This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series. I am very fond of Longjing in general. It's so delicate, floral, a little n...

Verdant Tea: 2016 1st Picking Shi Feng Dragonwell

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This is part of my Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea series.

I am very fond of Longjing in general. It's so delicate, floral, a little nutty, and slightly green. Assuming the Longjing is of reasonable quality, anyway. I've had some pretty terrible Longjing.

I almost exclusively made Longjing "grandpa style." It's what you'll commonly see recommended as well. Here, I had a 5g sample of Mrs. Li's 1st Picking ShiFeng Dragonwell.

Mrs. Li's 2016 ShiFeng Dragonwell dry leaves
You don't get any lazier than grandpa style. Pick up your favorite tall, open mouthed glass you can think of. I recommend 350-475ml (approx. 12-16oz). Heat up some water, pour water over leaves, let leaves sit and top up when the class is 2/3rds of the way full.

That is just what I did here.

I love my tumbler so much, I cannot speak of it highly enough. It is leak proof, holds in heat very well, it's double walled glass so it's cool to the touch, and it makes grandpa style brewing a breeze. The strainer you see in the picture below was designed just for that. There is a little basket I can screw onto it to brew tea in, but I only use that if I'm making some English style tea or genmaicha on the run.

I bought mine from Tiger Lily Tea. As of right now they don't have 50-75% of their products on their Facebook or their website. They do run out of stock of this tumbler sometimes, so I recommend calling or messaging them if you're interested. They did offer two or three other tumblers as well.

The best tea tumbler ever
Anywho, I weighed out 2.5g. 5g is way too much for 350ml when going grandpa style. I've done it before and for a little while it is far too strong and almost bitter. It mellows out after the third top up, but still. I personally recommend 2.5-3g/350ml but you can play around with quantities and see what you like. You may like the 5g, and for some other teas, I do use 5g.

The aroma of this tea was very pleasant. It had that very distinctive green, sweet, and floral aroma of good Longjing. I could taste the sweetness just from the aroma. I had Mrs. Li's 2015 1st Picking Shi Feng Dragonwell a few days ago. It also had a very pleasant smell, but it wasn't nearly as nice as this. But, it helps that this 2016 tea is much fresher than the 2015.

The water temperature I used was around 80C. I let the tea sit for a minute or two before taking a sip. It had a very buttery and smooth mouthfeel with a very mild astringency. It had a light, delicate yet incredible sweetness, like orchids, melon, and a hint of elderberries that clung to my whole pallet, not just the sides like sweetness tends to. It took me a little while to figure out what I was tasting, and once I had settled on what I thought I tasted I checked out the flavor profile on the website. It was very similar. At this early stage I taste nothing savory.
It's greenness reminded me of sencha. The flavor profile on Verdant Tea says matcha, but it isn't rich enough to be anything shade grown in flavor.
2015 Wet Leaves

2016 Wet leaves in gaiwan once I was done drinking

Over the first hour or so the flavor stayed very much the same, but I'm not complaining. I thought it was very enjoyable. However, its astringency began to grow as it continued to brew, but this was expected. There was no harshness in the astringency. After the first hour some flavor began to diminish, as expected. The greenness disappeared first, within the first hour. There were hints of it through the entire session, but it was much more subtle. The delicate sweetness remained for the three hour period in which I enjoyed this tea.

While this was a nice Longjing, I think that Mrs. Li's 2015 was better. The picking standard was higher, there were more buds, the leaves were much more plump, bright, and beautiful. Here is a comparison picture of the two leaves, wet and dry. Apologies for the quality of the dry 2015 leaves (see below). They're about the same shade as the 2016 in person.

Mrs. Li's 2015 1st Picking ShiFeng Dragonwell, apologies for image quality, it was the same shade as the 2016
The 2016 was much sweeter and had a smoother finish. But, I am fairly certain this is because it was picked freshly. Age does play a huge part in flavor, especially with green teas. The 2015 was much less astringent, and that is due to the fact that the leaves were much more uniform, smaller, and less broken pieces. I found two broken leaves in the whole 5g. There wasn't a whole lot of broken pieces in the 2016 either, but enough to cause it to become astringent much faster. I was able to find many in these 2.5g. You can see a lot of semibroken buds in the picture below. They're not bad by any means, but in the 2015 everything was intact and almost everything looked like the first three on the left and many like the far right leaf in the 2016 ShiFeng.

Regardless I enjoyed both, and the leaf quality in the 2015 and 2016 are very high. You can see that both in the wet and the dry leaves.

Mrs. Li's 2015 1st Picking ShiFeng Dragonwell. Apologies for picture quality, in person they're as green as below

Mrs. Li's 2016 ShiFeng Dragonwell

For both the 2015 and 2016, the sweetness lingered in my mouth long after I was done drinking. For supper I had some portobello mushrooms, peppers, and onions, and once their taste had faded the sweetness was still there. After taste is one of the most important aspects of a tea to me, and a tea that lingers long after you're done and has you wanting more is a good tea to me.  

Rating

Overall I give this Longjing a thumbs up. I'd give it an 8.8. I think that the price Verdant Tea is selling this particular Longjing for is pretty fair. A little more than ideal due to the standard that I found within this sample, but it is a small sample. If I were to still purchase from Verdant Tea, which I will not be (for details refer to the Sample Demolition: Verdant Tea link above) I would definitely but it.

If you would like to purchase this tea, you can find it here.


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