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Welcome to our look at one of the most remarkable Chinese green teas that you are ever going to try. We’re going to take an in-depth look at Long Jing (Dragon Well) Green tea. We’ll dive into the flavor profile and how to make the perfect cup of this fabulous green tea.
We will also take a look at some blends that you can use to change up the flavor of the tea a little bit if you so desire. As well as tackle some of the most popular related questions about Dragon well green tea. If Dragon Well isn’t your cup of tea then check out our look at these other Wonderful Chinese green teas. Maybe one of them will be more to your liking.
If you have your heart set on a great Dragon Well Green Tea then let me suggest the wonderful and convenient Starwest Botanicals Dragonwell Green Tea. It is one of the best bagged Longjing green teas around.
So Buckle up for an in-depth look at this fantastic green tea I hope you enjoy.
What Is Dragon Well Green Tea
Long Jing Green Tea is a Chinese green tea that is produced in the Longjing Village in the Zhejiang Province in Eastern China(source). It is considered one of the famous Chinese teas and is among the most popular green teas in the entire country.
Dragon well green tea is often counterfeited because it is quite an expensive variety of green tea. It can often be tough to tell the difference between fake and real dragon well tea just by looking at it.
How To Make Dragon Well Green Tea
Dragon well green tea can be a little bit fickle, Like many other green teas. Green teas, in particular, are very easy to burn if your water temperature is too high and the flavor can be affected by a variety of things.
To hear some tips to keep in mind when crafting your cup of dragon well tea. This will help give you the best flavor every time you go to make a cup.
Use Good Quality Water For Your Long Jing Tea
You always want to start your cup of dragon well tea with the best possible water that you can. For most people, this means choosing good quality bottled water or using filtered tap water. Either of these choices will give you well-balanced water to steep your tea in and won’t affect the flavor too much one way or the other.
Two kinds of water that you specifically want to avoid are mineral water and distilled water. Mineral water will affect the flavor of the tea because of the minerals and metals in the water. Distilled water will affect the flavor because it’s so devoid of anything that the tea will come out pretty flat and flavorless.
What Is The Ideal Water Temperature For Dragon Well Tea
As mentioned up top, water temperature plays a huge role in how your dragon well tea is going to taste. Green tea is very susceptible to water that is high temperatures. It burns the leaves, it draws out more of the astringent and bitter flavor which green tea should really never be.
Measuring water temperature doesn’t really have to be exact. You can start out by using a food thermometer to test the water.
After a while, you’re going to get a really good feeling for how long to let your water sit in order to get it to the right temperature for your Long Jing Tea. The ideal temperature for steeping a cup of dragon well green tea is pretty low.
You want your water temperature to be around 175°F/79°C.
This is well below the boiling point, which means you’re going to want to let your water sit for a while if you run it up to the boiling point. However, what I like to do is only warm the water up to the temperature desired. This is a little bit more complicated. You will have to watch the kettle as the water is boiling.
After a few tries, you will get a feel for how long it’s going to take your water to get to the desired temperature. This is going to have a lot of variables including altitude and atmospheric pressure and everything else. Some modern kettles are temperature controlled so it gives you a great way to heat water only to the desired temperature.
The HadinEEon Variable Temperature Electric Kettle(*affiliate link) is one of my favorites, you can find it on Amazon. But after a while, you get a feel for just how long you want to heat your water to the temperature that you need for your dragon well green tea.
What Is The Steep Time For Dragon Well Green Tea?
Like water temperature, steep time is going to play an important role in how your dragon well tea taste. If you steep it too long then the tea will become bitter and really not very drinkable. It’s steep you’re too short and your tea will not have enough flavor. So it’s a bit of a balancing act.
I find that a 3-minute steep for a dragon well tea bag is just about perfect. I tend to let loose leaf steep just a little bit longer maybe around four minutes max for a cup of long jing tea. There is one other factor that’s going to determine how long you steep your tea and that is your personal taste.
If you want a tea that’s a little bit stronger but might be a little bit more bitter then you’re going to want steep it a bit longer. If you prefer lighter tea then steep it for a shorter time. It really comes down to personal preference a lot of the time.
How Much Dragon Well Green Tea Should You Use?
I find two teaspoons of dragon well green tea to be plenty for a regular 8 to 10-ounce cup of tea. If you are using tea bags, one tea bag should suffice however if you want stronger tea don’t be afraid to put another tea bag in. A lot of people use two tea bags for a 10 oz cup of tea because that suits their tastes. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and you should make your tea exactly the way that you want it.
Dragon Well Green Tea Steeping Instructions Quick Recap
Here’s a quick little recap of everything you need to make a perfect cup of Long Jing Green Tea.
- Water Temperature Should Be 175°F/79°C
- Steep Time Should be 3-4 Minutes Or To Taste
- 2 Teaspoons Or One Dragon Well Tea Bag Should Be Enough
- Use High-Quality Spring Water Or Filtered Tap Water
- Always Cover Your Tea While Steeping
What Does Dragon Well Green Tea Taste Like?
Not all green teas are created equal. Each green tea has a very specific flavor profile to it. In fact, with a little experience, you can taste the difference between green teas in the same category.
Some sencha green teas are better than others for example. But for this flavor profile, we’re going to talk in general terms about how a good long jing green tea should taste.
Then we’ll break down each little flavor note to give you an overall picture of what to expect when you drink your dragon well green tea.
Dragon Well Tea Has A Grassy Flavor
Longjing tea has The telltale grassy flavor of a good green tea. many people describe the grassiness as more of a seaweed flavor which certainly can be considered.
I just think it smells a little bit more like damp grass in the morning. Like they took that smell and just bottle it into tea. But it is this flavor that makes up the base of the Dragon well green tea.
It’s the one I think that you’re going to notice first but then you were going to start to pick out some of the other flavor notes that were going to get into right now.
Roasted Nutty Notes From The Pan Frying Of The Leaves
Along with the grassy flavor, there is a distinct nutty or roasted flavor that is attributable to the pan-frying of the leaves in the production of the Dragon well green tea.
It’s a nice subtle nutty flavor, in my opinion. Although some people think it is quite strong I tend to not agree with that assessment but that’s my personal opinion and people’s tastes vary wildly so it’s certainly a valid point of view.
I find that the roasted flavor gives it a little bit of a Savory Edge. Which compliments the grassy flavor quite well and really combines with the flavor we’re going to talk about next to really create a unique and wonderful green tea.
Long Jing Green Tea Has A Nice Sweetness To It
When Long Jing green tea Is prepared properly you don’t need to add any sugar or sweeteners to it. Because the natural sweetness of the Dragon well green tea will be enough to take away any hint of bitterness in this wonderful tea.
Don’t confuse sweet with sugary because if you go in expecting your green tea to be sugary then you’re going to be very disappointed in the amount of sweetness that you get out of the tea. It’s subtle and it can be a little bit tougher to detect if you’re used to drinking a lot of sweet beverages.
Clean And Crisp
All of these wonderful flavors come together to create a very crisp and refreshing green tea. The flavor is very clean, I think because of the grassiness in it with a little bit of an edge from The Nutty flavor. But it never gets out of balance. It’s always refreshing and incredibly drinkable.
Long Jin Tea Is Smooth With Little Bitterness
It all culminates into what is one of the smoothest green teas that I’ve ever had. There’s just no hint of bitterness really as long as you steep the green tea properly.
The Nutty flavor added a little bit of complexity to the dragon well green tea. And this makes it one of the best green teas to introduce someone who’s not used to drinking a lot of green tea to the joys of drinking it.
It’s the smoothness, in particular, that is going to be very important to get people to really enjoy this type of green tea. That along with preparing the tea properly. A lot of people don’t like green tea because they’ve never had a good cup of green tea.
They get it from Starbucks or some other shop it just uses scalding hot water and leaves the tea bags in the water for ages. There is a difference between a good cup of green tea and a bad cup of green tea and you can taste that difference and you will able to taste that difference after you had a little bit of experience with it.
What Does Dragon Well Green Tea Smell Like?
The aroma of dragon well green tea is much the same as the taste. There is a nice grassy or vegetable Aroma that permeates the tea. It is quite potent and will quickly fill the room with that wonderful Aroma.
But you can also smell a bit of the roasted nuttiness of the Longjing green tea, which compliments the grassy notes quite well. Overall I went to the aroma as a little bit stronger than the actual taste. But they are very similar in their makeup.
A Note On The Benefits Of Long Jing Green Tea
The health benefits of Longjing green tea are very similar to other green teas. It does have a high amount of catechins than many other teas. You can check out more on the health benefits of green tea here.
Blends For Dragon Well Green Tea
Long Jing Green tea Is fantastic there’s no question about that, At least in my opinion.
While most green teas are great to blend with other flavors I really do not like to do it with dragon well green tea. I think the flavor itself is one of the best and should just be left alone.
That doesn’t mean you can experiment with new flavor blends to try and find something that you like but I simply don’t ever add anything to my long jing green tea.
One thing I would avoid doing however is adding milk or cream to your green tea. Can you add milk to your green tea? Technically, yes sure, you can do whatever you want with it and if you really want to you should because it’s your green tea.
But I urge you to at least try this Dragon well green tea without anything added to it and especially milk which I think really negatively affects the flavor of green tea in general. It is, however, a personal preference so put whatever you want into your Longjing green tea if you so desire.
Related Questions About Dragon Well Tea
These are some of the most popular questions related to Dragon well green tea. I tried to put together a list that covers a variety of topics but the most popular related questions seem to be about many of the benefits of dragon well tea.
Hopefully, any questions you have are answered here.
Can You Buy Dragon Well Green Tea Bags?
You can indeed find dragon well tea bags. They are not the most readily available as most of the Dragon well tea that you find will be loose-leaf. But there are a couple of places where you can get some very good Longjing green tea in a bag.
Does Dragon Well Tea Contain Sugar?
There is no sugar in Dragon well green tea. The tea has a natural sweetness to it but it is nothing approaching sugary. Having no sugar makes Dragon well green tea a great option for a wide variety of diets. it makes a great replacement for any type of sugary beverage as well.
Does Dragon Well Green Tea Have Calories?
Long Jing Green Tea Has no calories in it either. Or at least the calories are so small that they are negligible and aren’t required to be listed in the nutritional information in most countries.
With no sugar and no calories and the huge number of antioxidants and other benefits that Dragon well green tea has this is a great option for just about any dietary requirement.
Does Dragon Well Green Tea Have Caffeine?
Longjing green tea is a true tea and naturally has caffeine in it. Caffeine has both positive and negative effects and should be consumed in moderation. The amount of caffeine is quite high for green tea. The content depends on the brand to some extent but some Long Jing Teas can reach 45mg per 8 oz cup of tea(source).
Is Dragon Well Green Tea Ok For Fasting?
Because there are no calories in Dragon well green tea it is a great option for anyone who is practicing intermittent fasting. It makes a wonderful replacement for water during your fasting period. It shouldn’t be a wholesale replacement of water.
Water should be your main beverage during your fast but one or two cups during your fasted state can really help stave off hunger and help you keep to your fasting schedule.
Does Dragon Well Green Tea Have Carbohydrates?
In addition to not having any calories, Dragon well tea is also naturally carbohydrate-free. Again there may be a trace amount of carbohydrates but they are so small that they’re not listed on the nutritional information of most green teas. This means that the tea can be used for a variety of carbohydrate-limited diets. Including the Diet in the next question.
Is Dragon Well Green Tea Keto Friendly?
One of the biggest benefits of having no carbohydrates is that Dragon well tea can be used by anyone on a keto diet. Keto is becoming a more and more popular way to diet for many people these days.
To be a keto-friendly drink you have to have a very low number of carbs, in fact, you should have zero carbs in all your beverages if you’re on a keto diet. Some people have even taken to adding fat to their green tea to create a fat Rich high-calorie drink sometimes called bulletproof tea.
Does Dragon Well Green Tea Have A High Amount Of Antioxidants?
Long Jing green tea has one of the highest levels of antioxidants out of any Chinese green tea. They have an especially large amount of catechins(source). These catechins have a great many potential health benefits.
Is Dragon Well Tea A True Green Tea?
Dragon Well tea is a true green tea. The leaves are pan-fried to stop the oxidation process. Oolong and Black tea are oxidized at various levels during their production. But the oxidation process is deliberately stopped in green teas like dragon well.
Is Dragon Well Green Tea Good For You?
Like most other green teas, dragon well tea is very good for you. It has a wide variety of benefits, including the previously mentioned catechins and antioxidants.
The Dragon Well Green Tea Finish
that brings us to the end of our look at Dragon well green tea. This Chinese green tea is one of the most popular in China for a reason. It is a flavorful and wonderful green tea that is truly outstanding.
From the Flavor of dragon well tea to the texture and aroma there’s just something special about the pan-fired leaves when they’re properly prepared. Starwest Botanicals makes a great dragon well that you can find here.
If you want a loose-leaf alternative then I think Teavivre’s Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea(*affiliate link), is among the best at a reasonable price. I hope you enjoyed our article and I hope you enjoy your next cup of dragon well green tea.
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.