Pre Rain Organic Dragon Well Supreme Green Tea Long Jing

Tea: Pre Rain Organic Dragon Well Supreme Green Tea
Source: Jing Tea
Price: ₤ 12.75 / 50g
Source: Zhejiang, China
Vendor Description: Our highest grade Dragon Well green tea. Picked on 1st April 2009 from Dragon's Staff garden. The first of the year, before the Qing Ming festival.
Small and tender bud and leaf sets masterfully hand-fired fired to give the classic Dragon Well flavour.
Certified organic by the UK Soil Association. Fair Trade certified by IMO Switzerland.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is rather uniform in size, each of the leaves being about 1.5cm long. They are characteristically flattened, as is normal for a Long Jing. They have a light and sweet aroma, it has a certain creaminess which is similar to that found in a Silver Needle. The leaves are almost all young leaves, just slightly larger than Silver Needle buds.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 185F, 45s

1st Infusion: There is a light murkiness to this tea, as is somewhat typical of some young teas. The color is a radiant green blended with a pale yellow hue. It has a rich and creamy aroma. The flavor is rich and creamy. It is vibrant and refreshing. There is almost a shincha grassy flavor to it. In many ways this tea feels like a blending of a Silver Needle, traditional Long Jing, and a Japanese Shincha.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 45s, 185F

2nd Infusion: This infusion had a light green hue to it. Once again there was a light haziness to the tea, which is somewhat rare to see this nature of haziness on a second infusion. The flavor is much sharper this time around. It lacks the general creaminess of the first infusion. The flavor is very rich, rich to the point of having a bit of an edge from the strength to it. It finishes with a tinge of astringency.

Rating: 10/10

Conclusion: This was quite easily the best Long Jing that I have tried. It's flavor touches some of the best aspects from other teas; creaminess of a Silver Needle and fresh grassiness of sencha. The leaves have a very pleasant look to them and a very uniform appearance. The only downside to this tea is the rather steep price, but seeing as how I have yet to see anything on par with this tea in terms of flavor I don't see any issue here.