Long Jing (Dragon Well) Drink Off (Review #5)

I recently compared three long-jing (dragon well) teas.  One is a first flush from Ito-en picked on March 30th of this year and sells for $19 per oz. (Note that this isn't available on their website but they do have a pre-ching-ming long-jing.  It was only available in their NYC store.) The other two are from Upton tea - one is the special grade organic (Upton code ZG61) which is $11.80 for 100g, while the other is Emperor's Tribute (Upton code ZG97) which is $31.30 for 100g. Can you guess which is which in the photo?

The dry leaf of the Ito-en long-jing has a wondefully sweet fragrance.  The brewed tea (175F, 3 min. - for all 3 teas) reflects the aroma with flowery fragrant high notes.  As time goes on the underlying nutty flavor typical of long-jing comes through.  This is one of the best long-jing teas I've experienced, as it should be for the price.

The dry leaf of the special grade organic from Upton has a similar fragrance as the Ito-en leaf but it not nearly as strong or as sweet.  Unfortunately the brewed tea delivers even less than the fragrance would suggest.  The high notes are not nearly as sweet and the nuttiness is weaker.  This is a decent long-jing though, especially for the price and it's great that it's organic. I would consider buying it again if I was looking for an organic long-jing.

Last in the line-up is the Emperor's Tribute long-jing and I have to say right up-front that this was rather disappointing, even more so when price is considered.  The tea had close to no fragrance - maybe just a hint of nuttiness like toasted almonds.  Maybe this tea is too old? Using a similar amount of tea (1.5 or 2 teaspoons?) as when I brewed the other two, the liquor came out rather weak.  It really had no high-notes; that is there was no sweetness.  There was a rather nice nutty flavor of toasted almonds, just like the fragrance.  On subsequent experiments with this tea I tried using more dry leaf and that helped but only marginally.  Upton disappointed me on this one.  This is not a good long-jing in my opinion.

I tried all three of these on several occasions over about 10 days and I found all three teas to be very consistent.  Since I do think long-jing is one of the best, if not the best, Chinese green tea I will continue to search out other sources.  I do have one more long-jing on order from Jing Tea in the UK. 

Now as for the photos, the Ito-en March 30th long-jing is on the left, the Emperor's Tribute is in the middle and the organic long-jing is on the right.

Review #4 - 2007 Spring Li-Shan "Hwa Gan" Sec. Soft-Stem Oolong (Hou De)

This is a low-oxidized (15%) oolong tea from Taiwan. The dry tea leaves are a deep emerald green and give off a beautiful, slightly floral fragrance. The first steeping (as usual for an oolong, water just below boiling for a couple of minutes) has that unique jade oolong taste. I find it hard to describe and yet this is probably my favorite type of tea. It is neither sweet like a good Long-Jin (Dragon Well) tea, nor does it have any bitterness. The taste is slightly astringent but with absolutely no bitterness. I've read that this type of tea has a strong "amino acid" flavor. So maybe that is what the flavor is from although I'm not sure what an "amino acid" taste is. This tea has some complexity but I have had oolongs with greater complexity. The flavor of the liquor drops off notably after the first steeping and again after the second. The third steeping (steep for several minutes) is still very drinkable but has a very muted flavor relative to the first steeping. This is a very good dong-ding style oolong.

Cost: $36.50 for 4 oz.

Taste: 4.5/5
Value: 4.0/5

Review #3 - 2007 Spring Formosa GABA (Jia Yeh) Oolong (Hou De)

Before I begin my first oolong review, I must first confess that I'm partial to oolong teas. I think that within the oolong classification there is a an incredible variety of teas and flavors. I think that the best oolongs also have the greatest complexity.

The first oolong that I'm reviewing is from Hou De Fine Asian Art and Fine Tea. While I've had many oolong teas over time, this is the first so called "GABA" tea. There are supposedly health benefits from drinking GABA tea and it is somewhat popular in Japan. For those interested : http://www.allgabatea.com/. I drink tea because I like it so I'll just review this tea for its drinking pleasure and will leave the issue of health benefits to others.

The color of the dry tea is a greenish brown. It appears to have a medium level of oxidation. I brewed the tea for a couple of minutes with water around 200F (just below boiling or let it boil and then sit for a minute or two.) The brewed tea is an amberish brown. The flavor is different from any oolong that I've had before. The base flavor was almost like a very light black tea. It also has a very dry flavor; in fact the finish almost makes your mouth water. In particular the dry flavor seems to be most pronounced in the back/side of the tongue. I thought this was a very fine tea although it didn't have great complexity. It holds up particularly well to repeated steepings. The dry aspect holds up especially well. The tea liquor had good flavor through at least the 4th steeping (about 2 mins for the the first couple of steepings and getting progressively longer) and could be used for 5 steepings or more.

Cost: $21.25 for 4 oz.

Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 4.0/5

Review #2 - Kagoshima Shin-Cha Premium 2007 (Ito En)

This is just a quick review of the Premium (which falls below "Superior") Kagoshima Shin-Cha. I found this tea to have less depth of flavor relative to the Kagoshima Shin-Cha Superior. In comparing it to sencha and gyokuro in general, it has a relatively light flavor. However it also has no hint of bitterness while the Superior version is slightly bitter. (Note that both teas were brewed using water with a temperature of about 160F which is well below the recommended 176F, which is 80C.) I prefer the Superior although I should note that a friend who tried both preferred the Premium. I liked the greater depth of flavor while my friend preferred the lack of bitterness.

Cost: $30 for 3 oz.

Taste rating: 3.0/5
Value rating: 2.0/5

Lots of new teas - more reviews coming soon

Well I haven't been able to help myself. I've ordered lots of new teas recently - Chinese greens, oolongs, pu-erhs and more. (Sample sizes are great! I wish everyone offered them. ) I'm always in search of great Chinese green teas and oolongs. Pu-erh is still very new to me. It seems like a very broad area so I have a lot to learn. The other night, at a restaurant, I did have a 1978 pu-erh. Unfortunately I don't know anything else about that pu-erh other than its age. It was very mellow - little in the way of tannins, and I really enjoyed it as an after dinner tea. Anyway, in the next couple of weeks I hope to have a few more reviews out.

Review #1 - Kagoshima Shin-Cha Superior 2007 (Ito En)

The 2007 new teas (shin-cha in Japanese or xin1 cha2 in Chinese) are becoming available in the US now. This is my first new tea of the year. It is one of several shin-cha's offered by Ito-En. I decided to try the more expense superior grade ($40 for 3 oz.). They sell a Kagoshima premium grade for $30 for 3 oz. According to the salesperson I spoke with at Ito-En, this year's shin-cha is more flavorful than last year's crop. For those of you not familiar with shin-cha, it is minimally processed. That is, it undergoes less steaming than sencha.

On to the tea. While I didn't measure the temperature of the water, it was well below boiling and I steeped it for about a minute and a half. The taste was rather different from a typical sencha or gyokuro. The rather interesting flavor was more like a very light matcha but with no hint of bitterness. Nor did it contain any of the sweetness that some sencha's and most gyokuro's contain. Overall I really enjoyed the flavor, while it was not too strong, I would also not say it was too light. The second steeping (about 2 min.) was also very good but the flavor was not as deep. The third steeping (over 2 min.) was much less flavorful although suprisingly, still not the least bit bitter. It seems to me the caffeine content was lower than a typical sencha and was also a bit less acidic. Those who enjoy Japanese green teas should enjoy this shin-cha.

Taste rating: 4.0/5
Value rating: 3.0/5

Introduction to Tea Notes

Hello and welcome. On this blog I plan to post reviews of teas and the occassional tea-related news. Since I mostly drink Chinese teas (green, white, oolong, and more) and Japanese green tea, those will be the main areas of focus.