Question on Dragonwell

[Salsero]

Wow, Gingko, thanks for all that information! What a treasure.

[gingkoseto]

Wow, Gingko, thanks for all that information! What a treasure.

My pleasure About many green teas, I am afraid, the more being discussed/thought/contemplated, the more foggy the situation seems

[taitea]

Thanks for info!

So, as far as I understand now:
Xi Hu = west lake
Shi Feng = lion peak
Mei Wu = some other region?

So Shi Feng and Mei Wu are regions in Xi Hu? Or do we think of them as 3 disjoint regions?

Are there any characteristic differences in terms of the tea that comes out of these regions/labels?

[TIM]

Thanks for info!

So, as far as I understand now:
Xi Hu = west lake
Shi Feng = lion peak
Mei Wu = some other region?

So Shi Feng and Mei Wu are regions in Xi Hu? Or do we think of them as 3 disjoint regions?

Are there any characteristic differences in terms of the tea that comes out of these regions/labels?

The 3 top regions in Xi Hu for Long Jing and their characteristics are IMO:
Mt. Weng - creamy, toasted rice
May family aka Mei Jia Wu - lemon, floral
Shi Feng - Bean, Toasted Rice, seaweed

http://hojotea.com/item_e/g06e.htm more info
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... ng-06.html

[gingkoseto]

Thanks for info!

So, as far as I understand now:
Xi Hu = west lake
Shi Feng = lion peak
Mei Wu = some other region?

So Shi Feng and Mei Wu are regions in Xi Hu? Or do we think of them as 3 disjoint regions?

Are there any characteristic differences in terms of the tea that comes out of these regions/labels?

The 3 top regions in Xi Hu for Long Jing and their characteristics are IMO:
Mt. Weng - creamy, toasted rice
May family aka Mei Jia Wu - lemon, floral
Shi Feng - Bean, Toasted Rice, seaweed

http://hojotea.com/item_e/g06e.htm more info
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/200 ... ng-06.html

Very nice notes TIM! And you got 6 top notch long jing products just in one year! which makes the rest of us mouth watering

Mt. Weng and Shi Feng (lion) are both included in Shi Feng production district now and in most commercial products, consumers can only see Shi Feng on the labels.

[TIM]

Thanks gingko. Have you try Tiger Spring Long Jing? It's quite interesting, specially if you brew it with it's own spring water. People always said "Tiger Spring water, Dragon Well tea, Hangzhou Poetic Pairs." But Tiger Spring, Tiger Green is not bad either.

[gingkoseto]

Thanks gingko. Have you try Tiger Spring Long Jing? It's quite interesting, specially if you brew it with it's own spring water. People always said "Tiger Spring water, Dragon Well tea, Hangzhou Poetic Pairs." But Tiger Spring, Tiger Green is not bad either.

Tiger spring long jing is included in Xi Hu district now. So tiger spring long jing is commercially labeled as "xi hu long jing". Many years ago, I had some long jing next to tiger spring. It was such a long time ago when I was little! I don't remember the taste of the tea (or didn't feel the tea much better than tea at home, probably because in the good old days there was no fake long jing yet :-p). I was deeply deeply impressed by the tiger spring water! I remember after drinking the water, I announced to everyone I saw, "the best water is tasteless. only after drinking tiger spring water, I understand what tasteless water is like!"

I wish to go to tiger spring again sometime. But sometimes I feel pessimistic and worry that the water and environment will not be as good as the old days.

[devites]

I think I will try the DragonHouse version first. I've been looking for a reputable source; the dragonwell teas I have tried in the past were not very good when compared against a high quality dragonwell sampled in Seattle a few years ago. I checked preparation issues against the larger question of quality by having a veteran tea drinker whom I respect prepare several of them while on a visit to her store - she agreed the dragonwell teas that I had weren't authentic.

The Nonpareli from Dragon Tea House is probably the best I have had. Salsero and I did a taste test with like 5 different Dragonwells and I think that was the winner. I had some fantastic Dragonwell at Floating Leaves last year.

[taitea]

The Nonpareli from Dragon Tea House is probably the best I have had. Salsero and I did a taste test with like 5 different Dragonwells and I think that was the winner. I had some fantastic Dragonwell at Floating Leaves last year.

Can you tell us what the other 4 were?

[silvermage2000]

Mabe you could consider trying the dragonwell from rishi tea,or specialtea's,or teavana.

[TIM]

Mabe you could consider trying the dragonwell from rishi tea,or specialtea's,or teavana.

or teahub, Redblossom or the tea gallery? btw teavana dragonwell looks like one of mine which been aging and forgotten for 8+ yrs

[Geekgirl]

btw teavana dragonwell looks like one of mine which been aging and forgotten for 8+ yrs

agreed. blech.

[devites]

The Nonpareli from Dragon Tea House is probably the best I have had. Salsero and I did a taste test with like 5 different Dragonwells and I think that was the winner. I had some fantastic Dragonwell at Floating Leaves last year.

Can you tell us what the other 4 were?

I remember that Nonpareli was kind of hard to brew and it took a couple times to get it right. The superfine was also excellent. The supreme would be an everyday tea. The Wild Mountain from teacuppa (i think) was weird tasting, but i kind of liked it.

[Salsero]

The Wild Mountain Dragonwell was from TeaSource and I thought it ranked only slightly above floor sweepings, despite their glowing description of it:

• Perhaps the best Dragonwell tea we have ever tasted. It has a smooth, sweet, fresh, lingering flavor
  and a lovely silky texture. This tea is hand-made from wild tea trees located west of the famous
  West Lake region. It was a gold prize winner at the Shanghai Tea House, Best Teas Competition.

and despite that fact that the young lady at the counter insisted it was their tea that I was most in need of trying. TeaSource does have a lot of fine tea in their South Asian section, but I have disliked every one of their Chinese greens I have had.

I did like their Wild Kwan Yin, a yellow tea, and their Blink Bonnie Green Ceylon, which I would call a yellow tea rather than a green.

Here is the Blink Bonnie Green ... click on the photo for a picture of the amazingly shaped dry leaves.


(By the way, this tea seems no longer to be available)

[chrl42]

The authenticity issue caused quite some debates on Zhu Ye Qing, another green tea. Zhu Ye Qing is name of a green tea, but a company somewhat obtained government's support to register "zhu ye qing" as its own trade mark. The company sells good zhu ye qing, but the trademark registration forbids all other people call their own product zhu ye qing, and by law, only zhu ye qing sold by this company is considered "authentic". But in reality people don't care. My recent zhu ye qing purchase was from a farmer in Sichuan. Even though by law his tea is not allowed to be sold under the name "zhu ye qing", he still calls it zhu ye qing and other people still call it so.

I know what you are talking about. Hype of that Zhu Ye Qing company rivals Wuyi Star company. Quite exaggeration for a tea that has a mere 30-yr-old of history. At Maliandao can purchase the similar quality one 1/10 cheaper.

But they advertise so well and the money they have. It seems there are 50 different grades on Zhu Ye Qing alone. Soon they want it be recorded highest price/per gram green tea ever (record so far is Tai Ping Hou Kui 61,000 rmb (appx. 10,000 usd) / 50g in 04)