Review: White Dragon Pearl Premium from Red Blossom Tea

Today I'll be reviewing another tea from Red Blossom. I purchased The Discovery Collection which comes with four sample teas, all of which I'll review. I'll be drinking the White Dragon Pearl Premium today. This will be my third tea out of the four tea sampler set with just the Oolong left to review.

From the Red Blossom website:
"Dragon Pearl is crafted from spring-harvested Da Bai leaf buds from Fuding County, Fujian. Though it is usually reserved for the base of jasmine teas, we commissioned the farmer to reserve some of this crop for our white tea connoisseurs. The buds are handpicked, then steamed and individually rolled by hand."

I used the recommend 3.5 grams of leaves for my gaiwan. The leaves have a sweet smell that disappear quickly. After a rinse they smelt of a sweet green tea.

I did the first brew at 195 degrees F for one minute. The leaves had a sweet grassy smell to them and the liquor was a faint light green without much aroma. The taste is subtle and sweet; lacking bitterness; is smooth and creamy with a very satisfying slight astringent finish.

The second brew was at 195 for a minute fifteen. It had a floral and sweet aroma that I enjoyed the and leaves looked great in the gaiwan. They were mostly full and displayed light and dark greens. The liquor was a little darker on this steep though still a very light green. The taste of the front was was sweet that stayed consistent and had a long finish.

The third brew was done at 195 for a minute thirty. I first notice that the aroma lost some of its sweetness. The liquor was about the same color and really had no aroma that I could pick up. It lost some flavor that could probably be regained from a longer steep but with that said it was still sweet and had a bit of astringency at the finish that lingers and mixes with the sweet taste from the earlier steepings. It was about this time I felt a little bit the of tea's Qi. I was feeling good and the tea was tasting sweet so I decided on a fourth round!

The forth brew was done at 195 for two minutes. The leaves still had a floral sweet smell but with a more exaggerated grassy note. The liquor still was orderless and had the same faint green color. The taste was about the same as steep three with slightly less flavor. At this point I was feeling good of Qi and decided to stop but probably could have gotten a couple of other steeps from the tea if I pushed it. I might even push it harder on the second and third steeps to see what I get.

This is a great sweet and flavorful white tea that has a bit of energy to it. I wouldn't mind drinking it again and look forward to finishing up my sample of it. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for reading!