Help me improve my dragon well!

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


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Jan 30th, '14, 14:24
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Help me improve my dragon well!

by trallis » Jan 30th, '14, 14:24

As i've said in a few posts I was out of the tea game for a few years and forgot a lot of things that I had not written down.

My current problem is I can't get my dragon well to taste like it did back in the day. Can anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong?

I brewed 3 grams of leaf in a 2 ounce pot at 170F for 1:35.

It had the dragon well taste, but also some unpleasant bitterness that totally ruined the cup. I was surprised to get bitterness because I went way shorter than I had read I was supposed to. Any advice?

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Jan 30th, '14, 14:39
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by William » Jan 30th, '14, 14:39

Hi,

I rarely drink Long Jing, but I love to brew it like gyokuro.
You will not be disappointed! :D

Have a nice day!

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Jan 30th, '14, 19:33
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by Joel Byron » Jan 30th, '14, 19:33

2 ounces as in 60ml? You may have too much leaf in the pot. I usually use a 1 gram to 30ml ratio for Longjing and other Chinese greens. Try experimenting with one variable at a time, take notes, and you'll find the way that you like to brew it.

It could be the tea too, your Longjing is probably almost a year old at this point. Assuming you know it was harvested in 2013, that is.

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Jan 30th, '14, 20:06
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by Chip » Jan 30th, '14, 20:06

Joel Byron wrote:2 ounces as in 60ml? You may have too much leaf in the pot. I usually use a 1 gram to 30ml ratio for Longjing and other Chinese greens. Try experimenting with one variable at a time, take notes, and you'll find the way that you like to brew it.

It could be the tea too, your Longjing is probably almost a year old at this point. Assuming you know it was harvested in 2013, that is.
+1 ... but I would also bring the temp down a bit which should reduce bitterness. I also think I usually try a minute for the first steep and adjust from there.

But if the Dragon Well is not so good, won't matter.

Any photos and more info on source, etc. might help.

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Jan 30th, '14, 20:12
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by debunix » Jan 30th, '14, 20:12

When I get unpleasant bitterness in a tea, I drop the infusion times until the bitterness is bearable or gone; if it's too dilute to enjoy at that point, then I drop the leaf quantity with the next infusions, and do the same thing--try with short infusions until I like it, or find it so dilute as to be not worth while. Sometimes it's the brewing, sometimes it's the tea.

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Jan 31st, '14, 03:59
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by trallis » Jan 31st, '14, 03:59

No, the dragon well is fresh.. I just bought it. I dont know if its good dragon well.. I'm immunosupressed so my docs will only let me drink name brand stuff that comes from a package ie no independent tea farms in japan.. So i grabbed the rishi. I'm sure i'll still be able to get a good cup of tea out of it

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Jan 31st, '14, 04:04
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by chrl42 » Jan 31st, '14, 04:04

If you brew in 2oz (60ml) pot, it really is too small for Chinese greens.

No Chinese I know use such small pot, except Chaozhou people brewing high-fired Wuyi Rock teas.

The Japanese do use a mini pot brewing Gyokuro, but the Chinese :mrgreen:

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Jan 31st, '14, 08:21
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by JRS22 » Jan 31st, '14, 08:21

Rishi might be the best brand you can buy in a supermarket, but the tea tins aren't dated. That's true of their website also. When I order from them online, in my case mainly jasmine tea, I email first to check on harvest dates.

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Jan 31st, '14, 22:37
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by Teaism » Jan 31st, '14, 22:37

trallis wrote:
It had the dragon well taste, but also some unpleasant bitterness that totally ruined the cup. I was surprised to get bitterness because I went way shorter than I had read I was supposed to. Any advice?
In tea brewing, there are many attributes that you need to control. The basic one is control 3 basic attributes i.e. sweetness, astringency and bitterness. These 3 are the main components of flavor and they always race out of the brew and has to be controlled. There are method to control astringency, and if you want to control bitterness, the speed of pour and the infusion time is very critical. Try to increase the temperature a bit and pour the brew out faster. Tea leaves also also behave differently and you must practice and calibrate to understand the leaves that you are brewing.

Good luck and best wishes!

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Feb 12th, '14, 17:21
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by bagua7 » Feb 12th, '14, 17:21

trallis wrote:I brewed 3 grams of leaf in a 2 ounce pot at 170F for 1:35.
Are you brewing tea for your pet mouse? :lol:

As chrl42 has already stated get a BIGGER POT.

Also the green colour is wood, wood is expansive energy, let lots of water and the room in the pot expand the Qi of the green tea. Spring time. Deeper pots and gaiwans are most suited to the task.

Enjoy!

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Feb 14th, '14, 14:07
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by entropyembrace » Feb 14th, '14, 14:07

trallis wrote:No, the dragon well is fresh.. I just bought it. I dont know if its good dragon well.. I'm immunosupressed so my docs will only let me drink name brand stuff that comes from a package ie no independent tea farms in japan.. So i grabbed the rishi. I'm sure i'll still be able to get a good cup of tea out of it
hmm...why not name brand teas from Japan? Japanese tea packaging is very good and Japan has strict food safety guidelines equivalent or better than those in the United States and Europe. Do ask your Doctor about it, it's probably worth bringing up :)

For this dragon well, like others have said I think the first thing to try is a bigger pot, that's a very high leaf:water ratio for Chinese greens.

edit - I did some browsing to see why tea could be an issue for immunosupressed patients and found (on PubMed) documented cases of B. Cereus infection from drinking tea. The patients were using commercially available, individually packaged tea bags. :?

They also found that boiling the tea for 1 minute sterilized it effectively. http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/39/10/1536.long here's a link if you want more information.

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May 1st, '14, 07:29
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by chaoandwill » May 1st, '14, 07:29

This could be silly, but it did work for me. :wink:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/331190138223?roken=6Br4Bs

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May 9th, '14, 23:31
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Re: Help me improve my dragon well!

by djtanng » May 9th, '14, 23:31

I always brew mine at 180F for 3 minutes, with 1 heaping teaspoon per 8 ounces, while throwing out the first 10 second brew. Dragon Well is my favorite and that's how I do it.

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