 F for 2 minutes, followed by subsequent brewing at the same temperature with longer steepings. The flavor of the tea was vegetal and somewhat burnt. No milky/creamy notes at all. The second time I brewed it at lower temperature (185 F) and that began coaxing out the milk flavor from the tea. Still it was weak overall and prone to bitterness on subsequent steepings.

Honestly, it just tasted like a generic green oolong and lacking other aspects of flavor. It could all be me though so I’ll keep it around and report back if anything changes.

Received this in a swap with Stephanie.

My last cherry blossom tea was a bust. Teavana’s Sakura Allure was super tart and hibiscusy. I didn’t care for the artificial flavoring they add to their teas either.

But this tea was on point. It has a bright cherry flavor that intermingles harmoniously with the natural grassiness of the sencha and notes of spring blossoms. Normally I find cherry flavored anything too overbearing but the cherry here is delicate and light.

I brewed it per Den’s instructions. 1 min @ 175 for the first infusion, and 15 seconds using hotter water for the second. The first steep is grassier while in the second infusion the sencha takes a backseat and really lets the cherry blossom flavor shine through.

This is an incredibly sweet tea that fills your mouth leaving a syrupy coating that you need a glass of water to wash out. Seriously, I had to put down the gaiwan after a few cups and reach for something salty to cleanse my palette. Verdant aptly describes the flavor of this tea as “sweet lingering…juicy lychee”. This tea is heavy on the sweeter notes and if you pay attention, there is a bit of floral background and some mineral notes that begin to emerge with subsequent steepings.

Overall I liked this tea but wasn’t blown away by it. It’s high quality for sure but is a little lacking in complexity. Yunnan’s Wu Liang Gao Shan Oolong (last year’s harvest) remains my favorite green oolong. Like Verdant, it’s intensely sweet, but that sweetness is balanced with creamy vanilla and florals.

I brewed this gongfu style per Verdant’s instructions (5g of leaf, 205 F water, short steeps) and found it lackluster. It fared much better when brewed western style following a quick rinse at a slightly lower temperature.

Another green tea redeemed! I had all but given up on this tea due to it’s flat astringent taste. Usually I brewed it between 165-170 F, which is within the standard temperature range for green tea. Yesterday I used slightly cooler water, about 160 F and brewed the tea 1 minute. It tasted like a completely different tea – buttery, smooth, and sweet. Second and third steeps for 25 and 45 seconds respectively, though were fairly non-descript .

Dialing down my rating after a few lackluster steeps. I’ve found this tea to be wildly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s floral. Other times I get a blast of cardamom or the lemongrass flavor will dominate. It seems the taste of each brew depends on the pieces of flavoring and how many you them you scoop up.

I don’t care for hibiscus on its own, but do use it when making my own blends. The hibiscus adds beautiful color, ranging from light pink to crimson red depending on quantity used. It also lends a nice tart flavor to tea, that pairs well with other herbal teas like chamomile.

I feel I owe this tea an apology for the disappointing review I previously gave. It wasn’t you it was me. I brewed this tea again today in a gaiwan with two small modifications – I didn’t preheat the gaiwan and acting on a tip from Teavivre, I kept the lid off while steeping. That made all the difference in taste. There is virtually no bitterness anymore, just a smooth, subtly sweet flavor that a fresh spring tea should have.