Davidson's Organics, Dragonwell Green, Loose Leaf Tea, 16-Ounce Bag (Packaging may vary)

For the price I really can't complain. Of course it is not high grade, and the flavor is a bit grassy. This sells for 5 cents per gram, for that price it is really good.

This Dragonwell is fairly hearty (for a green tea). Fresh smelling when you open the package and brews with a beautiful color, rich flavor and a very slightly astringent vegetal taste with a lovely sweet aftertaste. To me, this is what a high quality green tea should taste like. And $16 for a full pound is an amazing deal. This is a LOT of tea. I've paid $40 or more for 6 ounces of green tea that wasn't nearly this good. Extremely happy with Davidson's once again. Their 1 lb package of Sencha is also worth a try - it's lovely and a great value.

In anticipation of receiving my first Dragon Well tea, I went on the internet to learn how to brew it properly. I learned that high quality tea is made from the terminal bud and the first two leaves. When the tea leaves are placed in hot but not boiling water, they sink to the bottom. The steeping creates a pale green colored fluid that is not cloudy. It has a nutty but not bitter flavor. Upon opening my bag, it smelled like yesterdays lawn clippings. The tea leaved were gray/green with lots of stems and broken leaves. When placed in the hot water, they did not sink, but floated. The color that emerged was a golden brown and cloudy. The taste was bitter and unpleasant, even when sweetened. I also brewed some cheep green tea I buy at Dollar Tree (100 tea bags for a dollar) that I have been drinking and compared the two. The Dollar Tree from Shri Lanka produced a pale gold but uncloudy fluid. It had a pleasant taste when sweetened. I thought I was buying special Dragon Well tea from China un-bagged and in bulk and thus a better price at $40 per pound with shipping. The product didn't taste good or meet the standards of what Dragon Well tea should be. This product is a total misrepresentation. It is un-useable bulk tea making the low per oz. price irrelevant.

I am a snob when it comes to Dragon Well green tea, my absolutely favorite. This is product is excellent and you get such a large quantity for the price. Great purchase!

Dragonwell is supposed to be at the top of the plant and was designed to only be picked by virgins.

If you're looking for prime dragonwell taste, this is probably not the tea for you, but of course at this price point you aren't really going to get super fresh first picking tea. Product is generally what one would expect frorthe price, the leaves are mostly broken and there is a fair bit of stem in the product. Leaf color is somewhat mixed and not as vibrant as might be desired. Aroma is somewhat muted compared to really fresh dragonwell, taste from the first steeping is okay but somewhat thin on the rich umami that one expects from dragonwell, so probably a good bit of the theanine has broken down already. Subsequent steepings become astringent quite rapidly, as opposed to higher end pickings where the umami lasts at least through 3 or 4 steepings before the astringency becomes predominant. But you do get quite a lot of tea at an inexpensive price, so I'm increasing leaf : water ratio and replacing after 2 steeps. Update: pretty good results with 10gm leaf / 250 gm water, 80C. Wouldn't go hotter as that will increase extraction of (bitter) catechins, whereas amino acids like theanine extract optimally at 80C.

Don't let the cheap price fool you, the taste is great and the quality is good for the price. For the most part its just the tips of the tea. I will definitely purchase again once I finish this package.

The top quality tea leaves can easily reach 100x the price even if you buy at the production site in Hangzhou China. Therefore I'm very pleased at this price point it is REAL dragonwell green, just not the tip leaves, which I don't mind for daily use. I'm surprised at the bulk quantity too. This tea is even better than those offered in some upscaled Chinese restaurants in China Town, not to mention the average free tea on main street. Definitely worth the money.